Vara-Nasty

The ancient holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh (Hindi for Northern District), was the last city we visited in our trip through India. Formerly known as Kashi, the city was built on the western bank of the sacred river Ganges around four thousand years ago. Many Hindus across India make a yatra (pilgrimage) to Varanasi at least once in their lives. Common knowledge holds that bathing in the river here cleans bad karma away as well as dirt. Being cremated on the giant carved stone platforms ('burning ghats') at the edge of the river is believed to free one's soul from the cycle of re-incarnation, the highest goal in many sects of Hinduism. 

On top of all it's culture and history, Lonely Planet's description of Varanasi was no less than glowing, and other travellers had been singing it's praises as well. But, we tried not to have too high of expectations as we stepped off the train at Varanasi Junction.

The ghats (carved stone steps) along the river were indeed quite serene compared to the hustle and bustle of the rest of the city. We took numerous strolls along the river during our stay.

At the top of each ghat was a temple. Shrines to all the major Hindu gods can be found here, as well as temples for Jains and other religions.

Just another one of the frequent visitors to the ghats.

The river itself may have holy powers, but that doesn't change how horrifyingly polluted it is.

One of the many awesome looking sadhus we encountered along the river.

This is one of the 'burning ghats' where many Hindus are cremated each day.

An evening 'puja' aka blessing ceremony that we witnessed.

The Assi Ghat.

We also walked around 'the old city', that had many interesting temples and old buildings.

The old city seemed to be a lot more densely populated than the area we were staying in...we'd never seen so many tall, narrow houses, so close together.

The main market area.

One of the many Indian sweet shops.

The salesman in this music store was kind enough to give us a demonstration of both sitar and tablas (the drums that you can see in the background)

Our favourite sadhu...no one could beat this hairstyle.

A typical alley way in the old city.

We took a walk around the area of town where a lot of the famous Varanasi silks are produced.

These hanging metal cards are inscribed with the different fabric patterns that are made using this loom.

This huge machine is what they use to produce low-quality nylon and polyester saris, at a very fast rate.

This enthusiastic salesman was demonstrating one of the many ways that his silk scarves could be used.

The view out of our hotel room window, onto the neighbouring roof where some people were living in this little brick room, among the piles of garbage.

A pump for drinking water.

The alleys we walked through to get to our hotel each day.

The alley right outside the door of our hotel.,with one of the resident dogs snoozing in his favourite spot.

A restaurant located on top of this lovely ditch/sewer.

Another quality establishment.

Another pump for drinking water.

The trash of Varanasi supports a thriving ecosystem of 'trash' animals, such as dogs, goats and most importantly cows. The following pictures are what we like to call "The Trash Cow Series".

And so ended our 3-month tour of India...the time had come to discover the mysteries of Nepal!