Our train adventure in India continued after our short time in Musoorie. We had booked the rest of our travel all the way back down to Chennai when we were in Delhi. It turns out that Dehradun to Varanasi is quite a popular train route and so we were only left with options in sleeper class. I won't lie, this was not the most pleasant ride. The train car was crowded (still nowhere near as crowded as the official second class where people seem to be sitting on top of each other) and noisy. There were definitely too many babies and young kids in our train car which made for a relatively sleepless night. In addition, they don’t actually give you any sheets or pillows in sleeper class, nor is there a curtain you can use to give yourself some extra privacy, so you really have to fend for yourself. Luckily, we had a few blankets and pillows to work with, but it just felt dirtier and less sanitary (not that anything in India is the most sanitary- you learn to accept that after a while). With all the babies crying and windows open, without proper bedding, I barely got any sleep that night. However, I took a good nap before we got into Varanasi anyways.
Varanasi was an incredible place- in a good & bad way. In a good way, it felt magical to me, so much spirituality bottled up into such a small place. You could just feel it and the vibe was like nothing I have ever experienced. The ascetic 'holy' men living at the banks of the Ganges; the ghats jutting out into the water (ghats = steps); the very public cremations taking place at the burning ghats; the view of the old city overlooking the Ganges. The 'holy' ascetic men walk around dressed in orange or some are completely naked chalked with white paste all over their bodies. Apparently, they are in Varanasi to live out their final days, but many of them look quite young in my opinion! On the other hand, the place is indescribably filthy. Because it is holy, no one bothers to clean anything up. The worst I saw was just garbage in the streets along with the usual cow dung scattered around. However, the horrible stories I heard from others were horrific in comparison. I won't tell them in detail but they involved dying puppies and dead babies. The stench that comes along with all the filth is unbearable sometimes, especially in Tom's case when he wasn't feeling the greatest after a meal. Everyone warns that getting sick in Varanasi is common and you really need to watch what you eat--in our case Tom had some troubles but no one got overtly sick. However, we generally had bad luck due to the holy festival because a lot of things were closed the day we arrived in Varanasi (Holi festival March 27th) & the day after. Holi festival is a fun celebration where everyone (in the north) sprays themselves with vibrant colours all day and the streets become more colourful & vibrant. I am not sure exactly what the celebration is for & what the colours are made from, but I was told they are hard to get out of your clothes. We kept this in mind while on our train ride, since we were arriving in Varanasi on Holi. On our way in with about 2 hours to go, we got sprayed quite badly through the train window and we arrived in Varanasi in a turquoise hue. While at the hotel, they also added to our colour and gave us pink faces :) anyways, because if these celebrations, we came to find a lot of restaurants closed around the festivities. This was troublesome since we really hoped to stick to the books suggestions about where to eat in Varanasi, considering its so easy to get sick. Due to this, we were sort of forced to eat at our hotel most of the time. The food was ok, but I didn't completely trust the place, and it did cause a few stomach upsets (but no real problems). However, our last meal in Varanasi was fantastic. We had met up with our Australian friend Melanie (we met her at the Vipassana course) since she was also in Varanasi, and wanted to find a good place to eat that was actually open. After much roaming around the ghats, we came upon a place called Lotus cafe, a sort of rooftop restaurant overlooking the Ganges. It had a menu with a wide variety and delicious meals. We savoured our meal there- some of the best we had had in a long time!
The night before we decided to take a sunset boat tour of the Ganges organized through our hotel. It was more expensive than what we could have haggled for right on the ghats, but it was the extra convenience we didn’t mind paying for after a long train ride in a not so comfortable train car. It was our first real impression of Varanasi, and seeing it from a boat view is probably the most positive impression of the city you can get- away from the filth, on the tranquility of the Ganges (although it is well known that the Ganges is incredibly filthy too--you just don't see filth as easily in water as you do on land). It was a great idea. We paddled up the river, the old city lighting up the darker it got. We went past all of the ghats, including the burning ghats where all of the cremation ceremonies were taking place---speaking about the cremations, a couple at our hotel told us they read some weird and gruesome information about it. They read that most families that decide to cremate their loved ones in famous Varanasi cannot afford to burn the whole body before disposing it into the river. So they only burn certain sections thoroughly, and some of the left over body parts they just toss in the water and they get eaten by snapping turtles. Apparently, these snapping turtles do not bother bathers, they just exclusively feed on these human body parts. Seems a bit farfetched, but the part about not being able to afford the full cremation process is definitely true...... I'm not sure about this information & I haven't had a chance to look up more info, but I'm not exactly sure I want to :S
Near the end of the sunset boat trip, we were heading back to the hotel and the boat stopped for a while at the main ghat to watch the nightly Hindu ceremony taking place. I'm not sure if the ceremony occurs every night or if we just got lucky and caught it for the Holi celebrations. It was lots if music, chanting, fire, dancing, & ritualistic displays, nicely organized and choreographed. Lots of colour and lots of lights-- incredible to watch from the boat with the full moon in the background and flames floating on flowerbeds in the water. It was a fantastic way to start our time there, & it is definitely a more tranquil and spiritual way to experience the Old city of Varanasi. Although, both the boat and the walking give you a full perspective of the place....
Overall , Varanasi left me quite spellbound. I can't compare it to anything else I have ever seen. It's like nothing else. The filth, the death, the spiritual air, its fascinating and overwhelming. It's not for everyone. I am very glad we saw it. It left a unique impression on me.
