Varanasi - Part 1 (The Ganges)

Our next stop was Varanasi - an overnight train ride away. The train itself was fine but I am the worst packer in the world. Two years ago, I remember unpacking my bag in boiling hot weather in Thailand only to discover that I forgot to pack shorts. This time I wasn't prepared for the cold. This part of India (Delhi to Varanasi) in January/February is hot in the day time but it cools down at night. We had a sleeper in the train but with all the windows open I nearly froze to death. Like I say I simply wasn't prepared. Lindsay was all cozy with her blow up pillow, scarf, and blanket (courtesy of Thai Airways). I had a ball cap for a pillow and air as a blanket. It wasn't the best journey. But it was all worth it...

From my recent and probably future posts, you will get the impression that I have a love/hate relationship with India. I do. The good stuff in India only comes after a day or two of hellish travel. You have a horrible day, then you have five great ones. Many of the places we visited were nice and fun and beautiful but I can't picture myself going back to a lot of them. Varanasi, however, is an exception. I already want to go back. It is the coolest, strangest place on earth. It's this holy city built along the Ganges River. Very holy and religious. Every kind of person is there from all over the world - it's a destination for many hippies and spiritual types (if you are basically a cynical nihilist like myself, you can often feel out of place). Sometimes it feels like you're in the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show. Sometimes it feels like you are on Mars. It's a crazy place. There are cows, goats and pigs everywhere. They burn bodies by the river in full view passer-byers (is that a word?). Many of the men don't even wear clothes. A traveler I met from Duncan, B.C. told me a story. He went into one of the many tents (perhaps where some of the people live) by the river and there was this guy (holy man?) naked, painted in white. He took out this sword and wrapped his penis around it a bunch of times, then kind of stepped over it and sat down on it for a while (yes, it is hard to picture but I saw the photograph). Anyway, I think you get the jist of it. Varanasi is like no place you ever imagined. It is sensory overload. Here's a picture of one of the many ghats. Basically a ghat is just an entrance to a river. Probably five miles of the river bank in Varanasi looks like this. There are steps all the way down to the Ganges. I assume it's built like this because of flooding during monsoon season. Whatever the reason, it's really cool.
Here's a very crowded boat.
Here's a shot of the Ganges. It's quite a big river. Not much of a current at all and it is, unfortunately, very polluted. According to the Lonely Planet, there is 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water taken from the Ganges. In water that is safe for swimming this figure should be less than 500. It's disgusting but the locals swim, bathe, and do their laundry in it. Problem is they also dump everything in it. Apparently, it's better than it was but baby fetuses and cow carcasses have been seen floating in it in the past. And since it is so holy, the ashes of all the dead go into the river and sometimes the bodies (if it's a baby, pregnant woman, leper, death due to snake bite, etc.) This is all stuff we heard, so I'm not sure if it's 100% accurate. But it's probably pretty close.

The Ganges at dusk.
Our boat guide and some ghats.
Some boaters.
Here's a shot of the burning ghat where they burn the dead bodies. Now, you are not supposed to take pictures of it but I think I'm far enough away here that it shouldn't matter. I certainly don't want to be culturally insensitive. This is one of the main ghats.