Day 4
The train finally arrived in Varanasi, after more than 25 hours of what felt like purgatory or groundhog day... It was 23:30 as we stepped off the train into dense fog. I had spoken to the travel agent a few hours before, and she had said she could not get hold of the driver or guide. So regetably we had to take a taxi... We hurried off the train, anticipating that there might be many other tired hungry fed up people to compete with for taxis. As we were jogging along the platform, Werner luckily spotted someone, who had our name on a board! I have never been so happy to see my own name before. Rahul, who was the angel of the moment, had checked the train times and shown up with a driver to take us to our hotel. We got in the car with the driver, Viki, and followed Rahul on his motorbike to the Hotel Surya, through fog so dense we could see nothing but the street lamps and car lights. We reached the hotel and checked in, the room was very basic, but clean and comfortable. We had a very brief cold shower and hit the sack since we had an early start the next morning.
Woke up at 6am and got ready to meet our driver and guide. Stepping outside we were greeted by the swirling mists of another chilly morning. Rahul the guide was as talkative and effervescent as the night before. We hopped in the taxi and sped off down the dusty lanes towards the old city of Varanasi dodging the usual assortment of bikes, people, livestock, potholes... After we arrived, Rahul stopped to order masala chai. The vendor handed us our chai in little clay cups, which we could simply discard after drinking, very environmentally friendly. The chai was delicious and warmed us up in no time. From the chai walla we walked down a lane and caught sight of the Ganges shrouded in mist. On the banks we could see the fabled ghats, steps descending into the river. Little children approached us to sell floating candles decorated with brilliant yellow marigolds. Rahul took charge and purchased some candles before ushering us onto a boat. We cast off into the river and got a great panorama of the ghats. There were several boats bearing tourists already on the river. Rahul started pointing out some of the ghats. We saw Hindus entering the river to bath, submerging, or just splashing themselves with the water. Their belief is that bathing in the Ganges washes away your sins, and so they bath here as often as possible. The water itself felt reasonably warm to the touch, but we agreed that bathing would not have been all that pleasant on such a cool day.
We gradually made our way along the river, with Rahul chatting away. He seemed to talk more about himself than anything else, but he was interesting and charming enough that we didn't mind too much. He told us he had a South African girlfriend in Cape Town, even showed us her card, she was supposedly some big shot in a financial institution... He requested that we enter some romantic words into his phone in Afrikaans, that he could send to her which we of course were happy to do. A lady in a boat passed by, selling some bird food, which Rahul insisted we try. So we threw the crackers to the seagulls while he took shaky photos :)
As we glided down the river, we came across boat builders making the kind of large canoe that we were in, and also came across the 'Ganges laundry' where clothes were washed in the river and beaten against stones to get clean, then laid out over the ghats to dry. I couldn't imagine clothes being very clean after being in that river and on those steps... Rahul said he took clothes to them once, and got them back with buttons missing, which were then blamed on the monkeys! Rahul then decided it was the opportune time to release our marigold laden candles into the river. He lit them for us and one by one we placed them into the water, well not so much placed, as dropped in my (Nicki's) case, so mine landed upside down :(
We got off at the red and white steps of the Kedar ghat for another clay-cup of delicious chai, some photos and a leg stretch. There were many colourful temples in this area as well as people and goats going about their business. We could also see the chimneys of the electric crematorium... Hindus come to Varanasi not only to bath, but even more importantly to die. Or at least be cremated. They believe that if the ashes are thrown into the Ganges, the person will be removed from the circle of reincarnation, and will reach nirvana. Therefore there are ritual cremations throughout the day, every day. The people have two options - electric or wood pyre cremation. The wood pyre is more expensive and thus more high profile. We were told that 300kg of wood were required to burn a body, and that a mans chest bones, and a woman's hip bones, do not burn fully - these are thrown into the Ganges. In the old days, they used to just throw the bodies directly into the river... Imagine what must be lurking below! We were asked not to photograph the cremations, and it occurred to me how unprivate Varanasi was. Here we were, tourists, watching people go about some of the most intimate parts of life - bathing and mourning their dead. At another funeral pyre area further up the river, we saw smoldering ashes, fortunately the air did not reek of burnt human flesh... There were also huge piles of wood, ready for the next cremations of the day.
