Today we are determined to have a much better day than yesterday. Getting a good nights sleep really helped!
We went to a place close by our hostel called the open hand cafe & gift shop. Breakfast & coffee was awesome. After breakfast I browsed the gift shop while Tom did some budgeting. I've got my eye on a couple of cute, hand woven, ethical scarves & a patterned button up shirt for Tom, that are here.
We head back to our hostel to plan out the rest of our day & get talking to the receptionist who is sorry to hear of our troubles getting to the hostel. He told us Mr Khan was scamming us & that we shouldn't go meet him today. It's sad to have it confirmed & means we still have a lot to learn about avoiding scams.
When we tell him of our problems in Gorakhpur he is shocked & yells "holy f*ck, OMG" when we tell him we paid 800 NPR for our taxi. He has given us lots of tips & talking to other people at the hostel we realise we will have to develop some more stubborn & deliberate bargaining techniques.
We decide to hang out in the hostel & talk to the other guests while a dust, then a rain storm takes over the sky. At 2pm a group of 8 of us go out for lunch at a recommended restaurant that's about a kilometer away. We all order vegetarian thali which is 70 INR each! It is delicious, cheap & filling.
We then walk back & make plans with 2 of them, the Aussie couple sharing our dorm, to go out later that nights & see the ghats. We are staying very close to the Ganges, near the Assi ghat.
The four of us set off with another tourist from the hostel, just after 7pm and walked down to the river.
Along the river are lots of temples, shrines & big walls with sets of stairs leading up to them. There are wooden boats of all design on the bank & in the river. We immediately see hundreds of homeless people making a comfortable spot for the night, often next to street dogs who lie down on the path. We see cows & goats walking about, unconcerned with the overwhelming chaos & commotion of the night. There are thousands of Hindu people who have come down to the river for the 7pm nightly ceremony at the Dashashwamedh ghat. This is the main ghat & is close to the Vishwanath Temple. The ceremony we witnessed here is a Hindu fire ceremony honoring the holy river Ganges, the god Agni of fire & other deities. The ritual includes drums, choreographed dance, incense, chanting & fire.
Cremation is the chosen method to dispose of the dead as the fire purifies the body and it has the power to scare away harmful ghosts & spirits. The god Agni is then believed to consume the body and bring that persons essence to heaven.
It is believed that witnessing the ceremonial ritual will provide purification & blessings to the living.
While watching the ceremony its hard not to attract attention from kids trying to collect money (but not wanting biscuits) beggars & people trying to sell us things, take us places or get selfies. Varanasi can be a dangerous place, full of scams & everyone wants money. It's hard work not trusting peoples friendliness, advice or motives.
After watching some of the ceremony & feeling the need to keep moving we approached the Manikarnika ghat, one of 2 exclusive burning ghats. Varanasi is also called the city of dead for a very obvious reason and is home to Shiva the Hindu god of destruction. It is every Hindu's last wish to die in Varanasi, be cleansed in the purifying waters of the Ganges before being cremated and the ashes put into the river.
We went to a place close by our hostel called the open hand cafe & gift shop. Breakfast & coffee was awesome. After breakfast I browsed the gift shop while Tom did some budgeting. I've got my eye on a couple of cute, hand woven, ethical scarves & a patterned button up shirt for Tom, that are here.
We head back to our hostel to plan out the rest of our day & get talking to the receptionist who is sorry to hear of our troubles getting to the hostel. He told us Mr Khan was scamming us & that we shouldn't go meet him today. It's sad to have it confirmed & means we still have a lot to learn about avoiding scams.
When we tell him of our problems in Gorakhpur he is shocked & yells "holy f*ck, OMG" when we tell him we paid 800 NPR for our taxi. He has given us lots of tips & talking to other people at the hostel we realise we will have to develop some more stubborn & deliberate bargaining techniques.
We decide to hang out in the hostel & talk to the other guests while a dust, then a rain storm takes over the sky. At 2pm a group of 8 of us go out for lunch at a recommended restaurant that's about a kilometer away. We all order vegetarian thali which is 70 INR each! It is delicious, cheap & filling.
We then walk back & make plans with 2 of them, the Aussie couple sharing our dorm, to go out later that nights & see the ghats. We are staying very close to the Ganges, near the Assi ghat.
Along the river are lots of temples, shrines & big walls with sets of stairs leading up to them. There are wooden boats of all design on the bank & in the river. We immediately see hundreds of homeless people making a comfortable spot for the night, often next to street dogs who lie down on the path. We see cows & goats walking about, unconcerned with the overwhelming chaos & commotion of the night. There are thousands of Hindu people who have come down to the river for the 7pm nightly ceremony at the Dashashwamedh ghat. This is the main ghat & is close to the Vishwanath Temple. The ceremony we witnessed here is a Hindu fire ceremony honoring the holy river Ganges, the god Agni of fire & other deities. The ritual includes drums, choreographed dance, incense, chanting & fire.
Cremation is the chosen method to dispose of the dead as the fire purifies the body and it has the power to scare away harmful ghosts & spirits. The god Agni is then believed to consume the body and bring that persons essence to heaven.
It is believed that witnessing the ceremonial ritual will provide purification & blessings to the living.
While watching the ceremony its hard not to attract attention from kids trying to collect money (but not wanting biscuits) beggars & people trying to sell us things, take us places or get selfies. Varanasi can be a dangerous place, full of scams & everyone wants money. It's hard work not trusting peoples friendliness, advice or motives.
After watching some of the ceremony & feeling the need to keep moving we approached the Manikarnika ghat, one of 2 exclusive burning ghats. Varanasi is also called the city of dead for a very obvious reason and is home to Shiva the Hindu god of destruction. It is every Hindu's last wish to die in Varanasi, be cleansed in the purifying waters of the Ganges before being cremated and the ashes put into the river.
This is where we could see several pyres being made and the ceremonial process of men carrying a body from a temple down to the ganges to be washed before placing it on the pyre and starting the cremation. The belief system and the spiritual restrictions here are very captivating, watching the bodies burn was morbidly fascinating & profound, until the wind changed direction & the ash blew in our faces.
While on the ghats we posed for a few selfies with friendly Indians and had a blessing bestowed on our foreheads, which involved a holy man smearing yellow and red pain on our foreheads without permission and then asking for a donation. All part fo the experience!
After our walk along the ghats we went and had dinner & a few beers at a small restaurant on the way back to the hotel, it was quite an adventure battling through the crowds and finding the hostel after this. We had walked quite a few kilometres along the ghats without realising the distance. The only other notable thing that happened was an angry cow tried to charge me multiple times forcing me to grab its horns and repeatedly push its head away, lucky it wasn't a big cow with big horns, it was still very scary for a few moments.
- Alli
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