Day 84: The bathing ghats of Varanasi

The plan was to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to go meet the Swiss girls who invited us along on a boat ride on The Ganges to see the bathing rituals. The plan was not to wake up at 2:00 in the morning with another round of food poisoning. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to The Ganges, and then I realized I would hate myself for missing it.

The bathing ghats are where Indian pilgrims journey to wash away their sins in the holy waters of the (very, VERY polluted) Ganges. I say VERY polluted, because Andrew read in Lonely Planet (and recited to everyone we met) that "water that is safe for bathing should have less than 500 faecal coliform bacteria in every litre of water. Samples show this part of the Ganges has 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria in it." 

Drainage systems empty into the river. Burning ghats line the river in between the bathing ghats (by the way, a ghat is technically a series of steps leading down to a body of water. I had to look it up because I wasn't sure what specific part of the riverside these referred to) as well, some people were warned that they might see body parts floating by in the water, but I think this was a bit of a backpacker's legend. Nonetheless, despite some bathers going so far as to brush their teeth in the water (yikes!) I kept my closed toe shoes on and kept my hands to myself at all costs!

We weren't entirely sure what this guy was doing with a fully functional tv on his boat. We think he was a vendor of some sort. Religious videos perhaps? Either that, or he was just bored and wanted some entertainment on his boat as he rowed…

The boat ride was really nice, and it was so fascinating to see how many pilgrims made the journey to bathe in The Ganges. Watching everyone pray, light candles, pour out water, and bathe made you almost forget how dirty the water was while they were waist deep in it. I am so glad I was able to pull it together to get out on the river for an hour, but as soon as we got out of the boat, Andrew had to practically hold me up (or hold my clothes that I started tearing off because I was feeling so badly) as we walked back through the ghats towards Kautilya.

We were supposed to check out in the morning, but luckily no one was checking into our room and I was able to recover in bed until I felt (somewhat) better. Andrew and I went back to the shop/ticket agency to pick up my reserved out wall hangings and sheets (one for me, one for Zengerine!) and then hung out at Kautilya until our train left for Agra at night.

Day 83: The Burning Ghats and a Music Festival

We tried to go to the Golden Temple. We found it. Our gate and everything, unfortunately all of India was going to the temple as well, and the wait looked to be forever. We hung out at The Kautilya Society, talked about our future movie careers in Mumbai, and towards dusk, we headed out to The Ganges again for one last night experience (music festival included!) along the river.

The same river ritual that we saw the other night was being performed at different ghats. Instead of sitting through only one this time, we walked from ghat to ghat and eventually found ourselves at the music festival friends at The Kautilya Society mentioned seeing. We watched for a bit from outside the gated river front area and then we walked some more. We walked past rituals, and crowds, and then we neared one of the burning ghats.

The burning ghats are designated areas for honorable cremations along the riverside. -for men. I would like to specify here that we only saw men in the area, and later found out only men are cremated here, unless the woman happens to very (VERY) high up on the caste system. We kept our distance, even though an Indian bystander assured us we could go closer. The only photos I took were of some tall unlit bamboo lanters that we were told burned for the person who passed away. Unfortunately(?) none of them were lit when we were there. It felt a bit creepy at night. We had to walk away from the blaring music festival and over lots of mud (we hoped) that had washed up or had been deposited on the walkway. The electricty was out around this specific ghat, so the only light eminated from burning timbers (and bodies) that I counted were six going at one time. We didn't stay long.

When we walked back along the river, and past the music festival, we were ushered into the front entrance and told to take a seat at one of the white plastic chairs near the front. We didn't make it for the famed sitarist, but listened to the vocalist for a little bit before heading back to The Kautilya Society as we had to wake up quite early for our sunrise cruise on the river in the morning. 

Day 82: a market in Varanasi

It's a little strange when you find yourself running errands in a foreign country that you've only just landed in. Yet, that's exactly what we did. At home, errands consist of the grocery store, dry-cleaners, maybe the bank… Today, our errands consisted of getting some Indian Rupees, an Indian sim cards for our phones, train tickets to Agra (to see the TAJ MAHAL) oh, and getting a glass of sugarcane juice along the way. We barely made it back in time for lunch at The Kautilya Society (Best. lunches. ever.) before we went back out again to walk through the market down the street!

Day 81: Varanasi and The Ganges

To say we were both a bit homesick and exhausted spending Thanksgiving traveling from Nepal to India is an understatement. Our train arrived in Varanasi around 8 AM, and we were ushered into a bicycle rickshaw that an 80 year old tiny Indian man hopped on to bike us (me, Andrew, and all of our stuff) to the area of town we were staying. After little electricity, and the 26 hour transit time, I was barely able to call my Mom to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving before she fell asleep the night of (in America). In India, it was 10 AM, and we just walked into our lovely, I mean, LOVELY guest-house/NGO in Varanasi. A guesthouse that has electricity, internet, hot water, breakfast, lunch, and fellow travelers who don't hesitate to strike up a conversation with you, and most importantly give you tips on the post office, yoga classes, you name it… Our friend Claire recommended The Kautilya Society to us, and we owe her a big hug (and maybe some palak paneer), because we needed some warm fuzzy feelings after the past couple of weeks.

We decompressed. Ate a HUGE lunch. Showered. Slept. And then as dusk started approaching, we set out to explore some of the city. We meandered through the side streets leading to and from our guest-house, we ran into friends we made on the train from Gorakpur, and we ended up at The Ganges. 

Before it was dark, walking along the river felt kinda like walking along Lake Michigan in Chicago. Some people walked their dogs (that were pets), families sat along the edge of the bank, and there was a gentle calm that wrapped around everyone, that feeling you get when you're kinda on the outside of a city looking in. Only in this city, giant oxen nonchalantly walk past you, Sadhus sit covered in ash and wrapped in bright gold giving out good luck (for a price of course), a woman walks into the water to bathe, and candles float past full of prayers and wishes. 

When it's nearly dark, and you realize the ghats are lit up, lights are reflecting into the water, and it hits you that you are in India, standing next to the holiest river in the world. It makes every 24 or in our most recent case, 26 hours of travel totally worth it. All of the stress of broken down buses and culture shock and stiff shoulders melts away when you're staring at something so foreign and beautiful and in this case, holy.

We walked towards the lights and found ourselves amidst a huge crowd of people (mostly Indian) watching the evening puja. This is basically the evening ritual along The Ganges. From my understanding, each Ganges puja ceremony also incorporates an Aarti Ceremony as well. I found this most fascinating because these giant copper lamps were held up and rotated around. I kept thinking about how my arms would have been quivering holding one of them above my head, but these guys have more practice and didn't seem to have a problem with it. Upon researching what the significance of the lamps was, I discovered that it's moved around in a circular form to illuminate the god or element (in this case, water) to greater see the face of the diety. Kind of like the Christian version of "This Little Light of Mine…" but, much cooler. Ok, obviously I have some more learning to do about Hinduism, so please don't take offense to my comparison and curiosity when it comes to Hinduism. "Religion class" in my 12 years of Catholic schooling consisted of Catholicisim. And Catholicism only… I have some catching up to do. (If you have any good world religion book suggestions, please let me know!)

We attempted to find The Brown Bread Bakery for dinner, Andrew read about it on Trip Advisor and then Lonely Planet that it was highly recommended. The restaurant we showed up at was an impostor, but it served up some great curry and offered a lovely night view of the city.