Floatin' Down the Ganges

Hello friends,

We're just finishing up a long day here in Varanasi. We were up at the crack of dawn this morning (4:30 a.m. to be precise) to catch a sunrise boat trip along the Ganges. It was truly a magnificent experience for all of us. I've attached some pictures and videos of our morning trip. We floated past people bathing, swimming, doing yoga, washing laundry, doing laughter therapy, monkeys playing with dogs and of course, cremating people by the river. The river is alive with an atmosphere you can only truly feel when you're here. The cremation is not something that is to be photographed or filmed as we need to respect the privacy of the families involved, but we managed to get a lot of great shots and videos of other things going on along the river. There are a total of 92 ghats with steps leading down to the river, and we saw only a fraction of these.

Last night, we witnessed the evening ceremony by the Ganges, which is really something. It looks a festival with priests chanting, bells ringing, a light show, and large ornamental candles being swung around. Apparently this happens EVERY SINGLE NIGHT here in Varanasi to give thanks to the river, which is viewed as a source of life for all. We've attached a couple of pictures and videos of the evening ceremony.

In order to get to the evening ceremony, you cannot drive in since there are just way too many people, so we took rickshaws for about a 5 km ride through streets jammed packed with people, hawkers, shops, bikes, etc. This is just about the busiest place we've ever been to. In the midst of all the action, I managed to snap what I feel is a pretty good pic of my parents riding the rickshaw.

We also spent some time yesterday at Sarnath, which is one of the most important world sites for Buddhists, since Buddha gave his first sermon there to five disciples. There were a number of Buddhist pilgrims visiting the site, including the three monks I photographed below.

Today we also went to various temples, including a couple that were guarded by very tight security. The two sites, one Hindu and one Muslim, are built right next to each other, and apparently tensions have been running high for years. The area was chaotic, and even our guide seeemed rather reluctant to take us into the sites...needless to say, we were happy to leave. We later went to a much quieter Hindu temple on Varanasi's expansive Benares University campus, where I managed to catch a quick pic of Nadia with some new friends that she made there.
Just a brief note that we wanted to include about Varanasi and the Ganges...Things on the river are not nearly as dirty or polluted as we had anticipated. It was a beautiful journey along a riverbank just as one might experience in other riverside cities (but somehow completely different). Nadia and I were brave enough to stick our fingers in...which were subsequently thoroughly washed, scrubbed, and purell'd (Ulupi, that's for you)...

We'll be back in Delhi for a couple of days to do a bit more sightseeing and will likely not post again until we're in either Kerala or Goa where we'll be entering into more tropical climates and are looking forward to some much needed R&R.

Bye for now...

Mike and Nadia