We arrived at Varanassi late evening and finding a place to stay was a real mission. It seemed the town had one main road running through the town with small alley networks joining elsewhere. We stayed at Eastern view guesthouse for one night (200 rupees) behind Hanuman (monkey god) ghat. We arranged a boat ride in the morning for sunrise (5.30 am= Stupid time!!) for 160 rupees for both of us for an hour.
The River Ganges runs through Varanassi and this is the holy pilgramage for each Hindu, where they pray at the temples on the riverside and then bathe themselves in the river. There are loads of stations (ghats) where each major city or god has there own, so whichever applies to you is the one you attend. There are also two ghats where they burn the bodies (cremation). We had knowledge that the River Ganges was very polluted, especially with sewage water and with us being British, we weren't going to jump in there any time soon. The boat ride in the morning was really good although we couldn't function properly with it being so early in the morning, but seeing the sunrise was worth it. A lot of the hindu pilgrims bathe in the morning when it is cool but it was suprisingly busy. Some even swam across the river and back, either they were very dirty and needed more time to wash or were just showing off to the tourists or probably just doing it for fitness. Our boat ride was from the Hanuman Ghat to Dasawamedh ghat (main ghat) and back. We saw the main prayer, where an Indian Rastafarian look a like, covered in white chalk or cream was swinging this Candle holder (prob about 30 candles) in big circles whilst chanting and everyone else dunking to the chant. After all that activity in the morning, we slept for a few hours to catch up on our much needed sleep.
In the afternoon, we had something to eat and walked past all the Ghats, but whilst we were walking, a few local Indians were offering us drugs constantly. We sat on the steps of one ghat, where a couple of guys started talking to us. One of the guys mounted one leg on the step, lunged into a revealing position and vigorously strummed his genitals like he was strumming a guitar. He was talking to us at the same time and i had to say something. He said he had a problem and i told him you either need to see a doctor or get yourself a girl. From there for some reason, he started calling his manhood 'Banana' and asking us if we wanted some sweet Banana? We obviously started ripping him, as they were trying to look up Danny's shorts. We started calling them Gandus (gay boys) and they were suprised that we knew the word. After a couple of minutes of him saying that he had a 'big banana', both of them retreated very quickly holding hands with us shouting Gandus, which fit so perfectly. In India, men openly hold hands as there is no problem with it but it is strange to us because we never see that in England.
We finally walked past the ghat where they burn the bodies. We went for a closer look where an Indian local explained to us the procedure of when one dies. We were quite close up and saw the remains of a woman that hadn't burnt yet-her feet and the top bit of her face. It was horrible but weird at the same time because it seemed the families took death pretty well, as they weren't many people mourning around the respective bodies. After all that, the man requested some money, he said it were for the charity but we didn't belive him. It's so sad to see people making monmey out of the dead, thats how money oriented these people are and love trying to rinse the tourists. Our way back to train station was a different one. We got onto a cycle a rickshaw where an old man cycled our big arses with our heavy bags about 4km. We had lots of respect for this guy at the end, he wasn't even tired to take a pic. What a soldier!!
Varanassi photo link:
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