Varanasi and the Ganges River

Hey hey,
I had been super keen to visit Varanasi ever since I saw a documentary about it starring famous Australian Andrew Dado back in his prime.

Varanasi was our last stop on our three month adventure. I think if we had of visited here first we may have been on the first planes out of India. It's a very confronting place to visit with death and the dying really in your face. Varanasi is situated on the Ganges River which is considered by the Indians to be Holy. To me there is nothing holy about a black river where rubbish is dumped and people bath and wash their clothes (hopefully not ours!!) but we all have our beliefs.

The Hindus believe that if they are cremated here they will go to heaven regardless if they have been good or bad in this life. However there are some exceptions for example children under five, pregnant woman, victims of snake bites and those with diseases are not cremated they have weights tied to their body and are thrown in the Ganges.
Cremations are done around the clock in public at either two Ghats along the river. There is a podium which those of a high caste are burnt and those of a lower caste are burnt along the dirty banks of the river. We watched a body wrapped in white resting on a bamboo stretcher ducked in the river then after about half and hour placed on top of log fire. Only the men attend the cremation while the woman wait at home.
The smell of flesh burning, the intense smoke and the foot painted red poking out from flames are permanently pressed into my memory.
If this all wasn't confronting enough there were dogs poking through the rubbish and chewing on things I can only assume to be body parts from the fire.
We walked away nauseous, stunned by what we had witnessed and covered in ash very eager for a shower.

From a distance Varanasi and the Ganges River look beautiful especially at sunrise but when you look closely it's filthy. The water is disgusting housing hundreds of diseases, the ghats and nearby streets are full of rubbish and poo from cows, dogs and goats. To walk without your eyed glued to the ground would be disastrous! Like many other places we visited there are constantly people putting out their hands for money rather than getting a real job or being lazy in the job they had. We had to yell at a boy to row our boat at sunrise. It seemed more apparent here or perhaps India had finally just taken it's toll on our patience.

So now we are in Delhi eagerly awaiting our flight to the UK...I'm so happy I get to spend some time chilling out with you before I start a new job.

Love E xx