Varanasi

Never has a place alarmed me so much as Varanasi, India. I think I spent a good 3 hours with eyes the size of saucers and my mouth hung open when I took my first walk along the Ganges. I got there early on Dec 27 after spending nearly a full 24 hours travelling from Pokhara Nepal. The journey is a story in itself but a new American friend and I made it at about 4am after travelling by the bumpy and loud, local night bus from the border town of Sunauli.

Varnasi India is located on the holy Ganges River and basically people come here to bathe and purify themselves in public...it's also where they burn the dead (also in public). Within the first hour of walking around I came across the burning Ghat (I am not sure on the exact definition of a Ghat but it seems to consist of steps leading down to the river where people go to bathe themselves...the dead are also bathed before being burned). It's located not too far from the hotel we're staying at; I guess that's why it was so cheap??!

They are actually quite good with foreigners and give them the whole speal about burning and the dead. Photos aren't allowed at this Ghat, I wouldn't want them anyway! It takes some 200 kg of wood to incinerate a body and there are separate locations for low, middle, and high class burnings. 24 hours after the person dies, they are burned. they're wrapped in white cloth and then covered with yellow, orange, and gold wrapping then are brought down to the Ganges and washed in this shrouding. Then they start the fire from this 500 year old Shiva Fire and I think sometimes they send the corpse out on a boat to burn but I never saw this. They remove the yellow, orange, gold stuff before burning but keep the white cloth on. No crying is allowed - it is supposed to be a celebration because if the person dies in Varanasi they are set free of the birth-rebirth cycle. If the dead person is a pregnant woman, child, or holy man, they are not burned but are tied to a rock and sent to rest at the bottom of the Ganges. This River is where the locals cleanse and purify themselves...many of them go for swims! I ain't getting closer than a meter from that water!!! Yilch!

Anyways, the Ganges is a very interesting place, you can watch everyday life take place including people peeing for the world to see. Well that happens everywhere in India...but after a few hours you get accustomed to the sights: boat builders go about their building, cow patty driers gather cow dung and lie it in paddies to be dried as fuel for fires, cricket matches abound, and there are always about a hundred kites in the air at any given time, and there are constant row boats travelling along the Ganges full of sightseers or people heading to the Golden Temple.

A few pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ErinSzumsky/Varanasi#