Day 39 - Varanasi

The chai-wallah came through the carriage at about 5:30am, I reckon, so that makes it the official start to the day! His counterparts selling other things for breakfast followed soon after so the day was really on. Over night the driver had made up quite a bit of the time lost yesterday evening so we were due to arrive at Varanasi station pretty much in time. Let the bag and people shuffling begin again!

Anant was first off so he was able to quickly find a porter for our bags. One man carried both our suitcases (each weighing about 20 kgs) on his head up the platform stairs and down the other side to the waiting tuk-tuk rank. I think I paid him just 200 rupees ($AUD4.00). Our little convoy headed off into the growing stream of traffic to the hotel, a little way out of the middle of town. We arrived there at 7:30am and, not surprisingly, our rooms weren’t ready so we adjourned to the first floor restaurant, to escape the little lobby, where by 8:00am breakfast was being served. At 10:30am our rooms were ready  so we retired there to rest and wait for our agreed 12:45 meeting time back in the lobby to continue the days adventures.

A short ride on an e-tuk-tuk took us into the heart of down-town Varanasi made even shorter when we were forced to abandon them because the traffic was at a complete stand-still. I have rarely seen such a mass of humanity in one place, that wasn’t the crowd exiting the MCG after a huge game. The only one I can think of that comes close was our walk down Hennessy Road in Honk Kong back in 1986. Playing “follow the leader” (literally) we made our way on foot towards the Ghats of Varanasi. The Ghats are comprised of individual but adjoining places along the banks of the Ganges river where Hindus come to wash and bathe, worship and wave good-bye to their relatives who have gone over to the side (of life). Extending for quite a few kilometres, broad stone steps lead from the top of the high bank down to the water’s edge. In total there are eighty such places along the Ganges. We first stopped at the Manikarnika Ghat where a new modern sandstone structure has been built by the Indian government in recent years due to its proximity to the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple, the holiest in the Hindu faith and the Ghat’s function as one of a number of “burning ghats” – places along the river where the aforementioned relatives are cremated in public and their ashes spread in the river.

We happen to be in India when the important Hindu festival of Holi is on. It’s celebrated on different days in different regions (but not in south India) and today was one of those days in Varanasi. What was already a maxed out visual and acoustic scene was taken to a whole new levels down by the Ganges when we encountered the Holi celebrators. Traditionally, the people are expressing their joy at having “driven out the demons” by gathering en masse and painting themselves in bright colours and then throwing all different shades of brightly coloured powder at one another, many having already partaken of their drug of choice. To put some context on this, the police force and army are also out en masse with their weapon of choice, to keep the crowds, which seemed to be comprised of mostly young men, somewhat orderly.

From here we made our way into the laneways of the old town in search of a famous store called “The Blue Lassi”. A lassi is a beverage common over all India made up of curd (yoghurt) and various fruits of your choice. Very tasty, and healthy as well being full of pro-biotics, a “must have” to stay well while traveling in India. BTW, the lassis’s aren’t blue, just the walls of the tiny, tiny shop. As we enjoyed our lassi’s a few ex-people being carried on stretchers made their way down the narrow lane in front of the shop towards their appointment with the Ganges.

In Varanasi, the Ganges is a broad river with a very large sandbank on the opposite side. The sandbank and most of the steps of the Ghats will disappear when the monsoons arrive in a few month’s time. Right now, however, the sandbank is home to a very big tent city courtesy of the G20 summit which seems to be going on everywhere across India. The river is surprisingly clean. To be honest, I was expecting something akin to an open sewer. I’ve seen the Thames and the Yarra in a worse state.

After the Blue Lassi we made our way back into the throng and through the winding lane-ways to the shop of a chap who sold scarves, shawls rugs and other fabric items. We sat on his floor and listened to the same story we’d heard at each of the other in Intrepid-supported community-based businesses we visited our the last few weeks. Here we learned how to tell a fake product from a real one by putting a match to it – much like I’d done at the rug shop. Natural fibres, like human hair, contain carotene which will not burn. Kerry acquired two very bright scarves that she fell in love with and a cashmere rug as well. It’s all being shipped back home because our bags are already bursting at the seams.

Next we headed back to the Ghats to meet our boat for the sunset cruise up the river. Our walk took us about three kilometres to ghats number eighty, the very last one, so we saw quite a lot along the way. Just as dusk was coming down (and after a quick masala chai) we boarded an old wooden boat and headed for the Manikarnika Ghat. In the middle of the river the captain stopper the motor ans we just drifted for a little while, which was very pleasant, watching the ghats and the buildings of Varanasi light up. While drifting the captain prepared a little flower-boat for each of us. He lit the tea-candle in each one and we then released them onto the water of the Ganges, making a wish as they sailed off behind us. It was a lovely sight to to see our little group of candles bobbing along the surface of the river as the the night began to fall.

The Manikarnika Ghat was already full of people and the nightly ceremony to worship the river was well underway. The river itself was equally full of boats like ours viewing the ceremony from the water. We were a good 50 – 75 metres from the shore but one could have “boat-hopped” all the way there without getting wet – and there were many more boats behind us before too long. The ceremony almost over our captain backed-out through the other vessels and we went a little further upstream to view at close range a a dozen or more funeral pyres that were lighting up the night sky.  Back downstream a short way we alighted and walked back through the crowds leaving the ceremony to find a restaurant for dinner. We has a quick, cheap meal and then made our way a kilometer or so to the nearest tuk-tuk rank and headed home after an interesting and exhausting day. Was Varanasi as "confronting" as I thought it might be? No, but I reckon that's because we'd been "conditioned" over the last few weeks.