Spirit of India Day 3 Delhi to Varanasi

Monday April 11^th

Happy Birthday Mike!

Today we got up at four and were off to the airport by five. Sameer and I were a bit worried about my lack of passport, but luckily it turned out to be no issue. He told me not to show the photocopy of my passport and just offer the International Driver's License as it had photo ID in it. No problem. The flight to Varanasi was about three hours. The temperature here was much hotter than Delhi, probably about 33 to 35. A tour bus met us at the airport and took us for a half hour drive to our hotel, where we had lunch. Then we checked in and had some time to relax.

Then we went to see a Buddhist temple in Sarnath. This temple contains a beautiful gold statue of Buddha and colourful frescoes painted by Japanese Buddhists. It is thought to be the site of Buddha’s first sermon.

Late in the afternoon we all loaded up into tuk tuks and we made the journey to the old part of the city and towards the ghats. The ride was amazing, as traffic here is even more chaotic than Delhi, if that is possible. The tuk tuk driver had disco type Indian music blaring as we raced through the traffic as fast as possible just missing people, bicycles, cows, cars, tuk tuks, goats and rickshaws. We were dropped off where the streets became too narrow and we walked the rest of the way through the narrow lanes. You wouldn't even know there was a river there until we walked through a building and we were standing on the top of a set of stairs and looking down on the Ganges. Lots of pilgrims to watch here as this is one of the holiest places in Indian and Hindus come to the river to bathe (like Muslims to Mecca).

We walked down the steps (which are quite high, because this was the dry season and the level of the river was quite low). We boarded a wooden boat for our cruise. It was motorized but they had a great deal of difficulty starting it. When it finally did get going, we putted up stream past the main ghat where they were chanting and praying, past bathers and swimmers (yuck), to one of the official sites for cremation ceremonies. Hindus are cremated and their ashes are committed to water. Being cremated by the Ganges is the ultimate religious honour. When we went by, there were three funeral pyres burning, bodies coated in oils and incense on top of piles of wood that are treated to make them burn hotter and faster. Then we turned around, turned off the engine and floated down river. It was really interesting watching the pilgrim people on shore. There were lots of other boats of varying size, floating about with pilgrims and tourists. When we got back to the central area we tied up at a dock with lots of other boats and watched the ceremonies there. It was a particularly busy time as they were celebrating a festival honouring one of their goddesses. We stayed there for a long time before we started up the motor and cruised back to our starting place, where we climbed the steps and walked back through the lanes to our tuk tuks. The ride back to the hotel was even more riotous in the dark with music blaring. Our tuk tuk actually scraped past another one going the other way. We didn't stop to swap insurance!

Back at the hotel we had dinner at the restaurant in the outdoor courtyard before I collapsed into bed by eleven.