#Varanasi India PT5 Nov 2015

I rounded my last blog with - I reach Varanasi (Benares) with trepidation. My trepidation was born out of reading guide books - after 48 hours in now - I am glad I read the advice - but I am so glad I came. It is an incredible place.

I start with my initial taxi experience. The guide books refer to the scams when arriving at the station. The hostel I was staying at warned about them too. From the moment I stepped off the train I was being offered a taxi. Nothing too pushy just helpful sir! As advised I head for the tourist kiosk. The helpful old gent told me to go the relatively short journey by auto rickshaw and his female assistant said it was also a good way to start seeing this wonderful place. I am to go to the pre paid ticket kiosk and pay about 90 Indian Rupees. I am followed by a small possee of potential carraige drivers who offer me various deals for Sagar Guest house. None of it felt threatening and was all done on the move. Anyway I am determined to get to the pre pay kiosk but there is no one there. The drivers grouped around me say pre pay man is over there under the tree.I won’t have it. I am waiting here - I thought it might be a scam. I wait. There is chuckling and laughing. He is over there. After five minutes of bull dog spirit I see the sense of looking and we march off to cheering and clapping. I pay the pre paid man sensibly sat under the cool of a tree 95IR! I have to sign. A triple document. One for him, one for me, one for the driver! Yes I have done it! We set off in the auto rickshaw. I can’t describe it adequately. You will have to do it. Just simply crazy in the most congested traffic I have been on since Kolkata - ha! We come to a long stand still - some sort of demonstration. The driver starts explaining he is going to take alternative route - save two three hours - he mentions more money. I play dumb and just say Sagar Guest House. This is repeated ten times why speeding up narrow alley's, missing amongst other things large cows, old ladies and young children. Finally we can go no further. We are close but the road is roped off. I have no idea where I am. He parks up. We hurry through the back streets on foot. It is hot. It is chaotic. He proudly delivers me to Sagar Guest House. What a man. What a professional. I shake his hand and pat him on his back. He is still anxious. Will I pay him more. Did I understand another 50. I give him another 100. Big smile and bow to me with hands together. The punch line 100 IR is only £1! Even if I was going to be ripped off it is unlikely to be much more than triple. It will happen but it won’t be the end of the world and I should learn to take a chill pill - ha!

I have digressed very badly.

Varanasi - I quote from the guide book “One thing is certain: you cannot begin to fathom the mystery of India without a visit to Varanasi. Not that this old city will ‘explain’ everything - in fact, its confrontations of life and death on the Ganga River, and of scholarship and superstition, may mystify you even further - but the city’s aura of sanctity is so overwhelming that that it superseded any need for rational explanation”.

This is my take. Varanasi is a big city - over a million people but I have been staying and concentrating on the old city. Consequently it feels far less commercial and much less confronting than Kolkata. The old city has a more touristic feel. The tourists are not western but Hindu's coming to the sacred Ganga River - to bathe, to pray and to die. For the Hindu ( and 80+% of India’s 1 billion + people are Hindu) Varanasi is one of their most sacred of places and claimed by some to be the oldest city on earth. It is full of temples. It is also full of people and log jammed by bikes, motor bikes, pedal and auto rickshaws and cows of course. It is incredible bustling place - but not threatening. Everyone is some sort of tout but tout has an overtone which is not really fair. It is true you are being constantly offered rides and down on the ghats boat rides - but a firm “no” hand gesture is usually enough. They are not aggressive and I have respect for their politeness - it is a hard place to make a living because there are so many people trying.

One phenomenon you have to learn to handle is begging. Young mums with babies are the most persistent. There are the elderly and frail and those with quite shocking disability - and the religious men. I am not going to give advice - how you deal with begging is a personal thing. Some I know would struggle so be aware if you are planning to come.

The Ganga dominates life in Varanasi. On the west bank are the Ghats. The Ghats form one long promenade and steep flights of steps run down to the river. Ghats are nominally separated - usually have their own temple - and serve different purposes for different people and different sects it seems. There are two burning Ghats - where bodies are cremated on wooden pyres and the ashes sprinkled into the Ganga - a perfect Hindu going in their most sacred place. ( I would advise the burning Ghats are where the tourist are most vulnerable. There are two types of people there. Those in mourning who are sensitive to tourists of course - cameras are forbidden - and those trying to make money from the onlookers who are attracted by this incredible spectacle. Be careful not to offend and be careful not to be befriended with help and advice and the insistence for money which will follow).

All along the Ghats people bathe - some for practical reasons but most for Hindu ceremonial reasons - to wash away sins. ( This is the main why people come - like Mecca for the muslims I guess). People wash their clothes. However the river on the shoreline looks unclean - litter and worse. The Ganges is a very long river - what must be in it! There is evidence that the authorities are trying to clean it up. While I am not squeamish to me it would seem a massive health risk to immerse your self six times to be cleansed of your sins - but then I am not Hindu and the Ganges is not my most sacred river.

One thing I did do - twice in fact was to take a row boat ride on the Ganges. It was a lovely thing to do - especially around dusk. I did dip my hand in and sprinkled some life giving water on my forehead so fingers crossed! I doubt I am sin free!

I also went to Sarnath - an absolutely crazy 12k (round trip) autorickshaw ride. Every driver is in a race. They duck and dive, chop and change. Anything to gain a metre advantage and the whole time - like everyone else - sounding their horn constantly. The ride cast 400IR and the driver waited for me for an hour while I looked around ( with a student guide who popped up from nowhere - but worth the 200IR I paid him. Perhaps surprisingly Sarnath is where Buddha made the founding address that led to the formation of Buddhisim. As a consequence Sarnath is one of the 4 most sacred buddist sites and attracts Buddhists from all over the world. I am glad I went. There was the usual quiet calm around Buddhist temples and everything seems simple. I spun the prayer wheels - if I was not an athiest I would be a Buddhist - ha!

Talk about simple ceremonies I enjoyed a 1\2 hour evening Hindu prayer offering down on the main Ghat. It was very atmospheric. Lots of bells, horns and singing and swinging all manner of things around from smoke, lit candelabra and flowers. To me just a spectacle, to many a photo opportunity but it was clearly evident in the faces of many watching how significant the ceremony was to them. It was anything but simple. Hinduism is “ high church” it seems.

I am writing a lot. Varanasi will be memorable. It is challenging. It is confronting. It is very different to anywhere else I have been.

My abiding memmories from Varanasi - the complexity of life, the simplicity of life, the contradictions of life - the inhumanity of life and the unfairness - and of course the importance of religion to so many - oh and the incessant honking of horns!

Photos to be posted when I can get decent wi fi.