A Walk Around Varanasi - Travel to the Heart of Spiritual India

I wake up in Kolkata at 2:30 am to go to the Howrah station to start for Varanasi. Varanasi, formerly Benares, is located on the left bank of the Ganges. It is considered one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. I asked the Varanasi hotel manager if they could pick me up at the station because it is difficult to find in Varanasi and cars do not have access to the city center.

I arrive in the city at late night! Varanasi is a very lively city. There are lots of vendors in the streets, colorful facades, sacred cows on every street corner, goats, wandering monkeys. Each scene of life seems to be a painting of India as we imagine it in the scene from a Bollywood movie! It's a whirlwind! Luckily I asked the hotel to pick me up.

A rickshaw sent by our guest house awaits us and leads us, through the monster traffic jams into the old town. A guy called by the driver then loads our bags on his head and guides us through the maze of little streets filled with people to the guest-house. It is sometimes difficult to follow as the crowd is compact in places!

We finally arrive in a dark alley. The hotel is nice and the room has a small balcony with views of the Ganges. The guy at the hotel told me to pay attention while going to the balcony because the monkeys sometimes try to enter the rooms!

Day 2

Today is Diwali! We have breakfast with coffee, rabri jalebi and lassi on the terrace. After breakfast we go to the city looking for a temple that my father visited four years ago. As as a clue I only have a photo of the interior. We finally find the temple in question with the help of the inhabitants. Its name is Kedareshwar. Inside, a priest makes us offer offerings and recite prayers around the different deities.

Then we go in search of the Durga temple. We visit other areas of Varanasi which are a little quieter than the one where our hotel is located. The streets are even more colorful and it's beautiful! We pass in front of Anand Bagh, a small park. We go back to our neighborhood to go to lunch.

We go through the alleys, and as we are here during Diwali there are a lot of people on the streets. We climbed to the viewpoint that is installed just above where the eternal fire remains in Varanasi. We return to see the stalls with the wood stacked, ready to be sold. We continue the tour, now we see the beautiful Nepali mandir that is near there.

In the afternoon we go to the ATM to withdraw money. In the bank they are preparing the decorations for Diwali. Next we go to visit the Varanasi University in an auto rickshaw. The university is huge! The park in which are the buildings of the university is very nice. There are large avenues with trees all along! It's so quiet and clean here. I feel good compared to the hustle and bustle of Varanasi!

We wanted to visit the museum but it is closed because of the Diwali festival. After that we decide to go to see the Kashi Vishwanath temple. We had to go barefoot and leave our bags in lockers outside. Everything is forbidden inside the temple except money. A priest must accompany us and of course we have to make donations for the temple. There are hundreds of people waiting to pray there.

Then we stop to drink a chai served in a small earthenware pot. We leave to go to lunch and order a thali! In the afternoon I wanted to attend a yoga class but the same is not possible because of the Diwali festival. So we go for a walk. For Diwali I see a lot of people in the shops that usually are empty. People buy a lot of decorations and offerings.

And we walk through the ghats, watching scenes of daily life. We go back through the alleys of the Bengali neighborhood, where we see a kali puja pandal. We continue walking, with its stalls and alleys. We had to be careful with the firecrackers in Diwali. Children do not hesitate in throwing firecrackers in the middle of the street, when we pass by.

We go back down to the ghats. It is a very photogenic city. We go south, towards the Assi ghat, one of the largest and most important. We go and eat right there on the Assi Ghat at the restaurant. The Kachori Sabzi was very good and abundant, we could not finish. When we finished eating, we walked back to our hotel through the ghats.

In the evening we come across the Ganga Aarti. When we arrive at the Dasashwamedh Ghat, we are in front of a huge fair. We see a lot of boats, sadhus, pseudo gurus and seers who want to put a red dot on the forehead, pilgrims and tourists of all kinds and lots of cow dung everywhere!

The ceremony is celebrated by priests who pray to honor the river. There is music, priests sing (pilgrims too) and perform a whole bunch of rituals with smoky and inflamed objects. We go down to the shore to see the ceremony closer. It's pretty with all those floating candles and boats that sail on the Ganges. In the end the priests distribute sweets to the devotees.

We put a little candle in the water in the Ganges. After the ceremony, we walk a little in the streets. Diwali has begun in Varanasi! We see the rangolis at the entrance of the houses, courtyards, shrines and other buildings. Intended to show warm hospitality, rangoli is drawn on the ground with rice flour as a sign of welcome and to repel evil spirits. Colored powders are also used to form geometric shapes.

