Varanasi, a mystical, incredibly magical place, where you can observe the city from the Ganges thanks to one of the many boat tours that are offered here.
I delegate the beginning of this post to someone else's words: Mark Twain. ”In twenty years you will be more bothered by the things you haven't done than by the things you have done. So drop your moorings, get out of safe harbor and let the wind blow your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. "
Set off. Get on a plane. Fly in India and go to Varanasi . Abandon yourself, be amazed, frightened, cry, laugh, taste, smell, sail the Ganges. Varanasi, known as Benares, is a city located in Uttar Pradesh, state ofNorthern India.
In the tourist circuits of those who go to India for a first taste, Benares is always included as one of the main stops. Personally, I only visited it on the occasion of my third trip to India and I must admit that it has an unrivaled charm.
From Nepal, where my travel companion and I spent a week visiting the Kathmandu valley, we reached Varanasi by internal flight and with the idea of ​​looking for accommodation on site. As often happens in trips conceived in this way, the sharing of means and directions between backpackers makes situations evolve continuously and in unexpected ways.
This is to tell you that, sharing the cost of the taxi with an Australian I met just outside the airport, and discovered that we had not yet booked the hotel and we would have simply relied on chance, we let the taxi driver drop us at the hotel family-run guesthouse / tavern) that he had already booked, with the intention of asking if they had a room for us too. Fortunately, the room was there, because Varanasi welcomed us in December with torrential rain, fog and cold.
And that's how we met Jonathan, the Australian, and Stefano, the Italian, who was staying in the same place. And that's always how you get to know other travelers who enrich your trip… but not the list of hotels you can recommend to other travelers when you get home.
What do you do in Varanasi? The peculiarity of this city is certainly given by its conformation: a real labyrinth of narrow and suggestive alleys where getting lost is a must.
With great pride I can therefore tell you that, especially on the first day, we did not return so easily to the guesthouse. Your reference point will be the Ganges river, on which the city lies. We have dedicated three days to visiting the city which, in my opinion, is to be experienced by walking, exploring and observing without many programs ... except one: the boat ride on the Mother Ganga, as the Ganges is called, from which everything originated according to the Hindu religion.
Varanasi is the sacred city par excellence, the one where, at least once in their life, every Hindu must go to be able to bathe in the waters of the Mother Ganga by diving from five different ghats.
What are ghats? Very normal stairways which end inside the river and play a fundamental role for the ablutions of the faithful and for the life of the Indians. It is on the ghats, in fact, that many rituals (cremation of all) and many daily gestures take place. Turn along the ghats and this city will be a generous and unreserved lover: this is where the Indians they pray, play, wash, cook, they wash pots, shave their hair, throw out the garbage, give alms, read, pee, sell goods and set up cremations. Wherever you stay, they will offer you a boat ride on the Ganges; otherwise, go directly to the ghats and negotiate the price for a ride on the river of about an hour with the first boatman you meet. The most intense moments for this river experience are the evening, however attend the puja, and very early in the morning for funeral ceremonies.
The puja (act of worship towards a deity) is celebrated every evening at 18.45 pm and we have seen it peeking out from one of the alleys of the city: this mystical and scenographic ritual is called Aarti, and is celebrated by the Brahmins. It has an ancient flavor, made up of elegant gestures, flickering lights, cymbals and devotional songs. A paralyzing emotion.
For the boat ride we relied on the guesthouse: a young and kind Indian boy came to pick us up at dawn.
He moved with great familiarity through the alleys, while we, sleepy, followed him in religious silence. The river and the city were shrouded in the December fog and very gently we approached as far as permitted Manikarnika Ghat, which is the setting for public cremations. Dazed and helpless we witnessed the enchanting view of Varanasi from the Ganges, which changes color depending on the season, of the month and of the hour, but it is imprinted in your eyes and in your memory indelibly. A teeming humanity shrouded in fog, smoke and ash revolves around the funeral pyre on which the body of the deceased lies.
The male child lights the pyre only after completing the five ritual turns around it. Nobody cries, I had also noticed this in Nepal. Everything is wrapped in total naturalness. The boatman tells us that it is because the pain is external to it at home and not at that moment. The body will burn for four to five hours.
It seems impossible to grasp all the details of that image… Anna and I record different things that we will tell each other only later. This is not the time to speak. A smell of burnt bodies, incense and wood rises in the air and accompanies our return to the mainland which brutally brings us back to the only great certainty of the moment: we are in India!
If you want to treat yourself to a moment of lightness and goodness in Varanasi, don't miss the lassi al Blue Lassi Shop.Touristic? Absolutely yes! Good? A lot!
The lassi is one typical Indian yogurt-based drink very refreshing, usually mixed with water, spices, salt or sugar.
The place is always full and you can get there by following the signs you find almost everywhere along the walls of the winding alleys; if you ask, anyone will know how to point you. It is located in the Bhelupur area and is open from nine in the morning to nine in the evening. It can be tasted natural, plain lassi or in the delicious variations offered by Blu Lassi: mango, chocolate, strawberry, coconut or all fruits. We had breakfast with it and it is served in a delicious terracotta cup complete with a fruity decoration. Satisfying for the eyes and the palate.
Also, not to forget where you are, funeral processions often parade in front of the shop to the river. As happens everywhere in the world, life and death go hand in hand. Always. In Varanasi they hold it stronger.
