Just Skip Varanasi

gato75

My partner and I arrived in Varanasi after a 19 hour train trip from Haridwar (860 Km's) you do the math on that trip.

The Train touts were worse than Delhi's or Haridwar's and
we thought they were fairly ordinary.

Hotel Surya was a pleasant place to spend 4 days but we talked
to another Australian group, a Dutch group a Spanish Group and an Irish couple and although we all spent about 4 days at the Hotel the concensus was venturing out into the Varanasi proper wasn't worth the extra hassle.

We ventured out on three different occasions befriending the least aggressive of the Auto drivers that hang around even more
in your face than normal for India. Each simple task proved very complicated involving 4 different venues just to burn photos to CD etc...

We did do the dawn boat tour of the burning Ghats and it was memorable if maudlin and the Ganges is in a really really bad way in this region.

The head waiter said to us that
"the Varanasi has the Learning and the Burning"
referring to the Large university and the 24/7 riverside crematoriums.

So unless you are really into learning or the burning just skip this unpleasant large town and try somewhere else Mussouri is lovely and I wish we had stayed an extra few days up in the mountains instead of doing the overnight train to Varanasi.

Also the airport servicing Varanasi is very 1963 in feel and pretty shoddy but I was sure glad to be out of there at JetSpeed.

atala

Most people need a first-hand experience of a place to be able to choose to skip it another time.

kalbarri

i remember it well i arrived by train at about 4 am and sat at a chai stall chatting to rickshaw drivers and other friendly fellows who suggested that i be at the ganges at dawn. when i got there
, the atmosphere was amazing, milky sun rising in a pastel orange sky, singing over the loudspeakers, the wild looking sadhus on the stairs with their metres of dreadlocks, people being shaved and the masses bathing in the waters. i was beckoned over to a small boat that was heading across the river so i got on board with about 10 other people and halfway across a swaddled in cloth, torso and head, floated up towards the boat. i was shocked as it was the first dead person i had ever seen!
we arrived at the other side and all the indian people went in to the river to bathe so i went a little further down and did the same (in my clothes) i had my shampoo floating there beside me and was washing away when all of a sudden i noticed that that very same corpse was floating towards me! (i chortle now) but at the time i was so spooked, i thought it was following me and i was quick smart out of that water
i also rented a houseboat for a week and watched the daily life around the ganga, the burning ghats, rituals, dead cows being dragged down and thrown into the river and saw the dolphin that are specific to that river. got a shock there too as i thought dolphin only lived in the ocean, and was suprised to see them so far away from the sea.
one night, i couldn,t sleep so i did a wander and ended up walking all night through the streets and alleyways and found myself at dawn in an area with mosques. at one point i was surrounded by about 5 dogs threatening to attack me and a man appeared, yelled at them and they took off. that was exellent as i hadn't seen a person for ages and he didn't even ask me what i was up to. this was in the seventies and i don't know what it is like these days, but the only hassle i remember there was a really heavy sales pitch by a trickster who took me to a shop under the pretense that he was also an artist and wanted to show me artwork then got angry when i didn't want to but the metres of silk he showed me
so varanasi also has it's interesting side. there were many more adventures there but i won't on.

bigjed

I was there in 2006 and we'll probably be back there in late March.

We arrived on that same train from Haridwar. We'd just been to Rishakesh and Mussourie also. Had a short walk through the train station to our Hotel next to the Airforce area and the old mounted jet plane.

We found Varansi fascinating, used rickshaws without too much hassle and weren't bothered unduly by touts or rickshaw wallahs.

We also had a great tour of the city and outskirts through the Government tourist office and won't hesitate doing the same again in March. This time we'll be flying from Delhi and flying out of Varanasi to Kathmandu.

wonderwomanusa

I think Varanasi is the most Indian of the cities that are on the tourist trail. I don't recall many touts when I was last there, though I'm sure I rejected many offers to visit silk shops. The boys weren't all that obnoxious, in my memory.

I didn't go to Varanai on my last visit to India, but probably will go there again on the next.

I wonder where in India (besides Mussoori) OP did like and feel comfortable?

Brisso

i've been to Benares a few times - it is a standard northern city, polluted traffic jammed and dirty. Touts no different to any other tourist destination. I did love the old city the first time, but now that I've seen most of the city proper I wouldn't bother going there again. The population and traffic seems to have exploded over the ten years between visits.

Like Agra, I think though everyone should go once.

Shark

I really like Varanasi, particularly staying in the old part of the city near the river. The only drawback that I came across was some agressive dogs in the narrow alleyways. I carried a big stick and had to use it.

But I loved sitting down at the ghats in the morning getting a shave and drinking cups of chai.

PeakXV

There are specific ways to neutralize the over-zealous touts, hawkers, & rickshaw drivers that have been discussed on this forum several times before. Once you adapt these techniques into your repoirtoire - those annoying solicitations become but a muted warble, hardly distinguishable from the everyday ambient noise of the city you are in.