While strolling in the streets, a family invite us to come in their house to see their pretty rangoli. All the streets, and all the shops are decorated with candles, garlands of light. It's beautiful! The temples are of course not left out. Not very hungry after the big thali this afternoon, we take lassi. The tradition being to buy sweets, we buy some!

The contrast between the festive evening and the beauty of the illuminated streets, is striking. The owner of the hotel invite us at 9 pm on the terrace! And there we see fireworks all around. The hotel employees bought lots of small lights and lanterns so that we all participate together in the festivities! It's a unique moment!

Day 3

The alarm sounds again at 4:30 in the morning, but we do not care. Today we have the boat ride at dawn on the Ganges. Instead of looking for the boat, we decided to hire the tour through the hotel, for a duration of an hour and a half. They told us that at 5 o'clock, we should be at the hotel reception.

And at that time we were leaving two Canadians, a couple from Taiwan and we reach the ghat, to ride our boat, to navigate the Ganges, in silence. First we go to the Manikarnika Ghat, where we can see the lit pyres, as life and death take their course. Then we turn around and go to the Assi Ghat, passing through all the other ghats.

The bustle, begins to seize the ghats. We are spectators of life, of those scenes we have seen before on the Discovery Channel. And we see a different, magical sunrise. The fog dissipates and the sun appears.

At 7 o'clock in the morning or so, we finish the walk by the sacred river. We have seen the ritual of death, but also that of life in the river, of the ablutions, of how people wash their teeth, how they wash their clothes. We see the joy of the people when dipping themselves into the Ganges.

The jetty is five minutes from the hotel. We go to the room, clean up a bit. In Varanasi it's quite hot, with humidity. Then we went up to the terrace for our breakfast with coffee, tea, omelette and pancake. We go back to the Manikarnika ghat. We climb to the same place yesterday and we remain absorbed for a while.

We continue as we want to travel now to the ghats that are farther north, which are much calmer. We get to a point where we cannot go as clothes are spread on the floor to dry. So we turn around and retrace the path.

We are now in search of the restaurant as the walk has awakened our hunger. So we reach one that is more than 100 years old, a charming place with walls full of photographs of people who have passed by. We drink lassi. While we were there, we saw two processions passing through the street towards the main crematorium.

We also eat pakoras with onion and mashed potatoes, Tamatar Chaat, and plain naan. And we go back to the ghats, again in the direction of Assi Ghat, looking at everything. We see kids playing cricket, while others play cards.

It begins to get dark. Today we want to see the Ganga Aarti in another smaller ghat with fewer people than in yesterday. We reach the Kedar Ghat. Here, there was only one priest. It is true that there were few people and I could tell that it was more authentic, more genuine.

We were just a handful of tourists, but we liked more than yesterday, which was more showy and entertaining. This was too solemn and ceremonial. And we returned to have a lassi. And as it is the Diwali, we see many firecrackers and rockets.

Maybe I was not ready for Varanasi. Perhaps it was the radical change after traveling through large cities such as Calcutta or Delhi which caused the commotion. Perhaps it was because despite the fact that pages and pages have been written about this city, it has always been difficult for its authors to describe the incoherent feeling of walking through its streets.

I loved and hated Varanasi for its permanent contrasts and its ability to take things and emotions to the extreme. Benares has traditionally been known for Varanasi, a name composed of the Varuna and Assi rivers, which converge on the Ganges, a river that represents Shiva. It is said that Benares is the oldest inhabited city in the world.

This city is contemporary to mythological cities such as Babylon, Nineveh or Jericho. It is part of that circle of living cities among Rome, Jerusalem and Athens. The American novelist Mark Twain said that Benares is older than history, older than traditions, older even than legends, and it seems twice as old as all together.

Located on the banks of the Ganges River in the state of Uttar Pradesh, it is considered the spiritual capital of India. It is one of the seven holy cities, so it receives a vortex of pilgrims from every corner of the country.

Day 4

It was time to leave Rishikesh and head to Varanasi. We had been told that traveling by train was more practical and convenient than doing it by bus. So, happy and excited, we headed to Haridwar where we would start our train journey. We did not separate from our backpacks at any time. We even slept hugging them in our uncomfortable bunk beds, constantly visited by flies, mosquitoes and other insects attracted by the fluorescents that illuminated the wagon.

We had a compartment with nice people, a mother with her son, a single girl, a boy alone and an executive. He is that character, with his briefcase, all the time belching, rubbing his feet and chewing paan. Although the train was full of people, the air conditioning was so high that it was even cold. All the time vendors were selling chai, coffee, cookies, water and various trinkets.

