So arrived in varansi after another clasic over night train ride. i'd been sick wif a bout of delhi belly a few hours before we were due to leave so you can imagine just how happy (not) i was to be on some public transpot. we were in a 3 tier set this time whicj obivosuly means..3 bunks high. thankfully i had one of the bottom bunks and den squeezed himself into a middle one. really struggled a bit with sometimes the lack of respect given by our fellow indian passengers (well to be fair i prolly wasn't at my most tolerant). one guy insisted on playing music OUT LOUD to himself on his mobile, then one bloke came to catch to his friends in our berth and sat on my feet. luckyily they all ended this before i got too wound up! anyways got a bit of kip, not as bad snorers this time! but still...never my fav place to sleep i think! tho i do really like the warmth of the trains!
So we arrived in varanasi and our accommodation had arranged to pick us up because apparently the touts are so bad here. after another harrowing rickshaw ride (i have takken to closing my eyes...) and then a seemingly endless walk throuh narrow streets that even the rickshaws can't go down we reached our hotel. great place to stay, spotlessly clean but run with suuch military pprecision that left me thinking perhaps they had forgotten that infact people staying here were paying guests and not their naughty nieces and nephhews. taken a bit far! anyways, loved the cleanliness! had a blacony overloolking the ghats too which was amazing...th burning ghats...marnikarnika is next door to us tho so soemtimes a bit smokey when the wind changes.... marnikarnika is a holy cremation site and is a really big deal to be cremated there. to die in varanasi means you are free from the cycle of rebirth. the bodies get doused in the river after being praded in gold coverings etc through the streets. the lowest of varanasis societies are the prye makers, they cart the wood and have a knack of organising it so that is burns efficiently. wood is weighed as it is so expensive and different ypes are the most expensive. sandlewood is the best to go for apparently. So watched these cremations for a while...not particulary pleasent, of course, but really is a different way of viewing death here, its vry out in the open and i gues in turn there really is closure of sorts. seems a bit more healthy that our tendency to supress these things sometimes. only stightly disturbed, worst part was a touts pick up line...”you want to see burning bodies? look dead bodies burning. “
nice. thanks for that.
walked along the ghats and there are locals everywhere washing themseles and their clothes and children. people are dipping their hands in and praying. there are monks and women monks too i think...they become a bit androdogenous..
the touts here are terrible, worse that agra. really no means nothing and i wanted to ask them what part of no don;t they understand but they just won't leave you alone. gets very frustrating.
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