Feb 12 & 13 Varanasi

One of the reasons that we had arranged so much through Kapil’s company was because we needed to be driven from Agra to Delhi to catch the plane to Varanasi. This is a 4 to 5 hour drive. Adrian (our travel agent) said that she could arrange for a car and driver, but the reality was that it never worked. We would be much better off making the arrangement in India.

The car picked us up promptly at 9 am. (The Indians are really on time. I don’t think that we have ever waited beyond the time that they said someone would meet us. Since we are pathologically early, we really appreciate this.)

The drive took every minute of the 5 hours and then some. The traffic was horrendous. It is hard to believe that this was a really main highway.

We did get the half way bathroom break. There was also the only mailbox that I saw on the trip. I usually send postcards – but it was really hard to do here.

One thing that I wasn’t able to get a picture of was the cow pat storage. Cow pats are collected and dried here and then used for fuel. Often you will see them on a wall. After they are dried, some people build little structures that look like playhouses with them. Some are arranged quite decoratively.

We did make our plane, but didn’t have to wait too long. It is quite incredible – they manage to serve a hot meal in an hour. It is impressive.

In Varanasi, we stayed at the Taj Ganges. Chuck was surprised to hear that we would be picked up at 6:30 to go to the river. Varanasi is a very holy spot on the holy river Ganges. If you die and are cremated here, you then are off the reincarnation wheel, so lots of old people come here to die. Dawn is the time to see people washing in the river and burning the bodies.

We (and hundreds of other tourists) were picked up and taken to the river side. We were very lucky. Our boat had just us and one other person. Some of the other boats looked like they were going to sink with the weight of the people on them.

It was dark and COLD when we arrived.

We were on the water, when the sun peeped over the horizon:

We had bought flower offerings to give to the river:

There were little candles in the center.

We were rowed up the river and saw the people bathing and washing clothes:

Over and over again we were told that no one gets sick because this is such a purifying experience:

No, that isn’t a body – it is a mud statue from a celebration the day before. We saw a group getting ready to cremate someone. The gold cloth and flowers are around the body. When they are ready, it will be placed on top of the pile of wood on the right.

At the end of the ride, we walked through the lanes and alleys behind the buildings closest to the river. Cows and people are living cheek to jowl. People are sleeping in their shops (which are smaller than my dining room table.)

We went back to the hotel for breakfast and to sign out. We went to see the university and a Muslim weaving community. The weavers did everything from bleaching and dying the silk, to weaving brocades. They proudly told me that the education of each child was to do the job of his father. (Obviously, we were only interested in the boys here.) When I asked what would happen if a dyer’s child turned out to be a fabulous designer? The guide looked at me with such a strange expression. That could never happen. He couldn’t even imagine it, in order to answer the question.

We then went to the airport for the trip back to Delhi. I had called the hotel there to make arrangements to be picked up. The plane was 2 hours late, so we were a little worried. When we exited the baggage area, there were only 4 guys with names – none of them ours. I walked over to a door and the guard asked me where I was going. I explained the problem. He said to exit by the other door. There were about 1000 guys there, all waving names. Now, we had the opposite problem. We slowly walked down this gauntlet. YES, there was our name!! The guy was just as happy to see us, as we were to see him.

This hotel had a really good restaurant so we were all set for dinner. Since we had been up since before dawn, we were really ready for bed too.