Varanasi

I arrived in Varanasi on the evening of the 9th, less than 24 hours before a big festival (Holi) was starting. However, on my auto-rickshaw ride into town I found out that some kids were starting to celebrate early as I was hit with some coloured water balloons a few times. Upon arriving in the old town where I was hoping to stay I was dropped off by the driver and forced to navigate the confusing narrow alleyways on my own to find a hotel (motorized vehicles aren't allowed in them). So after getting hopelessly lost for quite a while I managed to find a guesthouse (the one I was looking for even!) and got a room.

My first day in Varanasi I wandered around the old town which was quite pleasant. My main objective though was to find some really cheap clothes that I could wear for the following day festivities as the main event on the morning of the 11th was to throw coloured water at everybody and all the clothes get stained too. So I went out searching for clothes before the shops all closed down for the evenings celebrations. That evening I went out wandering the streets with some other people to see what sort of celebrations were occurring only to find just one bonfire with very few people around it. So we returned to our guesthouse to await the following morning when the main celebration started. At the guesthouse we also prepared for the following day by making hundreds of small water balloons filled with coloured water.

The following morning a large group of people in the guesthouse got up, armed ourselves with the water balloons and went into the streets to join the fun. It truly was a great experience as people were covered in colours ranging from pink to silver to green to yellow (really everything started to look almost black after a while) and there were huge speakers in the streets so everyone was dancing and smearing more coloured powder on people. After a couple hours of this we returned to the guesthouse for a break and to reload with supplies, and at the guesthouse the party continued but just for foreigners so it was a little safer. At 11am I went back out into the streets with a smaller group and we noticed that the atmosphere had changed somewhat as people were getting rowdy and some fights had broken out. Needless to say we returned to our guesthouse quickly and finished the celebrations there, although the festival technically ended at noon anyways. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing at the guesthouse and enjoying the last bits of Holi, a great festival.

My third day in Varanasi things were back to normal, or somewhat as some places were still closed due to Holi, and I took a day trip out to nearby Sarnath which is one of the 4 main Buddhist pilgrimage sites. Here was the place where Buddha gave his first lecture after attaining enlightenment and as a result I was expecting it to be a very religious site with mainly pilrims present. However upon reaching the town I was very disappointed as it was more touristy than religious I thought. Sure there were lots of temples and monasteries but everything was setup for tourists and it didn't give off a very religious vibe. Still worth the trip out but not quite what I was expecting.

The fourth day in Varanasi started at 5am with a famous boat trip along the Ganges river. The boat trip was spectacular and definitely worth waking up at the crack of dawn for as you get to see several people bathing in the holy river, people doing laundry and loads of people out for their morning prayers along the sacred river. The Ganges is one of the most sacred rivers in India and as a result many people come here to bathe and wash away their sins but there is TONS of sewage being dumped into the river constantly so it's not the best thing for you (you'll never convince a local of that though). For the rest of the day I spent my time just wandering around the ghats (stairs leading down to the river) watching people bathe, do laundry, play cricket, pray and I even watched a cremation at one of the burning ghats. Varanasi is considered one of the best places to die as if you're cremated here then you won't be reborn again as you will otherwise. Therefore, people are always being cremated at the burning ghats along the Ganges river with their ashes being spread into the river afterwards.

My final day in Varanasi was spent wandering around the old town again and also relaxing along the ghats while I waited for my train out. I didn't get up to anything very exciting though as I had already seen most things. I did watch the entire religious ceremony at sunset though where priests sang some songs and washed a few people with water from the Ganges. That night I boarded a train to head to Khajuraho to see the famous temple carvings there. More from my next update.







Myself back at the guesthouse during the Holi celebrations. This reminded me a lot of frosh week at university when all of the engineers dyed themselves purple.








Scenes of some of the people that we met out on the streets during the Holi celebrations.








The boatman for our sunrise cruise on the river Ganges.










A scene of men bathing themselves in the sacred river.










A man sitting on the edge of one of the ghats and performing laughing meditation (or at least we think he was) as he kept just sitting there and laughing.













Trying my hand at preparing some street food at one of the stalls where I sampled some.













A lady selling some flowers on one of the ghats while an old man walks past.









The scene of the religious ceremony that occurs on the ghats every evening.