We got off the boat further up-river than where we had started, and followed Rahul into the labyrinth of old Varanasi. Here, the winding lanes were too narrow for vehicles except bicycles. Cows roamed freely and deposited their excrement wherever they fancied, usually in the most inappropriate places. Vendors selling wood, items for the dead and incense were lined along the streets we walked in. I (Nix) felt a little freaked out as guys carrying a stretcher with a shrouded body hurried past us towards the cremation area. Vendors tried to sell us postcards and necklaces. Rahul asked if we were willing to pay Rs100to see the Maharajah and Maharana... We agreed, not knowing what was in store. He brought us to two shelters where a male and female cow resided and laughingly asked us to cough up the cash.
Rahul then took us to his 'trusted friends' shop to leave our belongings while we visited the Vishwanath Hindu temple. He told us no cameras, pens, phones, etc allowed in the temple, just cash... Apparently to prevent terrorist attacks from those that do not appreciate the relative peace in Varanasi between Hindus and Muslims. A different guy took us through the stringent security before entering the temple. After being felt up thoroughly by a female policewoman, I followed the guys towards the temple. Unfortunately, only Hindus are actually allowed in the temple, so we had to view it from the outside, a little pointless to be honest, considering it is surrounded by walls with only smalll gateways to look through... Apparently the temple is topped with 750kg of real gold. There is a mosque right next to it, which we could also vaguely see as our semi-English speaking chaperone gestured for us to climb up some stairs to get a better view. Monkeys scampered along the walls above us, occasionally fighting each other for scraps of food or junk. Back to Rahul and our belongings, we were invited to sit in the 'trusted friends' shop and have some chai and look around. They tried to convince us to buy some chai spice, but at Rs600 (R100) for a small packet, it seemed a lot to pay! No spice? Ok how about incense? And a tour of the incredible selection of incense... No incense? How about perfumed oils? Eventually we managed to get out of there without any more items we did not need. Rahul took us back to the car, and to the hotel for breakfast. It was then that he informed us that he would not be our guide for the rest of the day and would be handing over, as he 'felt sick'. We never quite figured out the real reason, but we think perhaps he was not a guide at all, as he had told us the previous night 'I am not the guide', then this morning, 'actually I am your guide, the tour company made a stuff up'... Come to think of it, all he really spoke about on the tour was himself LOL.
Back at the hotel, a sumptuous breakfast awaited us, with delicious bright green puri breads, other small round naan type breads, two or three veg curries, potatoes, eggs, toast, fruit, chutneys and jam. We checked out and met our new guide, 'Sunny', who informed us we would be heading to the holy Buddhist city of Sarnath. Sarnath is to the Buddhists what Varanasi is to Hindus... The Buddha came to this city after reaching enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, and this is where he preached his first major sermon to his five disciples. Sunny took us to the temple first, and showed us the statues outside, depicting Buddha giving his sermon under a real Bhodi tree. The area was large, spacious and decorated with colourful prayer flags. The sermon or 'Dharmachakra' is written in black marble in numerous languages around the statues. We watched as monks walked around, wearing saffron robes over North Face fleeces, paying their respects to the statues. They were lighting rows and rows of candles, we were told in preparation for the visit of the Dalai Lama in a few days. We also saw an enormous metal bell, apparently manufactured by a German bell maker.
