Varanasi

Well, hello again. I have decided to get on here and get up to date while I have time. We are currently just filling in time before we catch an overnight train to Agra which should be an interesting experience.

Yesterday I got up early at 5.00 and with the rest of the group headed off to the ganges river to see the early morning happenings of the locals. It was quite chilly but what struck me was the sheer number of people who were sleeping in the streets and then those who had probably spent the night on the street that had woken up and were now begging for food and money. There was also alot of people out begging who had twisted bodies and bodies with open sores.

Down at the rivers edge we jumped on a oar boat and went for a cruise upstream and then drifted downstream to the ghats (cremation site). There were thousands of people having their baths, floating in the river, washing their clothes, playing cricket, meditating/praying to the river. It was just one site after another.

We were on the river for about three hours and then went through the old town with its little alleyways which is about two people wide but a bit tricky when faced with a cow or bullock which have ultimate rule of the road and alleyways.

We came back to the hotel for breakfast and then off again to see silk being woven and the muslim quater of Varanasi. It was also a day of sacrificing animals and as we were making our way around all the little silk making houses we passed and heard numerous goats being killed in to such a humane way (and on reflection I cant believe I had goat curry last night). It is amazing the work that goes into making genuine hand woven silk fabric with it intricate gold patterns. By this stage it was getting quite warm and the smells of the little alleyways was quite powerful.

In the afternoon we had some r and r time and then left again for the Ganges at about 4.30pm to see evening prayers and other pagan rituals at the river. It is in its core river worship. It appears you can trash what you worship in this country as the river is very polluted and putting the ashes of 300 people per day (just here at Varanashi) is probably not helping. We watched the sun set over the Ganges and then floated down the Ganges to the Ghats (cremation place) for our second installment for the day. What was really disturbing was that you could see the feet on someone who was being cremated and they were definately feet perched on a log. It horrified all of us on the boat (except the guide). We then floated upstream again and watched the Bhraman performing the evening prayers to the river. I am guessing these guys are not the ones sleeping on the street, in fact I think these rather nobel looking men are quite rich. While we were sitting there in our boat surrounded by thousands also sitting in their boats I turned around and found that we had a boat on Indian men right beside me and I had about 20 cameras pointing at me and hearing "come on lady smile". It was quite intense and a bit too much but our guide told them to back off so that was nice.

We sat in the boat for about 2 hours and then climbed out, very careful not to fall into the sewer that is the ganges and we headed off to a roof top restaurant for dinner. 160 steps later and we were on the roof top overlooking the ganges and listened to bad Indian music. All the menus here have about 100 options and by the time you read through it all you really have no idea what you want so last night I had mutton curry. Now mutton is not sheep, it is goat and last night it was rather chewy goat. For the most part I have gone vegetarian but have thought that I probably need some protein and that looked the "safest" as far as safe goes here. We got back at about 10pm and then off to bed and the first sleep in that I have had on this trip.

It appears that my card reader is not working today so I am having some trouble with downloading photos but somewhere along the line I will get some up.

Have a great day and thanks for reading

Bron