Varanasi..A place of life and death

Sitting here waiting for the train again....A mere 4 hour delay. Due to arrive at 22.17 now estimated at 2.07. Sat on a hard floor being stared at by Indian men so thought it was time for reflection. Actually quite pleased we made it to the station and can now chill for a few hours the journey here was quite something! Even for us, it was an eye opener. Beginning with a driver who had to be told how to drive the car by a passer by. Who knows if he had a licence, I doubt it. To then navigating the chaos of a just finished Arti (Hindu ceremony) with thousands of people/dogs/cows/trucks/tutuks trying to leave the city. I am now reflecting on my life...

Varanasi is where we have been for 2 days. What a place. Difficult to describe in words more appropriate in photos. A noisy, colourful, bustling, intriguing place full of the best people watching. It is a holy city, apparently the oldest city in the world still lived in where Hindu pilgrims come to celebrate life and death. Every evening at 7pm they have a ceremony called Arti on the banks of the ganges. This colourful festival of light sound fire and colour lasts around 2 hours and thousands of pilgrims come to watch. We took a boat out last night to be rowed around. This was a great experience. Serene but with thousands around us but still peaceful at the same time. This combined with a row to the other end of the river where there are burning bodies....yes that's right human bodies. Being a holy city Varanasi is where the people consider it to be an honour to be burnt. They come and walk the bodies through the streets and then dip them into the ganges. The men are then burnt in a public display on the bank on huge fires burning 24 hours a day. The women and children don't burn, they just get thrown in the river. So floating bodies may go past (luckily not for us). This was sadistically fascinating to watch.

Today we spent a well earned sleep in catching up on travelling time. We got woken at 6am by chanting and pilgrims up watching sunrise. We skipped this as we have more early starts for taj mahal sunrise (if our train ever comes).

We then walked the streets or alleys of Varanasi which wind everywhere making finding the hotel very hard. Filled with trinkets and silk sarees it is hard to get anywhere without cows stepping on you or hawkers wanting money. But we found a great lassi shop where they make it by hand still which was a nice respite. Whilst drinking it 5 bodies paraded past the shop. In the afternoon we just chilled people watching on the banks of the river.

Now on to (hopefully) Agra to see the Taj Mahal. Very excited for this. Hopefully get some good photos!Read more