The Holy Chaos: Varanasi
Varanasi, India - April 2010
We took a super early flight from Jaipur, with a connection through Delhi, where Mohan, the owner of our tour company, was waiting to guide us personally through this stretch of the trip.
On arrival in Varanasi, the Holy City, we checked in to our hotel, and headed straight out to Sarnath, where the Buddha is said to have delivered his first sermon. It was fascinating, but also the most intense the trip had felt so far, with people pressing in closer, more insistent and in our faces than anywhere else we'd been. It left us a little on edge for what was still to come.
That evening we set out for the Aarti ceremony on the Ganges. The car got us to within about a couple miles of the river before the traffic simply stopped, without any chance of moving any further. So we switched to motorbike taxis for the rest of the way, weaving through the city as it closed in around us. The tuktuks couldn’t even get us to the riverbanks, so we walked the remainder of the way. We watched the ceremony from the riverside for a while, though we didn't stay to the end.
Up early the next morning for the reason we'd really come: a sunrise boat ride on the Ganges. Mohan picked up flowers and candles for us to release on the water as we set out.
Watching the city wake up from the water was incredible. Ghat after ghat, each doing its own thing, a burning ghat with cremation rites underway, a body wrapped in linen in the water, people arriving for their morning rituals. Then, unexpectedly, a laughter club, this burst of joy right in the middle of all that solemnity. One of my favourite photos from the entire trip is from this stretch of the river, and it's been on my wall for years, it captures the chaos and intensity of Varanasi better than anything else I brought home.
After the boat, we walked back through the quiet laneways to the car, early enough that the crowds from the night before hadn't built up yet, so we got to feel the city without being overwhelmed by it.
We had breakfast back at the hotel, then headed off to the airport headed for our last stop - Mumbai.
