Dawn and I at  Jama Masjid Mosque in Delhi

Jama Masjid Mosque – Delhi

Humajun’s tomb – Delhi

When we were planning our trip to India we all agreed that Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India located on the banks of the Ganges, was a must.  It has approximately 23,000 temples and just over a million people and has been a cultural centre of Northern India for thousands of years.   Hindus believe that death in Varanasi will bring salvation and this makes it very popular as a place of pilgrimage. There are about 84 ghats which are embankments that are made in steps of stone slabs and run along the river bank. Most of these ghats are used for bathing by pilgrims and a spiritually significant Hindu ceremony called puja – a few are used exclusively as Hindu cremation sites.  Silk weaving is the biggest industry in Varanasi and this is followed by tourism.  Our flight from Delhi, although delayed for an hour, was great and it is worth noting that Delhi airport has been named the #1 airport in the world three years in a row – it was a neat haven from super busy Delhi.  Flying out of Delhi and into Varanasi was awful as we came out of, and later into, the smog – reminded me of flying into Newfoundland except there it was fog.  It is quite the problem here and just horrible breathing in the air.  Our trip from the airport to our hotel took over two hours because of traffic which seemed to be worse than Delhi.   Lots of construction as Prime Minister Modhi has promised new roads to the airport and it has begun and looks like it will take forever.  Once again the people are patient as they manoeuvre their way along narrow streets built for two way traffic with two cars and in actuality it’s two way with several cars, trucks, tuktuks…….you get the nightmarish picture!  But our driver was amazing and got us to our hotel, actually more of a guest house called The Yoga House, without any major incident.  It is right on the banks of the Ganges, the third floor of an  open air building with rooms to the side.   Very basic, super thin towel each, no toiletries, small kitchen from which they make breakfast or a quick snack but once again very clean and a few wonderful and polite staff.  Got there late and were very tired so we crashed early and then it began – the music, but I will rant about that later as there are too many important things to tell you.

View from The Yoga House -can you see the buffalo?

We thought Delhi was crazy for the business and the noise and felt because Varanasi was so much smaller, with only a million plus people vs. almost 25 million, that it would be less so.   However, this was not the case because the traffic, the noise, the people on the street along with the cows and dogs, almost drove us crazy!  It might be the spiritual capital of India but it also must be the noisy capital as well.  Having said that it was an experience we will never forget and once again are in awe of how the people live with so little and yet always there’s a smile and they are so polite.  The pictures will never capture the energy and  the emotion but I will post some nonetheless.  We took both a morning and an evening boatride on the Ganges for different events.   The morning boat ride was to see all the ghats from the water and observe people bathing in what they believe is holy and unpolluted water.  People watching is a past time here as kids and teenagers play cricket, hundreds of people bathing, many washing clothes and hanging them on the steps or whatever they can hang them on to dry.  Others are washing their buffaloes, selling flowers, offering blessings, doing yoga and the list goes on.  In addition to all of this there are the cremations that take place in the burning ghats and very much in public – about 80 per day.  You can see the funeral procession, only men, carrying the body wrapped in very colorful shrouds to the water and they dip the body in the Ganges for spiritual healing and then they unwrap it down to the white shroud, I believe, and place it on the wood fire for cremation.  Not sure how much this costs but if you’re very poor there is also an electric cremation that is a lot cheaper and in both cases the ashes are thrown in the Ganges.   It was quite the site to see as we witnessed a couple and our tour guide explained the importance and significance of the ceremony.  Basically by dying here you are offered liberation from the cycle of birth and death making Varanasi the center of the Hindu universe.

Ganga River

Our driver…hard work

Witnessing cremation

Dawn and Yves

Jim on the Ganga

The evening boat  ride is all about the river worship ceremony, known as Ganga aarti, where boatloads of people come to watch the show and listen to the music.  The ghats are also crowded but watching it from the river was quite spectacular with the whole event taking about 2 1/2 hours including boat rides to and from our accommodation which, as I think I mentioned, is next to the Assi Ghat.  All the boats were pulled together and attached to each other as you sat and watched – there were hundreds of people on the water and it dismantled in a very orderly fashion.

Ganga celebration called Ganga Aarti

We also walked the Ghats to and from The Yoga House and this was a different experience as well as you mingled with a few tourists but mostly local people bathing in the Ganges, selling their wares, playing crickets, or just people watching as well.   And of course there’s the street beggars and mothers and children who follow you around asking for money and although this is very sad it is also emotionally draining because there is no end………I have hardened, sad to say.

Everyone welcomed on the ghats

Picture doesn’t capture the steepness of the ghat steps but our thighs did

We also wandered through some of the narrow side streets to get away from the cars, cows, dogs, dung, tuktuks, buffaloes, etc. but those motorcycles and buffalo go everywhere so finding a relaxing place to walk is pretty difficult.

Walking the streets

Fortunately I am not a person who gets headaches and I feel bad for those who do because in this city it’s difficult to find a quiet space.   However I think it was worse when we were there because of a festival that was going on from Feb. 1-3 which brings me back to my earlier comment about the music and our accommodation.  When we picked The Yoga House for a place to stay it was appealing not only because it was on the Ganges but also because it was described as a quiet place to come back to after a hectic and noisey day touring the city or the Ghats.  Also they offered yoga and of course I was looking forward to this during my stay in Varanasi.  Due to the festival, however, a temporary music center was put up just outside our accommodation and if you can imagine Indian music that you don’t like or understand being played the loudest you’ve ever heard from 7am-11pm daily then that’s what we had.  Sleep was almost impossible if you went to bed before 11pm, which is not difficult when you are on the go all day, and at 7am if you weren’t already awake then that’s what you woke up to.   I thought I was going to go mad and because no one had mentioned this in the reviews I thought it must be something new and that’s when the young man who runs the place told me there was a festival which ended at 11pm the night before we left.  In addition there was no yoga offered which I assume was also due to the distracting music.  Anyway such is life – you win some, you lose some.   We totally enjoyed our stay overall because Varanasi is like nothing else we’ll ever experience again I am sure…….but as usual ready to move on to Agra and the Taj Mahal and  our first India train experience.  Here’s hoping the notoriously late train is on time!