12/6
Our Air India flight from Kathmandu to Delhi finally took off at 1 rather than at 11:30 as scheduled
so that meant we had no chance of getting the connecting flight to Varanasi Delhi and therefore lose a complete day to travel but that
wasn't the case.
Men and women had to go through
separate security lines with women being frisked behind a privacy curtain by
female agents. That ended up being the norm at all security checkpoints,
including Delhi ’s Metro, we encountered throughout India .
Upon landing in Delhi , which meant setting our watches 15 minutes behind, we
were able to get an express train on the Metro into the center of the city. But
an alert police officer noticed a knife in Steven’s bag when it was X-rayed,
and said no knives could be taken on the Metro. Once Steven had half his duffle
bag’s contents strewn all over the ground and found the paring knife buried at
the bottom of the bag, the officer relented and said it was OK after all to
take it on the Metro – phew! There was hardly an inch to spare once we managed
to cram both our duffle bags, our backpacks and us into a tuk tuk, below, at
the station for the 20 minute ride to our hotel – I wish you could have seen
us!
We were supposed to have spent 4 nights at the hotel in Delhi at the end of our stay in India, but once we got there, I was able to
persuade the hotel manager to switch the first night of our original
reservation to that night as that was much cheaper than the reservation I had
had to make at the last gasp. The manager was agreeable but only if we moved to
an adjacent hotel that night which we didn’t mind.
The cancelled nonstop Air India flight from Kathmandu to Varanasi meant we would only then have just 3 nights at the end of
our trip in Delhi and also having to change the reservations at hotels in
each of the other 3 Indian cities we were visiting but it all worked out for
the best in the end. By the time everything had been taken care of, we grabbed
a bite to eat, chatted with you, Nina, and collapsed as we had an early flight the next morning.
12/7
Our Air India flight from Delhi
to Varanasi 12:30 more than 2 hours later than scheduled.
While we were waiting, I talked to an Indian couple now living outside of Charleston
who said that the Indians they know hate flying Air India because of
their notoriously bad customer service, delayed departures, etc. I could
certainly echo that sentiment based on our experience with the airline the last
2 days.
I had arranged through our guesthouse for a driver to pick
us up at the airport. Even though the airport was only about 15 miles from the
city, it took more than 90 minutes to get to near the guesthouse because of
horrific traffic jams once again. That sounds like a familiar refrain, doesn’t
it?
Our driver had been in constant phone contact with someone
almost the entire journey but the reason soon became clear as we neared the
guesthouse and he could go no further. The driver stopped on the side of the
road and, as promised by the guesthouse manager, 2 of his ‘boys’ removed our
bags and began carrying them through a maze of narrow alleys for what seemed
like a quarter mile. We kept thinking and laughing at this newest adventure we
were on and were so glad we didn’t need to be either bothering with the bags or
trying to figure out how to ever get back to that main street again!
Once we got to the Shivakashi Guesthouse, the ‘boys’
as the manager referred to them as, showed us to our $7.50 a night room – no
typo there, I kid you not! It was funny that the taxi ride had cost almost two
nights’ stay. On the positive side, the room was bigger than most of the rooms
we stayed at all trip; it had windows; the manager, Sanjeev, was the
friendliest and most helpful manager of any all trip; we had a balcony although
‘the boys’ told us to be careful of the monkeys there; the location was great;
and the wifi was surprisingly strong! Sounds pretty darned good and it was.
There were of course a few negatives when you’re only paying
chump change like that for a room: the room wasn’t quite as clean as we might
have liked; and we had a shared bathroom – no problem in and of itself as we’ve
had plenty of those while traveling – but the only hot water was available from
a faucet in the open area, below. That meant every time we wanted a shower, we had to
get a bucket full of hot water and bring it and a small pail into the combined
toilet/shower area and use the pail as our handheld ‘shower.’ Just another part
of our adventure is how we looked at it although I can’t imagine it would have
been your cup of tea!
Photos from a wedding procession outside the guesthouse:
We left the guesthouse around 4:30
and made our way through a maze of alleys to the Ganges riverfront walking toward the ghats
north of our guesthouse area. Above, my first view of a ghat where the steps led to
the banks of the Ganges - Steven though had visited Varanasi abut 45 years ago.
Darabhanga Ghat was the first one we came across. It
would have been hard to miss because of its large Greek-style pillars.
Men kept coming up to us asking if we wanted a boat ride up
and down the Ganges River Ganga as it was called in Varanasi ,
while passing one ghat after another that lined the river.
Photos from our walk along the ghats that bordered the Ganges:
We couldn’t help but notice the vast piles upon piles of
wood as we neared Manikarnika Ghat, known as the main burning ghat and
one of the holiest places in Varanasi .
Traditional funeral pyres burn 24 hours a day at the ghat named when Shiva lost
a jeweled earring or manikarnika as he stood by a small, deep pool dug
by Vishnu at the dawn of creation. Though fourth century Gupta period inscriptions mention this ghat, the current ghat as a permanent
riverside embankment was built in 1302 and has been renovated at least three
times throughout its existence.
Public cremation is the norm for Hindus throughout India ,
but the spiritual implications of being cremated in Varanasi
make dying there an especially celebratory occasion. Hindus believe that death
in the city will bring salvation, making it a major center for pilgrimage. The idea
is that because the Ganges is so holy, a spiritual
cleansing in the water makes easier achievement of moksha, the
release from the cycle of rebirth. In Varanasi
bodies are wrapped in silk or linen – traditionally white for men and red or
orange for women – and then carried on bamboo stretchers to the smoking pyres
of the burning ghat. Then after a brief immersion in the Ganges
and a short wait, the body is placed on the pyre for the ritual that precedes
the cremation.
Nepali Ghat was one of the more prominent ghats
as it had a golden lion outside a pagoda-like temple which was built by the
Nepali royal family.
Man Mandhir Ghat was built by Maharajah Jai Singh
of Jaipur.
Sanjeev, the guesthouse manager, had told us there was an
hour long nightly ceremony held at 6 in front of Dashashvanedth Ghat, one
of the holiest and probably the oldest ghat, so we made our way there.
Photos from the ceremony:
We didn’t know what the prayer ceremony was all about but were very interested in witnessing it. Seven men (priests possibly) participated in the ceremony performing very intricate finger movements in perfect synchronization, while singing Vedic hymns together with the music that was amplified over loudspeakers in the background.
The man with the olive hat, above,who sat
in front of us kept looking back at me and the plastic covered travel notes I
had about Varanasi on my lap. I gave him the notes to look at and he
began writing down notes for himself from them before shaking my hand in a
gesture of thanks!
Once the ceremony ended close to
7, we got a bite to eat at one of the rooftop restaurants overlooking the Ganges before calling it a day and heading back to the
guesthouse. It had been a full day and we were glad to rest our weary bones.
Posted on 12/30 from our home in Littleton, Colorado.
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