I knew I didn't want to miss this place. One of Hinduism's holy cities on the Ganges river, Varanasi seeps India at every turn. It was Varanasi where we got into a traffic jam with a couple cows. Every tiny twisting alley, large pedestrian street, filled with pedestrians, rickshaws, scooters, bicycles, covered with cow shit, monkeys scaling the walls, wooden handcarts, and of course our four legged friends rooting through the trash that is everywhere. All of it, vying for space in the crowded narrow passageways... it all seeps India in it's most concentrated form.
Max and I got lost (literally) in the alleyways for awhile, until we finally found our way out to the river. It's a quick descent from the city down the steep steps of the ghats to the Ganges, where Varanasi really becomes a place all it's own. There you'll find anyone and everyone bathing in the river, fisherman at work, parents watching their children at swimming class in the morning, people washing clothes, oxen wading in the waters, touts left and right trying to get tourists in their boats, holy men (like the really freaky looking skinny ones wearing dhotis with enormous dread lock and fabric piles atop tier heads) wandering the steps, giving words of wisdom, even if you can believe it a roller skating rink, and of course, the incessant burning of the bodies.
As one of the holy cities of Hinduism, it is auspicious to be cremated on the shores of the river. And that is what people do, 400 to 600 bodies a day.
Needless to say, it was overwhelming at moments, but it's a place I will invariably urge any India traveler to include on their itinerary. It's just too special, too chaotic, to pure India to miss.
Max and I got lost (literally) in the alleyways for awhile, until we finally found our way out to the river. It's a quick descent from the city down the steep steps of the ghats to the Ganges, where Varanasi really becomes a place all it's own. There you'll find anyone and everyone bathing in the river, fisherman at work, parents watching their children at swimming class in the morning, people washing clothes, oxen wading in the waters, touts left and right trying to get tourists in their boats, holy men (like the really freaky looking skinny ones wearing dhotis with enormous dread lock and fabric piles atop tier heads) wandering the steps, giving words of wisdom, even if you can believe it a roller skating rink, and of course, the incessant burning of the bodies.
As one of the holy cities of Hinduism, it is auspicious to be cremated on the shores of the river. And that is what people do, 400 to 600 bodies a day.
Needless to say, it was overwhelming at moments, but it's a place I will invariably urge any India traveler to include on their itinerary. It's just too special, too chaotic, to pure India to miss.
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