Day 6 - Varanasi 3 - Dawn

We are up at 5am to take our early morning tuktuk ride back to the river to catch the dawn and see the party scene the day after the night before ! It’s quiet but it’s still busy !
We park the tuktuks and wander through the maze of back streets ,where there are people hurrying in groups carrying flowers and decorations to place on various shrines , people attempting to clean the alleys, people dropping their rubbish, people rearranging the dust and of course the odd cow and dog!
We reach the river for the dawn , getting on a small rowing boat to get out into the river ! It’s peaceful , boats are passing and some people are dropping the ashes, seabirds are swooping and the sun is gradually rising !
Today isn’t too hazy or foggy and we are in luck. We pass George Harrison’s favourite cafe , many Ghats and down to the open funeral pyre - only one this active morning . We get a good view of the crooked Ratneshwar Mahadev Temple! Known as the leaning temple, the structure has somehow developed a severe nine-degree slant.  The lean could be the result of a structural problem, or because it was built on silt, or because of a curse they say ! They also say the holy person dives into it to get to the altar .....maybe?
We disembark and walk back again through the back streets and see the Golden Temple where no photographs are allowed (so internet sourced ) because it’s sacred and probably also because the temple is surrounded by demolished rubble prior to renovation!
We hit the road again on the tuktuks and get home for breakfast .
Then it’s off to a commune of silk weavers - its a mainly automated ( machine punched card ) process.

At train station we are pursued by the kids begging but what can you do ?We catch the train at 5pm and it’s an 12 hr overnight gig to Agra - Should be fun , hopefully it’s on time !Read more