We'd like to start this post with an apology to many of the countries we've visited earlier this year. At various times, we've made not particularly favorable comments about horrible traffic, worse drivers, false advertising, general dirtiness etc etc. It wasn't until we arrived in India generally, and Varanasi in particular, that we realized how relatively clean and tranquil central and South America is.
In some places, like Buenos Aires, it seemed like everywhere we looked we found a reason for us to come back in the future. In Varanasi, unfortunately, we only found compelling reasons to make our visit a one off. First up was the insane traffic (especially considering its moderate population), with constant car horns and drivers seemingly determined to mow you down. Then there was the assorted excrement (human, canine, bovine, feline, equine and simian) littering all of the alleyways and streets (the image that's most difficult to forget is that of an 8 year old girl taking a dump in the alleyway right outside our top rated guesthouse). Finally, and less concerning given the appetite suppressing nature of the place, was that we found it impossible to find decent non-vegetarian food in the old city (not to mention the fact it's illegal, but at least not impossible or even difficult, to get a drink). Hindus often like to have their bodies taken to Varanasi when they die, and the only way I'll ever go back is if I'm also in a box.
In some places, like Buenos Aires, it seemed like everywhere we looked we found a reason for us to come back in the future. In Varanasi, unfortunately, we only found compelling reasons to make our visit a one off. First up was the insane traffic (especially considering its moderate population), with constant car horns and drivers seemingly determined to mow you down. Then there was the assorted excrement (human, canine, bovine, feline, equine and simian) littering all of the alleyways and streets (the image that's most difficult to forget is that of an 8 year old girl taking a dump in the alleyway right outside our top rated guesthouse). Finally, and less concerning given the appetite suppressing nature of the place, was that we found it impossible to find decent non-vegetarian food in the old city (not to mention the fact it's illegal, but at least not impossible or even difficult, to get a drink). Hindus often like to have their bodies taken to Varanasi when they die, and the only way I'll ever go back is if I'm also in a box.
Anyway, many consider Varanasi to be a must-see destination, so we should talk about why. Varanasi is one of the three oldest continually inhabited cities in the world (the others being Delhi and Jerusalem) and has been considered the cultural capital of northern India for several thousand years. The central ‘old city’ of Varanasi sits on the side of the Ganga river, featuring a labyrinth of narrow winding lanes that tourists find impossible to navigate. Unfortunately, unlike Venice for example, getting lost in Varanasi’s laneways is not a particularly enjoyable experience (for the reasons mentioned above). Asking for directions is a bad idea because you’ll inevitably be led to the ‘guide’s’ overpriced silk store instead of your hotel.
The old city of Varanasi is the spiritual hub for Hindus and Jains, with worshipers flocking to the many crowded temples (often queuing for hours to enter the most important, ‘Golden’, temple), as well as the sacred Ganga river itself. Along the shore of the Ganga are a series of Ghats (stone stepped embankments), but two are particularly notable. Each evening at the main and oldest Ghat (called Dashashwamedh), a group of priests perform a fire worship dedicated to a number of Hindu deities. We rented a small boat to watch the sunset and subsequent performance (along with large numbers of tourists and locals).
The other notable Ghat is called Maikarnika, and is where many Hindus like to have their bodies cremated (they believe this will bring them salvation). At all hours (day or night) you can see about a dozen small fires with relatives watching on. Afterwards, bones are thrown in the Ganga (yes the same one that locals bathe in, wash their clothes in and use as the city’s only source of water).
Sunsets in India are often quite dim (much of the light and heat is lost when the sun hits the thick rim of smog, which can happen an hour before it would otherwise reach the horizon). As a result, we decided to rent a boat again during the day to get a better view of the old city, and would recommend others do the same.
Sunsets in India are often quite dim (much of the light and heat is lost when the sun hits the thick rim of smog, which can happen an hour before it would otherwise reach the horizon). As a result, we decided to rent a boat again during the day to get a better view of the old city, and would recommend others do the same.
Not far from the old town are a number of prominent Hindu temples. We visited the main three (the red temple, the monkey temple, and the Vishwanath temple), but to be honest we didn’t really enjoy any of them. We think Hindus should be commended for being able to have spiritually rewarding experiences in places so crowded and chaotic.
Much more enjoyable was our trip to the nearby town of Sarnath, the place where Gautama Buddha first taught the Dharma. While there, we visited the world’s oldest Stupa (a mound-like structure featuring Buddhist relics), the nicely presented Sarnath Archeological Museum and India’s tallest Buddha statue.
While touring the outskirts of Varanasi we also visited Ramnagar fort, which houses the most poorly kept museum we’ve ever seen. Layers of dust thicker than you’d find on the oldest cellared wines made it almost difficult to see many of the exhibits, and left us wondering where our 150 rupees per person entrance fee was being spent. Even worse than the museum was our drive to get there. Instead of finding an appropriate place to do a u-turn, our taxi driver decided to do a protracted three-point turn then drive across a very long and very busy bridge on the wrong side of the road. By some miracle, we avoided the rapidly approaching oncoming traffic and lived to tell the tale. I guess now we know what it’d be like to catch a ride home with a drunk teen pop star.
Our next destination, Khajuraho, was a much smaller and more peaceful town in the centre of northern India that is famous for hosting a series of Hindu temples. To get there, we had to catch what we thought was a direct Air India flight from Varanasi. What we got was a flight that took off an hour late, effectively flew over Khajuraho to make a stop in Agra, before taking off again and arriving two hours late. Hot tip for anyone looking to fly in India - in our experience the 'budget' carriers (IndiGo and SpiceJet) are significantly better than the supposedly full service airline (Air India, which served us a sugary juice box for lunch).
Before we travel to a new city we always research how far away our hotel is from the airport or bus/train station we're arriving at. This time our hotel wasn't much past the end of the runway so we knew it shouldn't cost us much to get there. Expecting a protracted negotiation process with a tuk tuk driver, we made sure that we left the terminal with our big backpacks on (so it was clear that we were ready to walk if need be). We were surprised to find someone from our hotel with a sign and our name on it. Turns out the guy had guessed we'd be on the plane and had come to make sure we made it to the hotel. Good service, right? He ushered us to his friend's car and it wasn't until we had our bags in the boot and were sitting in the backseat that the driver whispered under his breath, '300 rupees OK'. We immediately sprung out of the car and began to put our backpacks back on as a dozen cab drivers crowded around. After much fanfare and threatening to walk, we got the price down to a reasonable 100 rupees and were on our way.
Khajuraho's temples and their detailed engravings make a very strong first impression, and we particularly enjoyed wandering around the beautifully presented western group of temples and surrounding gardens. The real crowd pleasers, however, are some risqué scenes depicted in some of the engravings. We wont make you pretend you’re just reading this part of the blog for the articles, so will just say we were really impressed by the temples themselves, and move on to the pictures.
Khajuraho's temples and their detailed engravings make a very strong first impression, and we particularly enjoyed wandering around the beautifully presented western group of temples and surrounding gardens. The real crowd pleasers, however, are some risqué scenes depicted in some of the engravings. We wont make you pretend you’re just reading this part of the blog for the articles, so will just say we were really impressed by the temples themselves, and move on to the pictures.
From Khajuraho we took a 16-hour train ride to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. We’ll have full details on our time in India’s land of Kings in our next post.