ok so let me continue.
The top hotels in varanasi are along the Ghats as i said. and prime amongst them is the Sita Guest House, on the Chausatti Ghat, which is near the Bengali Tola. So the rickshaw dropped me near the entrance of the labyrinth of lanes that goes to the Bengali Tola (rickshaws cant enter those narrow lanes) and i had to drag my suitcase across miles of narrow lanes to reach the Sita guest house.
Its not the easiest thing in the world to negotiate those lanes and its easy to get lost and i had to ask for directions often. The closer i got to the ghat, the more the place began to assume a touristy look - there were hole in the wall restrauants everywhere, serving Italian, Israeli, Chinese and continental food, there were cyber cafes, and then there were the shops that sold trinkets, bangles and indian dresses and cheap touristy tee shirts with whacky writtings on them. There were foreigners everywhere.
I finally reached the Sita guest house - only to learn that its been booked full till the 27th. I tried the Ajay Guest House and the Elana guest house too, whcih are very near to the Sita (you wont miss the advertisements for these hotels, painted on building walls used as billboards). At the Ajay, which too was full, i met a tout - who promised to find me a nice hotel within my budget (about 200 bucks - in Varanasi rooms start from 75 bucks up for dorm and 150 for single rooms) and took me to the Shiva Kashi guest house.
Now this was a very new hotel, about a month old, and was very neat and clean. Rooms for 200 as the tout/agent promised. Unfortunately it was a bit away from the ghat and the river could only be seen from the terrace and not the rooms. But 3 minutes away from the embankments isnt bad, so i checked in. The owner was friendly and we were soon talking over cigarettes. I had questions to ask about how to plan my Varanasi trip and how to book tickets for an overnight bus to Khajuraho.
I was about the only indian occupant of the hotel - there were Japanese, Koreans, Aussies, Israelis, Italians, Americans, one russian woman, and north europeans (germany, uk, france) as well. Thats what the owner/manager told me and soon i began to believe him, as i smoked and watched occupants go in and out the lobby, greeting the manager on the way. It was about 11.30 now and the official check out time was 12 noon (i came to the hotel at about 11, but this one hour would not be considered).
I then went up to my room on the 2nd floor, and took a bath and freshened up for the day. New set of clothes made me feel better. I was hungry too and also needed to withdraw cash from the ATM and load films in my camera. Basically i needed to do all the pre-requisites. So armed with a map of varanasi, i now went to the Chausatti ghat and then from there to the Dasaswamedh ghat (along the river bank). From there, I took the road to Goghulia and then went right. Thats where the ATM of my bank was.
Withdrew cash, and went to a very nice and laid back restaurant called Phulwari. They even have a temple beside the open air restaurant complex. There is no restaurant actually - just tables and chairs laid out in the garden/veranda and the kitchen was the ground-floor balcony of an adjoining building. It was nice, clean, reasonably priced and very secluded. I ordered a lemon tea, and some israeli grub called Muffasul or somethihng. Then i went out to buy films from a nearby studio.
Bought 2, loaded one in to my camera and kept the other away. Came back - my food wasnt ready but the tea was. Lit a cigarette, sipped tea and looked at the other tourists eating there. All "firangs" (foreigners). They like india and feel at home here, cos india accepts everyone for what he/she is. Most were dressed in indian clothes, epecially the girls. Some had whacky hairstyles, a cross between rastafarian and red neck (hairstyles). I got up and took a couple of pics of the temple with my analog camera and then also cam mobile.
The food was ready by now. It was a sort of vegetable curry with scrambled egg on top of it, to be had with a single Pita bread (which in truth tastes and looks a lot like indian Naan roti). I am a single traveller and this is the sort of grub that suits me, all the one-dish-meals, like a pizza or a plate of noodles or macaroni or chicken fried rice or steak. I ate the grub in a hurry and downed it with the lemon tea and then a Sprite. In india, there are 2 kinds of places where one gets non-indian (foreign) cuisine.