The 20 hours planned became more than 30. We took it with good humor, especially after listening astonished to a guy who had traveled on the same train as us. They told us that they had been pursued by a cobra when a snake charmer, after having voluntarily made a brief performance in the car in which they were traveling, proceeded to charge for the show.

The guy refused and the charmer, angry, decided to threaten them by bringing them his elusive show companion. The guy fled running from wagon to wagon, pursued by the charmer and his serpent, until they managed to sway him. But the epic of this traveler would not end here. While he was sleeping, he sat with his backpack tied at his feet.

Some skillful baggage thief managed to get one of the bundles. So the poor boy, once arrived in Varanasi, had no choice but to go to the police station to make the complaint. In short, after listening carefully to the rugged journey of the boy, on the one hand the empathy made us feel sad for him.

But on the other hand we realized that the 30 hours of train and the experience of sleeping on a bunk embracing our backpacks and surrounded by a multitude of insects, it had been nothing more than a routine to which we should accustom ourselves if we were once again thinking of using the train to travel through this amazing country.

We arrived in Varanasi well into the night. New city, darkness and more than 20 hours of uncomfortable train journey made us choose the easiest way, a hostel near the station. We got a double room at a hostel for 400 rupees. We had a private bathroom with hot water, a large enough bed, a television with a wide assortment of films taken from the Bollywood factory. The enormous tiredness accumulated at that time of night made us not think too much.

Day 5

This morning we left the room, again with our backpacks on our backs and we started looking for a new accommodation. This time it was much more adjusted to our budget. A night of luxury had been more than enough for our bodies and our pocket to return to reality.

The Old City would be the old town of Varanasi. In it are the majority of gates or entrances of the city to the Ganges, the sacred river of India. In some of them are the crematoria, places in which the corpses of those believers who want their souls to be purified are cremated so that, after death, they can reincarnate in a better life.

The Manikarnika and Harishchandra ghats are the main crematoria. In the Panchganga ghat, five sacred rivers converge. This fact motivates Varanasi to be a favorite place of pilgrimage. There are countless believers from all over the country who spend their lives working for, once dead, to be able to pay for the transfer of their bodies to the crematoriums of Varanasi, so that they may be incinerated and their souls purified.

The remains of the incinerated body, wrapped in a kind of aluminum foil, will be discharged, logically, into the river. The new hostel did not seem at all bad. A magnificent terrace was the meeting place of an immense number of travelers of all nationalities who, of course, made a stop in the sacred city of India par excellence.

The terrace, in addition, had a view of the river and some old stairs gave access to a shore quite close to one of the main crematoria. The smell of the city in general, and that of the surroundings of the hostel in particular, was quite peculiar. The room was quite basic. It has a tiny bed and bathroom. There was no shower. If we wanted to refresh ourselves, we had to use the community showers.

The price of the double room was 150 rupees. A price that made our pocket very happy. But after spending one night our mosquito net, which faithfully accompanied us on our trip, became a landing platform for an innumerable variety of insects. So we decided that maybe we had to look for a third option.

We spent about twenty minutes walking through medieval alleys full of cows, strange sanctuaries, sadhus, shit and puddles until we found the Hotel. Our inseparable Lonely Planet took us to the guest house. At 200 rupees we got the double room with bathroom and window. The shower was again shared with the neighbors, but the place was clean and both us and our beloved mosquito net rested without too many surprises.

After a well-deserved nap in the hostel we went to see the ghats, the stairs that lead to the Ganges, from which people carry out their ablutions. Once comfortably established, the time had come to thoroughly investigate the river, the city, and its crematoria. Strolling through the narrow streets of Varanasi is a real spectacle.

The cows for some reason that I do not know, are especially fat. The dead are taken in cots to the crematoria. Friends and family, between chants, transport the body wrapped in a kind of aluminum foil in the direction of the Ganges.

There are eyes everywhere. Children, old people, merchants, monkeys, cows, all observe me, although there is nothing to object, because I also observe them. We all look at each other, and we cannot help it. We continue walking. Some girls painted me with bright powders and asked me for money. I give them a couple of rupees. A man tried to convince us to take us by boat, then another, and another, and another, and another, and many at the same time.

We wanted to walk calmly, something that was impossible here. Varanasi, with all due respect, reminds me of a traveling circus. Every time we turn a corner we find a new show. We went to the hotel for dinner and there were the few with a bottle of whiskey. At one point we were attacked by a bug. I just hoped not to find one of these in the room.

Day 6

We had hired a boat at the hotel to sail at sunrise over the Ganges. The driver of this one did not wake up until eight o'clock and at that time it had already dawned. He did not understand why we no longer wanted his services and we went again to the Ganges. We were tired of being chased trying to sell things and we went to the other shore to see what was there.

