Getting to Varanasi:
After spending two horrible nights dealing with my allergic reaction, long layover in New Delhi airport after our first flight from Kochi to New Delhi and before our flight from New Delhi to Varanasi, we finally got to Varanasi around 8:00 in the morning. Read about our Kerala story and how we ended up in hospital, here.
New Delhi airport is not the best for long layovers or at least wasn’t the best when we had to stay there around 12 years ago. We arrived at New Delhi airport domestic terminal around 10:00 pm and our next flight was at 7:00 am the next day. Well they kicked us out of the domestic terminal to the open space area for the whole night in New Delhi heat and asked us to come back an hour before our flight. We had the second sleepless night in New Delhi airport. By the time we got to Varanasi airport the next morning, we were already exhausted. I knew that Varanasi won’t be the easiest place to find transportation from airport to our accommodation so we asked our hostel to arrange for our accommodation to be on the safe side.
Well, let’s start from the first moment, we got off the plane. Varanasi airport is a tiny with a small building for arrival / departure, few feet from the tarmac. Walking into the airport building, which was pretty much an empty room with a big vertical tube right in the middle of it which all our backpacks and other passengers suitcases were coming with high speed out of the tube and hit the floor. You had to be quick to pick yours up before the next one hit your luggage, after surviving that, we had to deal with the taxi drivers. We tried and tried to find our taxi driver and somehow for the first time we got trapped and got into the car that wasn’t our taxi driver from the hostel and we just realized it halfway between Varanasi airport and the town. He dropped us by the ghats in busy part of the town and left us there to find our hostel, perfect!! No matter how much you think you got used to Indian towns, Varanasi just tests your patience limits to the extreme. It was already hot, we didn’t have access to the internet and from my paper map, I couldn’t find the hostel that I booked, since we haven’t paid for that, we decided to find a temporary stay for the first night and look for our hostel the next day. We walked through the maze of alleys behind the Varanasi ghats by the Ganges and finally find a reasonable hotel with reasonable price for a night. After checking in the room we got in and crashed in the bed for few hours to recharge. We were completely drained after two sleepless night and the heat, noise and pollution and we had to take a break before getting into the chaos of Varanasi even though I couldn’t wait to get out.
Life at Varanasi Ghats:
Varanasi, also called Banares and Kashi, is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities, and one of the holiest in Hinduism. Pilgrims come to the Ganges here to wash away sins in the sacred waters, to cremate their loved ones, or simply to die here, hoping for liberation from the cycle of rebirth. Ghats in Varanasi are riverfront steps leading to the banks of the River Ganges. The city has 88 ghats. Most of the ghats are bathing and puja ceremony ghats, while two ghats are used exclusively as cremation sites.These ghats are were all the actions happens. Where all the pilgrims travelling from all over India to get to and step into the Sacred Ganges to bathe. no matter how much you read or watch about Varanasi and pilgrimage and how sacred the place is for Hindus, getting there, is a massive shock, culturally and emotionally and it’s certainly a lot to take in.
We finally got out of the hotel in the afternoon, few hours before sunset and walked to the ghats to have a look around and find the best spot to see the Ganga Aarti.
Ganga Aarti (ritual of offering prayer to the Ganges river) is held daily at dusk. Several priests perform this ritual by carrying deepam and moving it up and down in a rhythmic tune of bhajans. Special aartis are held on Tuesdays and on religious festivals. It starts soon after sunset and lasts for about 45 minutes and always takes place at Dashashwamedh Ghat which is the main ghat in Varanasi on the Ganga River. It is located close to Vishwanath Temple and is probably the most spectacular ghat. Ganga Aarti in Varanasi differs from the aartis at Haridwar and Rishikesh in that it’s a highly choreographed ceremony. To see this from the nice spot, you need to be quick 🙂 It’s fascinating to sit and watch it, knowing that the same aarti is performed for centuries over and over again every night at sunset on very same steps.
Priests had different candle holders, peacock features and all other instruments to perform their prayer and every single item was a symbol for something and different offerings. Watching that for 45 minutes was definitely entertaining and moving.
By end of the ceremony, all the pilgrims start to move toward the river Ganges to let their prayer go to the Ganges with a small bowl of flowers and a candle. Some get into the water and fill a brass jar with the Ganges water and pour it back in while praying, some just sit on the stairs and pray and some get on the boat to watch this moving scene from the water. The whole town is probably by water front at this stage. Photos below are just describing this moving scene in pictures.