Inside the temple, the central figure was a large gold coloured Buddha statue, depicted with his five disciples, the wheel of the law, and some deer from the nearby deer park. The inner walls of the temple were covered with intricate paintings depicting the Buddhas life, from his mothers dream of a white elephant entering her womb, to his enlightenment, sermon, and death. Sunny explained everything in exacting detail, speaking slowly and even spelling things to make sure we understood. He reminded me of a teacher, and we liked him a lot, as we enjoy learning and understanding the things we see. I asked him afterwards if he was a Buddhist, since he knew so much about the area and religion, but in fact he was a Muslim, and was self taught on all the information he gave.
He took us into the Sarnath archeological area(Rs100) and showed the remains of a huge stupa, under which some Buddha bones were found, some monasteries and the Ashoka pillar. One can also see a large undamaged stupa, called the Damekh stupa, and a Jain temple, which we were not able to visit. Some of the ruins, including the Ashoka pillar, date back to before Christ. We had a pleasant walk around the complex and spotted some of the remaining deer in the deer park just over the fence. Apparently there used to be hundreds of deer at the time of Buddha. We hurried along as some poor women started to hassle us into buying watermelon rinds to feed the deer. The locals seemed to use the grounds as a park, and we spotted a few couples trying to steal a few moments alone. We proceeded towards the massive Damekh stupa, which marks the actual spot of Buddha's first sermon. We joined the throng of chanting Buddhists walking around the stupa, the smell of incense in the air. We spotted some of the gold rubbings made by Thai Buddhist pilgrims. The base of the stupa was covered with sandstone carved with interesting patterns. We made our way slowly back the entrance passing the Jain temple on our left.
Next, Sunny took us into the excellent archeological museum (a steal at Rs5), and showed us the capital of the Ashoka pillar, with 4 lions on top of it. He carefully explained the symbolism of all of the important statues and carvings, whether they were Buddhist or Hindu. It struck me how pliable artistic interpretation could be, sometimes Buddha was depicted with 5 disciples and sometimes with 6, or 7. There were always explanations for these extra disciples. The Hindu pantheon of gods was especially hard to comprehend, as were there carvings and depictions in the statues we saw.
When we finished at the museum, Sonny informed us we were going to the Muslim area. This was actually code for 'time for some more forced shopping'. The streets we took to get to this area were incredible, or shall I say, in some places, non existant. This resulted in huge traffic jams and slow going. We finally reached a fly infested area where we were handed over to Mukesh for this part of the tour. Everywhere we walked, we heard the mechanical noise of machines, and it soon became apparent this was the weavers district. Mukesh showed us the weaving machines, rapidly hurtling a bobbin through carefully lined up thread. Apparently silk cannot be woven by machine, and he took us into various houses in the area to demonstrate the alternative. First we met the pattern man, who takes a drawn out pattern and punches it into cards. Then onto the weavers themselves, manually operating huge looms and producing beautiful patterns. Everywhere we went, children were playing in the streets, and even hitting a cricket ball in a large open area around which the dark houses were located. Some tried to converse with us. We also learnt that in Varanasi, goats get cold in winter, so most of them had various forms of clothing, from a sack draped over their backs to a full blown men's jersey. The area was really dirty, polluted, building rubble everywhere. Hard to reconcile the images of the beautiful materials and the squalid environment that produced them.
Mukesh showed us the most complex and difficult weaving, which involves multiple colors and up to 30 or more bobbins, each passed manually through to their correct position. Weaving like this can take a full day to produce a few centimeters. Time for the obligatory shopping experience, and we were shown every manner of beautiful merchandise. I (Nix) was tempted to buy but the prices were more than we were willing to pay for something we may never use... So I got a scarf and we got out of there.