We find ourselves with the antithesis of the other shore. There were no houses, no people, no buffalo, no cows but only a desert and silent esplanade. We met some dogs that lived in herds and a man who planted chitos in the middle of the sand. We sat down to enjoy the silence, I had forgotten it.

When we went to cross it again to return to the bustle, we saw the herd of dogs devouring something wrapped in cloth. On return, we take the breakfast and we go to sleep a little. Then, we walk in the neighboring streets at the hotel but on the side of the interior of the city rather than the river.

We went around the city. It was difficult to walk because of the amount of people there were. I saw an altar with a dead monkey surrounded by candles and flowers. I missed it because I would be gawking at any multicolored store.

We insisted on visiting the Kashi Vishwanath. We entered, but without cameras or backpacks or anything. We then went to visit the Banaras Hindu university campus, one of the largest campuses in India. Here we met a singing student who took us through the universities.

Then we were totally duped by some fantastic vendors. They did it so well that we could not resist and bought some pieces of fabric from the popular Varanasi silk. We were walking down an alley when suddenly a commission agent from the many silk factories in the city appeared out of nowhere and convinced us to agree to visit his factory.

We started with a guided tour inside a building that was a factory and housing. So we were presented to each member of the innumerable family that owns the business. After the interesting tour we went to a room full of silks of all colors where we were invited to sit on comfortable pillows, and where they offered us a good shawl.

It must be recognized that the quality and beauty of Varanasi silk is indisputable. It has a special and soft touch, striking colors and elaborate drawings. One does not have to be an expert to understand why these pieces of silk are rightly among the most recognized in the world.

After some arduous negotiations we ended up buying a few quilts and some handkerchiefs for a price that did not seem very expensive. We left the building with the feeling of having been completely duped, but also with the satisfaction of having bought a few pieces of the coveted Indian silk at a price that did not seem totally exorbitant.

We hired a boat and went downstream to look closely at the crematoria and the sunset. It was a beautiful image, which thanks to superstitions, was completed with lighted candles and flowers, which appeared in the Ganges . After ascending the sacred river, we stopped in front of the Dashashwamedh ghat where a ceremony was going to be held.

It was a moving image. Thousands of people gathered around dozens of priests. The evening Aarti, songs, lights, prayers and the devotion made the hairs stand on end. We return along the Assi Ghat, near where we live. To return to our guest-house, we pass each time in front of one of the doors of the Golden Temple.

At the restaurant in the guesthouse we finish the evening with Baati chokha, Malaiyyo and Choora Matar. After this nice dinner, we went to sleep.

Day 7

At 4:30 the alarm goes off. It's our last day in Varanasi and we want to take advantage of it. When we prepared the trip, on one of the days in Varanasi we had planned to go to visit Sarnath, one of the four holy cities of Buddhism, which is about half an hour away. But having missed a day because of the train delay, we prefer to discard this visit and continue to enjoy Varanasi.

We go silently for the ghats. It is not even 5 o'clock in the morning and there is already a lot of people. We want to see the Aarti ceremony that is celebrated at sunrise on the Assi Ghat and there we go. The truth is that it is very beautiful, with the songs, the Ganges in the background, and everything looks like a postcard.

At the end of the ceremony, the songs begin and after these, a yoga class to which anyone can join. When we had enough, we went back through the ghats one more time. We passed again through the Harishchandra Ghat.

And we advance, slowly, as if wanting to record all the images in our eyes. We have enjoyed every walk through the ghats, every ceremony, and every puja. Varanasi has loved us, despite what it cost us to arrive. Despite having lost one day, we have found a fascinating city.

As we have time, we approach to book the car to the airport. We bought some last memories and returned to eat at our hotel, with some pakoras, noodles, and plain naan. We spend time at the hotel until the transfer time. The taxi driver arrived and accompanied us to the parking lot where he had the car without helping us with a backpack.

In just under an hour we arrived at the airport and in less than an hour and forty-five minutes, I land in Delhi. We hired a prepaid taxi, to take us to the Paharganj area, where our hotel was. We dined right there and go to sleep. The trip is coming to an end.

For a day we can sleep more because we would leave at 9 am. We get up and eat a buffet breakfast. At 9 we were on our way to the temples of the east, which are another group of temples more scattered and about 2 km away from the center of Khajuraho.

Luckily, they are together in a walled enclosure. We arrived at 9:15. In one of them we had to remove our shoes completely, without problem. It was the first hour and the stone did not burn. We caught a priest doing the Lakshmi Puja. We were enthralled for a while with the songs. We take no photo out of respect, and something else.

