Kaya Rijkeboer

Today was an emotional rollercoaster.
After breakfast and planning our next stop we decided to go and visit a temple.

On our way we got blessed by a holy man (hence the red on our forehead). Let's hope it comes true. Then as we were nearly at the temple we were warned again by a local to not take pictures of the body burning ceremony we were seemingly also nearing.

Here in varanasi they believe that they will go to heaven if they are burnt by the river after cleansing it first in the ganges and have their ashes strewn in the river. The bodies burn for 24 hours a day, so they basically have bodies burning here all the time. Only if a someone is bit by a snake or if they die of a fever they don't get burnt, instead they have a rock tied to their legs and are dropped into the river. Only the rope comes untied and so the bodies come back up (hence the body we saw on the first night)

We got shown around the burning site and told how that morning there had been a fight between locals and Americans because the Americans were filming the ritual. Unlike what it may sound like, these burnings are real ceremonies and the families are in sever pain so obviously they don't want people to be taking pictures. We don't understand why you would want a picture anyway. It was quite intense getting so close to the burning bodies and being close to death but now that it's settled I am happy that we saw it. The most interesting is that next to the burning site there is a large house where people are just waiting to die. For the different castes they have different story's and also different heights of burning the bodies.

So that was that- I did feel a bit weird after but both of us were "happy" that we did it.

In the evening we saw a more joyful ceremony which also happens everyday which was the praising and thanking of the river. We took a boat out and had a lovely trip down the river till we got to see the ceremony from the water. It was astounding how many people showed up and that's what you see in the videos too. Super cool, both of us got to do a wish while lighting a candle and think we're both feeling more spiritual now. I thanked the river for giving all this hope and joy to the people here, it is quite astounding.

To top it off we had a nice meal of noodles and Indian fried rice with a side order of French fries. Interesting choices hahaha.Leia mais