Being in Varanasi you get all these conflicted emotions and they are all fighting in your head and it keeps you exhausted and tired all the time. It’s definitely too much to take in without judging but although these prayers look magical and are deeply moving and possibly done for centuries the way they are done now , yet it is impossible not to see the impact that it has on River Ganges itself. The water pollution is extremely high. There’s a water pollution institute by the river which studies the pollution level in the water and its impact on survival of the river, wildlife and people that their life depends on this river. Visiting the source of Ganges up in the mountains close to Rishikesh and comparing the water quality to the downstream water in Varanasi, it’s easy to feel and see the pollution.
Life at Varanasi at Sunrise:
One of the best ways and best times to see Varanasi in action is before the sunrise and from a wooden rowing boat. That’s what we planned to do for the second morning in Varanasi. Just walking to the main ghats from any hotel in Varanasi , there are plenty of boats ready to go. As always in India, discuss the rates, negotiate the price and get the best deal, no need to pre book anything. Watching the city waken up in the morning is a unique experience, people start to get into water to bathe in the sunrise and the cremation starts at sunrise.
Hindus believe cremation on the banks of the Ganges River frees the soul from the cycle of death and rebirth, reaching Nirvana. The famous cremation ghat in Varanasi operates continuously every single day starting from the sunrise and there are massive amount of wood fire stored in the alleys behind the ghat for trade.
Getting on the boat is a unique way to see life by the river, remaining of the bodies from cremation, are all returned to the water, in the same water, people are taking bathe, cows and dogs and kids swim and some of the laundries of the hotels are done in the same water as well. Some tourists are jumping into the polluted water to possibly tick off one of their bucket list items while others bring their mother’s body on hands to make her last wish come true and been burned and returned in the very same water.
I’m saying being in Varanasi is hard. It’s a sacred place for more than a billion people living on planet earth and you certainly feel it walking through the town but you can’t help with so many questions rushing into their head all that once just witnessing what is happening there. Soon after getting off the boat, we decided to leave Varanasi Ghats and get in the heart of the town away from the pilgrims and street sellers and see daily life in Varanasi.
Just walking few minutes from the river front, the scenery changes dramatically. All the noise, pollution and hassle and bustle of the ghats, give their place to a great sense of calmness and piece. We met so many nice and great people, walking in the residential area of Varanasi. Once again, it’s hard to judge the cities with lots of tourists/pilgrims by just staying in touristic spots.
And as soon as you get back into the alley ways leading to the ghats, the flow of pilgrims, moving you and it’s hard to get out of it.
Like rest of places, that we have been to in this trip in India, unfortunately poverty rate is pretty high in Varanasi. Image below shows the poverty rate in different parts of India as per 2019 statistics and Varanasi area is one of the worst. It’s more visible and maybe it hurts more in more religious place than the others probably. Watching people passing street kids to rush and spend on flower and candle in the temples. India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and Indian governments claims that they lift more that 200 million people out of extreme poverty zone in 10 years between 2005/2006 to 2015/2016. Yet close to 100 million Indians are living under the extreme poverty line.
Varanasi keeps you struggle in between feelings, love and hate, life and death, chaos and silence and keeps your on the edge. It definitely test everyone’s patience to its limit with constant hassles from everyone. But If you hang around there for few days, you’ll find the perfect balance to enjoy it all. Find your favorite spot to watch the sunset over the Ganges, the best German bakery in town, the best daal in the whole India and the best Lemon and mint drink which is absolutely a life saver in Indian heat. Even if you don’t have time to find your comfort zone and balance in Varanasi, it still worth the hassle, worth a visit and worth a try. It will be a lifetime experience to be in Varanasi. We definitely like to go back now after 12 years and see how we feel now and how many new questions will pop into our head and how many of them get answered.
From Varanasi, we took a night train to New Delhi and from there, we found our way to Amritsar to get on our flight back home. The original plan was visiting Amritsar as well but we didn’t have the time to see north of India in this trip. Later on and around 7 years ago, we’ve done a full tour of Northern India. I’ll share the diary of northern India later this year, but before that, I promised to come back with the overall cost of our India trip at the end. Here is the summery.
For three weeks trip in India, staying in mid range hotels, having 4 domestic flights, few train rides and bus trips including touristic buses and local buses, not trying to eat on budget and normally eating in the mid range restaurants, having 4WD cars with driver in Gujarat for 3 days, we have spent 800 USD for both of us, excluding our return trip to India which didn’t cost us more than 100 USD return each from Iran. Ahh forgot to mention that it includes some unique silver pieces of jewelry that i got and few souvenir items to take back home.
From India, I’m planning to take you somewhere totally different for the change of scenery. Any guess? Now that we can not go overseas, it’s the best time for us to document our previous trips and hope that it will be over soon. till then take care and stay safe