One of the workers was sweeping the hall. We reach a hall that was closed. The center was black, and the room was painted, contrasting with the rest of the temple painted all white. Then we saw the largest temple, which had been rebuilt as they could. Many original stones are missing, replaced by smooth stones, without reliefs.

Then we come to another. Inside there was a very large statue of Shiva, Vishnu and Parvati. During these movements through the temples, we used to stop at every fifth house, because we saw kids and we gave them candy and balloons. Suddenly 20 or 30 came out of all the nooks and crannies to see that we were distributing things.

They were nice and cheerful. We had to catch them at bath time, because they were usually in the wells where they drew water, bathing and playing. We arrived at the town, and go to the place we were yesterday at the last minute taking a few beers. I ordered a Masala Chai. It must be 11 or so when we started the walk. The same kid greeted us who was a little while with us yesterday during the blackout

Halfway back we sat for a little while in the shade to rest . We took the opportunity to take a photo. At 11:30 we go to the airport. Around 11:45 we were at the airport. We arrived at the airport, and we had to be the first tourists, because there were only 2 or 3 other people.

Soon they told us that we could check in. So we took the bags, put them through a scanner and sealed them. Then they made us the boarding pass. Then they looked at the carry-on luggage and put a tag on each bag. We read that we could not pass with more than one carry-on bag per person, and that we could not take medicines or bottles of water. We asked, since we had some medicines.

After a while, the couple arrived who we met in Orchha and we stayed for a while talking about what they had seen. At about 13:00, I got some chocolate cookies, and tea and the man offered me fried Moong Dal. We leave the bags on the belt to go through the scanner, along with the typical, camera, mobile, purse, watch, ring, and we pass a manual metal detector.

The security puts 2 stamps in the boarding pass, and inside, we pick up the bags of hand luggage. We wait to board the plane that had just arrived. At 14:00 we boarded. The flight went without problems. We had snacks and arrived at the scheduled time, at 14:45. We said goodbye to the couple, who were going to another hotel different from ours.

We are picked up by the driver and the representative. Already in the hotel, the representative asks me for the tour program and I leave it to him. He takes note of the flight departure from Varanasi to Delhi, and he tells us what we are going to do those days. This evening at 6 pm, we will go to catch the boat to see at 7 pm the Aarti ceremony.

After a short rest at 6:00 pm we went down to see the Aarti. We arrived at the parking lot and our driver tells us that we have arrived and he introduces us to our boat man. We started to walk around all the way and reached the Dasaswamedh Ghat where the boats are there, which we can consider as the most important, given the influx of people. There are masseurs, hairdressers, people doing yoga, meditating. It is where the Aarti ceremony takes place.

The boatman say, together with the Manikarnika Ghat, it is the most important. We caught a raft and went upstairs to see different Ghats before the ceremony began. It seems that we are going up but in reality we are in favor of the current. We reach Manikarnika, the Ghat of Cremations.Then we return to the Ghat of the ceremony.

On the way, our boat man took the opportunity to splash us with water from the Ganges, a symbolic baptism in the sacred river. In one of the Ghats we went through, there was a temple with erotic sculptures similar to those of Khajuraho. I asked him if the Puja is the same as the Aarti. He told us that basically yes, but that the bid is for prayers in general, and the Aarti is when those prayers and requests are for something more concrete.

In a Ghat the priests make chants, rhythmic movements, ring bells and move a snake-shaped candle. In the middle of the ceremony it started to rain, and when the ceremony ended, it started to fall with desire. Near the end of the ceremony, we got off the boat. So we saw the last part of the ceremony from the mainland and we could see the ceremonial movements more closely.

Because of the abundant rain that was falling, the return to the car became more fun. Before going to the hotel, our guide took us to see the Lakshmi Narayan Temple in the Assi Ghat. We entered but the floor was wet. Inside there are stained glass windows with scenes of mythology and several sculptures among which stands out a carved piece of marble with the figures of Vishnu and Laxmi.

It has frescoes on all the ceilings, domes and a tower. It is not very well maintained, but it is worth visiting. The truth is that they are all very similar inside but today the Kojagari Lakshmi Puja is being celebrated, so there are a lot of people inside.

On the way through the alleys of Varanasi, they tell us that these stalls of different shops in the morning are shops and at night becomes the bed of the people. We returned to the hotel completely soaked, and we changed and had dinner at the terrace of the hotel under the glowing full moon of purnima with white rice, dal and curry. I also ordered some Malai Kofta stuffed with raisins and dried fruits that were a delight. As dessert they give the coconut ladoo from the Lakshmi Puja that happened before. We went up to the room and go to sleep.