Day 5. Varanasi 2 - Sunset and Ghats

For the evening we head again but on rickshaw bicycles !!!! to the centre of Varanasi (previously Benares and ancient name Kashi ) to reach the Ganges .
For followers of my blogs this amounted to a batshitcrazyweird trip !
Whilst the guys peddled the bikes for an hour each way , it was the traffic of cars , bikes , tuktuks and people crossing the dust road which was madness! Two to a rickshaw in the hazy daylight and the night! Traffic crazy both ways ! Fumes excessive ! Forgot my masks! Carbon monoxide heavy ! Smog plus ! Driver horn talking ! Roundabout and junction chaos ! Accidents surprisingly few ! We did manage to ram a motorbike and get our bike wheel stuck between motorbike exhaust (hot) and the wheel ! Had to get off and help and pull it out ... just ! Gassed both ways !!! See facebook for videos !!!

Varanasi is a maze-like city on the shore of the river and one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, and the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism.
The Cremation Ghats of Varanasi are where Hindus make the pilgrimage to this holy city to have their remains burned on the banks of the Ganges.
It’s believed that if you are cremated in Varanasi, and your ashes are released into the sacred and purifying water of the Ganges, their reincarnation cycle will end and you will reach Nirvana. It’s an amazing and incredible place .
After the rickshaw we negotiate the road on foot which is heaving and we are jostled and sold- begged and stared at and eventually get down to our Ghat ...where we negotiate the crowds to reach our boat on which we are going to travel up river and visit the various burial cremation sites ! It’s getting busy as sunset arrives ! We drop our flower candles and drift to the most prominent burial burning site identified by naked funeral pyres ! It feels odd and it’s so busy - there are over 100 cremations each day - helped to burn quicker by adding some ghee butter !
We float back to the Ghat and listen to nightly music -each site slightly different but four guys appear to be singing, banging drums and bells- the tunes are there sometimes and sometimes not ! It’s an odd boy band set up and it has a hell of a light show !
We fight our way out and up the road with thousands ! It’s a miracle don’t get lost but then we find some familiar faces and we reconnect with our rickshaw guys!
And it’s an hour slog home in the fumes ! It seems they get paid about 100 rupees for two hours riding on the fumes ! I give a tip of a dollar (70 rupees) ! It’s not good for anyone’s health !
What a night ! Bat shit crazy-weird!
...and Forest draw again !Meer informatie