Feb 16: Dusk on the Ganges

Back to Varanassi.  We've been here before.  But the last time we stayed at a modern hotel on the outskirts of town, but this time we were here:

Right on the bank of the Ganges, with a funeral ghat close by and cows to meet us at the front door...

What an amazing experience from the word go.  And it was go, go, go!  From the airport straight to the archaeological site of the location of Budhas first lecture, and several centuries worth of monastaries.  We were bombarded with so much information from Kurnal, our avid, enthused tour guide our heads were going numb.  Then before we knew what was happening to us, we were offloaded from our vehicle several hundred meters from the hotel because the access lanes were too narrow for transport.  Staff from the hotel arrived to carry our luggage while we picked our way over cobbled and broken lane-ways and dodging all manner of excrement, pedal vehicles, motor scooters, dogs and cows!

20 minutes later we were climbing aboard a rowing boat heading for the famous "putting the river to sleep" ceremony.  I 'll have to look up its correct name.  Last time we were here we sat on the bank with thousands of people amongst all the clanging bells and thick smoke.  This time with thousands of people jostling for space on the Ganges.  Unbelievable to think its the same 365 days of the year.  

We floated our little boats of marigolds and candles down the Ganges.  Along with we she's and memories of special people in our lives.  Such an emotional that thing to do.

The other way it was such a different experience for us this time is we watched many cremations on the ghats (last time we saw none.  Our rowing boats got up incredibly close where we could see very detail.  We couldn't take photos that close though out of respect for the mourners but they don't mind tourists otherwise.  Our guide is a local, grew up with the knowledge of all the intricacies of the rituals.  There were so many funeral pyres (with bodies queuing to take their turn) that we witnessed each stage.  Look, look, the chief mourner is walking round the body 5 times,  oh no - that one is going the wrong way round.  Watch the mortician bring the torch from the eternal flame; see the mourner pour water from the Ganges into the body's mouth ... Now he must throw water over his shoulder.  Watch the mortician poke the legs back into the flames; now that mourner is being given one of the last charred body parts (with what looks like BBQ tongs) to throw it in the Ganges.  And so it went on.

And to finish the evening we were rowed back to the front of our hotel where we could use an internal staircase directly to the private courtyard where we ate dinner under the stars.  Pretty special.