Those who are not prepared for these ubiquous sales pitches & situations, however, often(wrongfully) justify the experience to the location in which it happened .... when, usually, all that is needed is a slight change in one's frame-of-mind & a few learned verbal/body language skills to permanently mask that "persued perception" in any Indian town.

__________________
We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

TracyB

We stayed in Varanasi at Hotel Surya a few years ago and went with a tour group...Varanasi was overwhelming, i must admit.

But just a few weeks ago...my husband and i went to Varanasi on our own (we flew from Bombay) after spending a few weeks in Goa.

I had such a bad first impression, i thought why did we come here again!!

This time we stayed at Palace on the River Rashmi Guesthouse right on the Ganges...our room had a great view.

I honestly thought the first day i wanted to go home....But the next day woke up...and it was just amazing!!!

We took an early morning boat trip....and hired a really good local guide to show us around the narrow streets....and went to a fortune teller.....and talked with the locals...and did the evening boat trip....Took a rickshaw ride...shopped...walked along the river and talked with the kids........

It ended up being just an enlightening experience...We stayed 5 days and left with a much better impression than the first time we went.

I must admit...as busy as it is in Varanasi...the streets have way less garbage on them than the last time we were there....(but still all the cow poop was there, and i must admit, i was gagging sometimes with the unusual smells of spices and urine!!)..

But i am so glad we went again as i saw this time, what i hoped to see last time and somehow missed!!

Oh...and i must mention..the hotel staff at Palace on the River was just fantastic!! They went out of there way to make sure our stay was pleasant..We were on the top floor over looking the Ganges...it was a huge hike up many stairs, but it was worth it..I really must compliment this hotel...if anyone is planning a trip, i do recommend it..It is not perfect by any means, but we sure felt comfortable and safe staying there!!

musicgap

Don't miss Aarthi!

I was in Benares on the 3rd of October for 4 days.I was also here about 10 years so of course there were changes.
The last time I stayed at Clarks.This time I stayed right on the river.Aside from the power outages, it was great!Of course all the aforementioned things (by other posters) dogs, dung, cows, touts and corpses should be considered when staying here.

Traffic has gotten pretty horrendous but I suppose this is true everywhere.

The only other note I have is about arriving late at night when you don't really know where you're going. It's easy for touts to take advantage of you to steer you to someplace you might not want to go.And then say something like "You don't want to stay on the river because there are terrorists there"! (Of course they also tried this in Delhi too!)

I would certainly go back!

lotus blossom

i think that benares is either a place you like, or you don't.

maybe it is because of the burning ghats and the emphasis on death there, but i found if fascinating, mysterious. i lived on assi ghat and generally just walked down the ghats when i went out. i rarely went into the city, mostly stayed along the ghats. to me, that's varanasi. yes, there are touts there too - boat, madam?, and children telling me that it was good for my karma to buy their candles to float down the ganges, but they're just trying to make a living. the activity on the banks of the river is amazing, as are the alleys that one can explore off of each ghat.

fascinating city where a million photographs abound.

__________________
Not all who wander are lost

capt_mahajan

Yep.

I didn't like it a long time ago, because of the crass exploitation by organised religion of death.

Though I sometimes wonder if I should revisit to see if I still don't like it today.

lotus blossom

care to expound on this? i know little about it, except what i witnessed and the few things that i've read.

re the crass exploitation by organised religion - couldn't that be applied to a lot of things in india?

capt_mahajan

Yes, it could be applied to a lot of things. But places like Varanasi and Haridwar condense them. Elsewhere one can choose to ignore them if one wishes. There it is in your face.

Don't want to sidetrack the thread but the whole burning ghats thing is a racket; don't know now, but in the 80's only one family had a monopoly over that business, and made a fortune through ethical and unethical means (throwing half burnt bodies in the river to conserve wood, if the family had left, or doing the same thing with the less well off who couldn't afford so much wood... and stripping bodies of personal jewellery, et al)

Many Hindus go to places like Varanasi and Haridwar only when there is a death in the family, and when they are sitting ducks.


Death in Varanasi is a business and a tourist attraction.

Hindus who have more common sense take the ashes to Varanasi (or Haridwar), avoid the 'popular' ghats and immerse them in relative peace elsewhere there.

lotus blossom

sad, to make death a business transaction. we do the same in the states. it costs a fortune to die. caskets can cost a fortune depending upon how elaborate they are. but why put a beautifully crafted box, some with expensive wood, in the ground? then there is the land for burial, a headstone, the funeral parlor, the services...cremation is the way to go, but even that can be expensive. silly to burn the body in anything but a pine box before being put into the oven.

some of us here want the simpliest of deaths - the ashes of our bones put in our favorite place, and be done with it.