They say that Varanasi is the "true" India, and they are quite right. There is a little of India everywhere here, the Chai wallahs, Beggars, Holy men, Hawkers, Silk merchants, Temples, Random animals, (cows, bulls, goats, dogs, etc), but the one thing you do not see anywhere else is the cremations and the amount of cycle rickshaws. This gives the place a measure of charm that no other city has managed so far (apart from Madurai with the clown horns on the rickshaws). This has been one of the highlights of our trip so far, and I think that El will add a section to this blog as I am sure she will want to add her thoughts.
It was not as scary as everyone has warned us, even though we have made sure to be wrapped up in bed before it gets too late, and to be on high alert for any scams. Even so we were taken in last night as we searched for a bar that advertised live traditional music, a boy was handing out flyers and had the bar's name on it. "Cool," I thought (as the bar was hidden away in the labyrinth of the old city and would have been hard to find), "a guide for free." He took us to the bar up a lot of windy streets and there was live music for 1/2 hour while we had a beer and some byriani and I quite enjoyed it as a bit of light Friday entertainment. We left the bar and tried to find our own way back to the main road, as we walked about 5 minutes up the street we passed a bar with the same name... how strange. This is an old trick where a bar will rename itself to a name almost the same as a Lonely Planet recommended one, so we got duped but not in too bad a way :-).
The first day we took the hotel's advice and took a cycle rickshaw to the ghats as we were staying near the station in a lovely hotel (with hot water yeay!). The cycle rickshaws kicks ass. You are so high up that it gives you such a good view of the street life and plus it makes you feel like you have been transported to the "real" Asia of 50 years ago before cars and motorbikes started to pollute everywhere. I really loved it.
Getting to the main ghats was quite hectic with lots of people, so we headed south away from it all to get our bearings. We had no idea that the ghats would be so vast in distance and that the physical size of each ghat would be so high, some of them are a good 20 foot high with many steps going up and down to the water and the buildings are very high up. Later we learnt this is to escape the height of the water in monsoon season. In the 70s the river was so high that many buildings must have been destroyed, we could still see the tide line on one of the old buildings; it was damn high!
Not many of the buildings look that impressive (not many are over a hundred years old) but there are a few, still a bit run down but I mainly found them beautiful as they have trees and shrubs growing out of them, it makes them look more organic. There is one building down by the small burning ghat (I am coming to the burning) that looks like a classic Arabian palace that have these lovely trees growing out of it.
Anyway we headed down the ghats a bit and stopped to have a lassi in a roof top bar called the lotus lounge (sounds like a album). Lovely views and we could see the whole of the river. The Ganges at this time of year is relatively small and half of the river opposite the Ghats looks like a beach. The Indians take boat rides over to the other side and have a picnic and ride horses. The main impression you got from up there was the amount of kites that people fly here (not just kids), They are everywhere in the sky, on the ground, on the temples... everywhere. This sounds messy but all the kites even though they have the same simple square design are all different colours and makes the place a lot more colourful than it would otherwise be. I think this is one of the main reasons I like Varanasi... the kites!
So coming to the good bit... burning dead people. We came across a very small burning ghat (we had not seen the big one yet where they have 15 people burning at the same time 24 hours a day) with a viewing platform for the tourists. We stood there for ten minutes not really knowing what was going on, when a young guy came up and started to tell us the detail of the ceremony. No women are allowed on the front and this explained why there was only one or two people per body. Women are not allowed as they "wail" and this is supposed to be a happy event where the soul is cleaned. The son / brother / uncle of the deceased, pays 2500 rupees (£30) for the exact amount of wood needed to burn the body.
This is done off the river on big scales, the wood needed is not as much as you would think! They then have all hair on their head, face and underarm shaved, apart from a tuft at the back of the head. After that they take some fire on a stack of hay from a Shiva temple where the fire has not gone out for forty generations (think about that for a second, a fire without the help of another other fuel but wood, burning for that long, really amazing) down to the body that has been arranged by the "outcasts" on top of the wood and walks around the body clockwise five times before setting fire to the pyre. Well they are supposed to, but we saw some run around the body a few times and have to stop as the burning hay was licking their hands :-), they then light the hay underneath and stay with the body for the three hours or so it takes to burn down. Even in three hours the torso does not completely burn down so the last thing that the relatives must do is to throw the torso into the river "for the fishes".
The small ghats I felt was quite a peaceful place and not a bad way to leave the world, but the larger main burning ghats was like a factory, every 10 minutes a new body would come down and be dipped into the water and then burnt.
We saw these guys trying to sell a video of Varanasi, by showing the video on a tv... on a boat in the river!
Random Facts
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Showing in one of the cinemas in the holy city is "Mummy Returns 4" a American "B" movie spoof of the blockbuster hit The Mummy, I really want to go see this movie even if the audio will be in Hindu.
Burning dead people do not smell that bad, but the smell takes takes ages to come out of your clothes!
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