Holy crap!
What a flight! India had apparently received outside terrorist threats and airport security was accordingly jacked up almost to the point of asphyxiation! Tired and irritated, we eventually found ourselves safely back on Indian soil - this time in the "holy" city of Varanasi - built along the banks of the Ganges river. This is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The 1 hour taxi journey through the pollution and the traffic brought us close to the ghats (a 'ghat' is platform next to or stairs leading to a "holy water body". Each ghat has a name and each exists as a site of some ceremonial activity - from sacred ritual bathing to riverside cremations) and we walked the last stretch through the bustling back alleys to our hotel overlooking the river. Arriving at sunset made the river scene look actually quite romantic. Johan had booked us into their deluxe room with a view over the river and balcony which was caged in to protect us from the roaming monkeys.
The Ganges river (the "Great Mother") is considered the backbone of Indian culture. Pilgrims from all over gather in droves to take a holy dip in the river's suffering waters. According to our guide book (the lonely planet) the stats are quite alarming. Each day the area where we stayed next to the river receives about 60 000 pilgrims wanting to wash there. According to the guide book in the same area, 30 large sewers continuously discharge into the river. The water in the Ganges is so badly polluted that the water is septic. While water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water, river water samples show a figure of 1.5 million! This water travels further through a large section of India, reaching the lives of over 400 million more people with it's water borne diseases. Not pretty.
The next 2 days were surprisingly peaceful. We ate well, took a paddle down the river at sunset to watch the evening ceremonies and cremations getting underway, bought train tickets, managed (after much of a mission) to draw cash and even bought Janine a saree. Janine thoroughly enjoyed her encounters with the local retail people (English is often quite well spoken in India) - especially during the process of purchasing her saree and associated apparel. The religious atmosphere ranges from bizarre to totally insane. The overcrowded city spaces are packed with shrines and ceremony as well as holy cows and monkeys. Everywhere some or other priest is busy exploiting his sacred power for financial gain and at any given time a yoga session is on the go. Foreigners from all over the world congregate here (and indeed in a few spots in India) to gain from the spiritual "enlightenment" this particularly spiritually dark spot of India has to offer. We came, we saw and we left - all in all a vivid memory to say the least.
The Ganges river (the "Great Mother") is considered the backbone of Indian culture. Pilgrims from all over gather in droves to take a holy dip in the river's suffering waters. According to our guide book (the lonely planet) the stats are quite alarming. Each day the area where we stayed next to the river receives about 60 000 pilgrims wanting to wash there. According to the guide book in the same area, 30 large sewers continuously discharge into the river. The water in the Ganges is so badly polluted that the water is septic. While water safe for bathing should not contain more than 500 faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water, river water samples show a figure of 1.5 million! This water travels further through a large section of India, reaching the lives of over 400 million more people with it's water borne diseases. Not pretty.
The next 2 days were surprisingly peaceful. We ate well, took a paddle down the river at sunset to watch the evening ceremonies and cremations getting underway, bought train tickets, managed (after much of a mission) to draw cash and even bought Janine a saree. Janine thoroughly enjoyed her encounters with the local retail people (English is often quite well spoken in India) - especially during the process of purchasing her saree and associated apparel. The religious atmosphere ranges from bizarre to totally insane. The overcrowded city spaces are packed with shrines and ceremony as well as holy cows and monkeys. Everywhere some or other priest is busy exploiting his sacred power for financial gain and at any given time a yoga session is on the go. Foreigners from all over the world congregate here (and indeed in a few spots in India) to gain from the spiritual "enlightenment" this particularly spiritually dark spot of India has to offer. We came, we saw and we left - all in all a vivid memory to say the least.
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