The return journey was slow, roadworks and taffic. Eventually we were dropped off at the Brownie restaurant just after 3pm. We settled in and ordered our food, planning to wait for the train. We ordered an Indian veg thali, and a mughal thali. The food soon arrived on a platter, with the rice in the center with curries and breads around it. It was a good meal, and we were soon full. We chased it down with a pot of masala chai. As we were drinking chai, Rahul walked in and seemed surprised to see us. We asked him if he could please phone the train service hotline and find out when our train was due. He called and found out that it was already delayed by an hour. We asked him how far it was to the train station and if we could walk it, since we couldnt face another five hours of sitting on a cold filthy train station floor. He assured us it was only 500 meters and just down the road. We thought it would be fine, and released our driver after getting our bags out the car.
At about 16:45 I (Werner) took a walk to the station just to check it was all ok. I struck out in the direction Rahul has indicated and soon realized there was no station. I started asking the locals for directions and they gestured vaguely along the road. I went a bit further and asked again. One guy on a bicycle and his cripple buddy in a hand bicycle offered to lead me, so I followed them and eventually ended up at sign pointing to the station. I followed the road past an air force base and eventually reached the station. It was way more than 500 meters and I found myself kicking myself for having trusted Rahul. I desperately searched for information about our train, what if he had lied about the departure time? I started to panic, it was getting dark and there was no train information. I ran all the way back to the restaurant and asked them to arrange a taxi. I told Nix everything and we quickly got our stuff together and headed out the restaurant. The taxi driver wanted to charge us Rs150 so I told him to drop dead, we would walk instead. Next thing this cyclo operator appears out of nowhere and agrees to the Rs50 we were happy to pay. I still don't know how, but somehow we managed to get ourselves and the bags onto the two person cyclo. The cyclo set off in the wrong direction to the one I had gone and I was sure we were headed for disaster, but the driver urged us to trust him, so we stayed. The ride itself was damn scary, these roads and traffic are terrifying enough when you are in a car, let alone a cyclo. We felt every pothole as there was no suspension on the rickety contraption. Eventually the air force base came into view and I knew we were close. The driver deposited us at the station and we tried to pay him, but only had a Rs100 note. He couldn't exchange it and started insisting his fare was 100. Some bystander even started to justify the fee, saying we were heavy and it was winter. Eventually my panic of missing the train won and we turned our backs on the driver and headed into the station.
On the other side of the tracks we found the main electronic information board, and located our platform, departing at 7pm (sigh of relief that we had made it, but of frustration that it was now further delayed). We made our way to the platform and waited. We watched rats scurrying about in the refuse under the stairs, making an occasional dash to feed on some unsuspecting indian's sneakers. A Swiss tourist introduced himself and we starting chatting. He was on his way from Calcutta, he wasn't impressed. Eventually our Chinese friends arrived and we felt our spirits lift with the easy comraderie that traveling strangers forge in shared hardships. We laughed together aboutour varied experiences of Varanasi. A cow wondered past us in search of refuse to browse on, and we all wondered how the hell it had got onto the platorm. The train finally pulled into the station at 8pm and departed even later than that.
This is Nix writing again and I am wondering to myself whether Varanasi was worth it for the short time we had, and the excruciatingly long train journey to get here. I think my answer is that it was actually worth it, and maybe not now, but one day in the future when I have forgotten the hardships, I will look back and be glad I got to experience this ancient and holy city. It's a city of contrasts: life and death, filth and purification, chaos and serenity... And religious harmony - despite being the holy Hindu city, I was amazed that Buddhists, Muslims and Jains all seem welcome. There was even a church.
Tips for visitors: I definitely would NOT recommend that any tourist travel here by train in December, it's just too long and frustrating. There must be a better way, and I am wishing we had considered flights. My other advice to tourists would be to seek out a driver and guide. The streets of Varanasi are a little scary and you are constantly hassled. Having someone to follow and give advice does help a bit. I was also very glad that we also got to see Sarnath, which we probably would not have done had we tried to do it on our own.
- Nix and Van
Picture: After getting on the train, a random holy man came out of nowhere and 'blessed' Werner, dotting him twice on the forehead with greasy goo and then demanding a tip...
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Location:Varanasi, India
