Varanasi - report. (one night in Varanasi)

alspants

Essentials packed. Wallet, hidden stash of a thousand rupies, tourch, spare socks, identification, camera, clean underware and a napkin sized towel. Check. Off to the airport.


Let me qualify, let me stress, Varanasi was easily the highlight of absolutely everything I have seen in India.

I should have known. It was the one, on all the readers forums to find on the internet, where some warned, dont go, its hardcore.

Pickpockets, shit, cows,*hustle,*touts,*bustle,*p olluted water, poo water, wee wee stained walls, crumbly paint, narrow alleys (where no one can see you scream).

Floating courpses, burning sandlewood, a firework of cremations.

Sunrise on black water, Smiling children selling re-sold cleaned cocconut candles, bathing sari clad brown girls, muslem sirens fluting in the distance - calling the infedels like I to prayer, bottle greens, browns and blues with pink all over it.


Its the mecca of India, the*Jerusalem*of Mother ganges.

It is stained, sure, but it is majestic. It humm’s a beauty reminiscent of Venice with spice all over it. It is old old. It beats old.*

So thats what I for one thought.

So now, for those who want to go, for what it is worth, this is what I did.


Because time was something I had less of, I splashed out on flights. It was not that much more expensive. At last minute, its harder to get a train ticket. (anybody coming to India - my biggest piece of advice is - contrary to the way I have always travelled before - to pre book your larger journeys, your first nights accommodation and the few extra hundred Rupies for a pick up from your arrival point - and to do it in advance, well in advance. From your base areas, play it by ear, as although guide books are a saviour to the new arrival, you never really know until you get there)

I looked up Trip Avisor. I rang the Ganges View hotel, saw they had one day free for the next two months, decided it must be nice and got a room for 1500 rupies. It was a nice room. I arrived and was given a large room upstairs over looking the balcony area. It was a bit too nice. Armed with a print out of a confirmed rate I decided to leave the inevitable arguments until my departure.

I arrived at 16 hundred hours. I was leaving the next day at 16 hundred hours. The drive from the airport is an adventure, and a good hour and a half in traffic and cow conditions, so that gave me a decidedly short one day visit.

Militarily, I threw my bag down, skipped the welcome shower, and broke all the rules of getting a fair price, I asked the hotel guy about a boat for the famous Varanasi Dusk boat journey. He arranged one immediately. (Rs 100 per hour - is that good?)

So I took the sunset boat. It was fantastic. He stopped at the main burning ghat, for the richest people, and apparently, the old unfortunates, whom the owner burns from donations and profits (this could be misinformation given to me from the ghat guide, but I chose to believe it, because its a nice thing to believe). What a place. I wont describe. Go. See. Just made me want to cry, smile and rejoice life in a spine tingling type of way. My advice here is, if you can, get someone to take you around, absolutely do. (We tipped Rs 300 for his tour, including three persons. lasting half an hour. we also donated to the old person, awaiting death, collecting for fellow old people. )

Back to hotel. Great food. Beers (dry city, but hey, Im Irish).

Next morning. Sunrise. Up at 5.00. On the boat by 5.30. Yes a.m.

Sunrise. Yellowness creeps over the alluvial plain, and the bathers come down and dip. Wash their teeth (yes). And you can watch the ancient city breath life once more with the rising Sun, blessed by the Ganga.

Incidentally, we befriended the Boat man, he took us to see his family and gave us tea in his house. He lived down by the last Ghat, past the Mosque. He took us there because the other guy on the boat had a Polaroid, and he had never seen a picture of himself (I have never seen someone treasure a gift so) He chanced his arm (in his eyes) to ask could he take a Polaroid of his 2 year old boy, who he was immensely proud of, and who will one day be a boat driver.

Next I go abroad, I will take a Polaroid with me...


Thats all. I left at 2pm. One night in Varanasi. Im sure I needed more time then that. But hey, beggars cannot be choosers.

Attached Thumbnails

   

SitaParityaga

WOW! As another lover of Varanasi, I totally enjoyed reading about your one day there...

Just booked my 10 day stay in Varanasi this week, returning after 20 years. Such an incredible place, I have always wanted to return to.

alspants

for the record

Attached Thumbnails

         

TracyB

Love your description of Varanasi...yes it is an amazing city you can hate and love it all at once!!

Victoria

thanks for that Alspants!

I find mywelf in Varansi more often than not everytime i go back to India. Last year I went for quite a few long weekends to break up my working week in Kanpur.
I'll be going back again this summer with some Indian first-timers too, and 'im really looking forward to it!

For all of you Varanasi lovers: what do you like most? Why? What would you do if you could go back again?

Kingstonian

Spend more time just sitting, and less time looking (but not seeing)

Alspants - enjoyed the post! A polaroid would be fun.

Aishah

A terrific account, Alspants. Varanasi is one place I must go to and haven't been yet. It sounds amazing and your pics are great.

__________________
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

Victoria

oh dear , i tried to upload a couple of my fave varanasi pics to share but i'm afraid i'm not to 'techn' oriented, so when i clicked on upload nothing happened! I'll try again to show oyou some of my sunset pics too!

alspants

Hi victoria.

I think you need to make sure your images are under 100 mb (file size). If so just hit the Attach a file button underneath in Full Reply mode.

Then select the image some where on your hardrive where you store it.

Click upload files beneath.

Then wait (this can be time consuming. It will tell you when done. Click close window when finished.

You will return to message reply, and then click send.

Thanks and Good Luck.

Aishah

Pretty well covered, alspants - the size of the photo, yes has to be not too large. Also slow connections can make it difficult, long time etc. I knew with my mobile GPRS it just was impossible. Broadband, of course, is the best.

NeeliAankhen

Nighttime and dawn. I was surprised by the neon-ized umbrellas and the sound system.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Victoria

thanks for that alspants! i'll have to spend time playing around and changing the size of my images: it must be that!
nice dawn pic too neeli

batistuta

Nice Report, Thanks for sharing.

Milamber

I too love Varanasi. I do meet quite a few travellers that can't stand it, but so far it's my favourite place in India.
I've been in Varanasi for 2&1/2 months and still have 2 months to go. I've "studied" and explored the cities ancient geometry and general history which has really enriched the experience. Of course there are the standard days here and there where I ask "why" and think about moving on but deep down I know I'll really miss the place when it's time to leave.

Being on the move exploring India is great but there's also a definite increase in absorption and enrichment of experience that comes from staying in the one place for a longer period of time. Stability of health from established and reliable food sources was another factor. I wanted to take part of India home within myself. Varanasi, in my opinion, clearly stood out as the prime place to do such a thing.

"(Rs 100 per hour - is that good?)"

Is good seeing as though you went through the hotel and the boat-man probably lost some of the cut. 50Rs per hour is fairly standard as far as I'm aware.

Jon

alspants

Nice images NeeliAankhen. Is a photogenic place.