Enchanted by Varanasi

As mentioned before, I took the night train from Khajuraho. When I was looking for my seat (the train was rather empty) I’ve seen a following scene: a European-looking girl sitting on a bed, in front of her two Hindu men, who were, well... basically trying to ”get her attention” by teasing her. I saw it, noticed what was going on, and right away I’ve seat down next to her. I could see she was relieved that someone came. Anyways, turned out she was Polish! And traveling by herself, learning yoga and meditation. A nice girl, we had a good talk.

The journey took 13 hours, it’s only about 400 km but the train stopped like 20 times on the way :/ I finally got to Varanasi.

Debbie and her boyfriend were on the same train so, we decided to share a rickshaw and look for a hotel. We picked up one from the Lonely Planet. A rickshaw driver’s first question after we got in was... do you like Michael Jackson? Surreal. However, he put some MJ classic hits on! Really loud. We were going to the busy streets of Varanasi, really horrible traffic, it was all so laud, and on top of the sounds of the traffic we could listen to... “Bad” and “Beat it!”, “Billie Jean” and so on. I made a short video clip from this ride :D



We arrived at the first hostel. In the old part of Varanasi the alleys are too narrow for vehicles, so we walked a bit to the hotel. The only nice thing about that first hotel was... a cute Spanish guy who stayed there ;) And so, we kept searching, with the driver we’ve been to 7 maybe 8 hotels, they were all shabby, some of them had cockroaches, rooms had no windows, some of them were in kind of a cellar. Around the fifth hotel the driver said he was fed up and didn’t want to take us to a place we’ve finally chosen from the ones recommended by LP. He left us there at the beginning of the gaths (these are like small ‘peers’) at the Ganges and we had to walk about (I don’t really know) 1 km (maybe), it felt like few kilometers. On the way we saw some other hotels, but again the rooms were either too gloomy and dirty, or ridiculously overpriced. We just wanted to have a clean room with a bathroom and window (if possible balcony facing the Ganga).



We walked in the heat (about 40 degrees Celsius; burning sun) for about an hour, with our backpacks. I was SO tired, I couldn’t see straight and was sweating to the point that my clothes were completely wet (I know it’s quite disgusting, but well, that’s how it was). Finally we got to the Scindhia Guesthouse – bit expensive (I mean, no discounts for single occupancy, I had to pay full price for a double room), but I got a big, rather clean room with a balcony facing the Ganges! :)

Good thing about our ‘hotel-search adventure’ was that we walked basically along the Ganges and the gaths, and also up into the small alleys, so, we got an idea about the city. And I must say my first impression was: “yes, I dig it!”

People praying, singing, dancing; exotic rituals taking place in the streets; ceremonial burning of the departed (cremation) at the river; bathing and washing clothes in the river, everywhere you see temples and small shrines, lots of cows, lots of monkeys as well. Geckos on the walls, the heat, the smells (stinks and scents) and lots of weird looking people walking or just laying around.

I could start to explore this dazzling atmosphere in the evening when we went for dinner. Btw, it was my first meal in about 48 hours (I was not feeling quite well - because of the heat probably - and didn’t have hunger at all for the past two days). I think I lost here at least 3 kg in a week (out of which 2 kg I lost today walking upstairs with my heavy backpack in this heat ;)

Anyways, I fell in love with the city. It was a real coup de foudre. That’s something I was looking for – totally different culture, tradition and customs, architecture, people from what I know from home or any other country I’ve ever been to. I will stay here the next three days and from here I will be heading to catch my flight back home (that departs from Delhi). Wish I had more time to spend in here. It was a good day.