The first kind, are all the top restaurants and the 5 star hotels and are usually between very to astronomically expensive. The other kind of restaurants are the hole in the wall restaurants in all touristy areas of india which are patronised by foreign back packer and even upper class tourists. These usually are priced in the cheap to reasonable category and I always make it a point to check these out whenever i am travelling in India. My bill, if i remember right, came to 60 bucks for the Muffasil (or whatever) and 20 for the tea and sprite.
Of course there's another kind of restaurant that the foreign tourists patronise -- indian restaurants of all kinds - from hole in the wall to top class, where they go for curry, for Thali (damn popular with them) or other traditional indian grub. When they want their own stuff they visit places like Phulwari (which also served indian dishes btw) or McDonalds. In Varanasi there's another things thats very popular with foreigners and indians alike - the Malai and lassi stalls. Its one of the commonest sights in varanasi to spot a crowd of people standing and having malai from earthen (baked mud) cups or downing lassi.
When in rome.. and all that - so I too had a lassi. Not a bad move actually, to beat the hot varanasi afternoon sun. There was little to do. The sun was scorching, I needed to buy a hat which I did from the Godhulia market. I had plans to go to all the major temples of Varanasi and visit the Benaras Hindu University etc, but the damned sun made me change my mind. I instead took a rickshaw to Assi ghat.
The rickshaw dropped me where the metalled road ended and i had to walk to the ghat. There were a few hotels here too. This was the extreme end of Varanasi and upon reaching the Ghat i could see the Assi river (Varanasi gets its name from Varuna and Assi - two tributaries that meet the Ganges here. Varanasi was the chosen spot for setting up the holiest of hindu shrines and temples, because its in Varanasi that the Ganges flows northward for some time. So that when the devotee faces the river, he also faces the sun at sunrise).
Moments after reaching the actual ghat (assi) i heard and spotted a group of foreigners singing a indian (hindi) devotional song, complete with guitars and all. They were a sight and the hindi "Bhajan" (devotional song) sung in a queer western accent, could easily have been a Kare Krishna or hippy anthem from Berkley, California. I took a couple of pictures of them and then just when i was about to record the er.. concert, the guitarist stopped and left.
When he returned they quickly packed the guitars in their cases and climbed a boat. If i had been there a for some more time i'd have made friends with one of them and hitched a ride with them. But that wasnt to be. So i had to watch from the shore as they left for the other end of Varanasi (dasaswamedh ghat), after agin having resumed their Bhajan on the boat. I really wished i could go with them - would have been a fantastic recording - on a boat in varanasi with hippies singing bhajans.
Instead i decided to do the mandatory "Ghat trek" - Start from Assi ghat and walk along the shore, from one ghat to another. One by one, I crossed them all - Narad Ghat, Kedar Ghat, Chausatti Ghat etc, till i reached the Dasaswamedh Ghat in about 20 minutes time. All the while i could see the hippy-boat rowing more or less parallel to me and could hear their tunes faintly. During this Ghat-Trek, i spotted all the other hotels that were right on the ghat - main amongst them being the Vishnu Hotel on Kedar Ghat.
At the Dasaswamedh ghat, i rested and had a Chai, along with some sweet and sour preparation made of pickled mango (comes at 2 rupees a piece). Things were gearing up for the evening Arati (formal prayer done to mark the end of the working day), and the ghats were being given a much needed clean up and watering. Meanwhile the hippy gang continued on along the river for Manikarnika Ghat. Now thats one Ghat i need to write a bit about.
Thats the main cremation Ghat of Varanasi. Its a gruesome and transfixing sight at the ghat any time of the day, all year round. There are bodies placed on funeral pyres and then set on fire. Stacks of wood are kept on the sides, to be used as required. There's a balcony like place above the Ghat, where tourists stand and see the departed person's life come full circle. Dust to dust, bone to bone, ash to ash. It's chilling, and i shall write more about it later. Photography is not allowed.
While still at the Dasaswamedh ghat, i noticed tourists both indian and foreign alike trying to negotiate with boatmen for a ride along the river (to assi ghat and back). Beign alone it was a slightly expensive proposition for me to hire a boat for my own (about 300 bucks for a small boat). So i took a chance and tried to talk to a boatman who already had 3 foreign couples (from some east european country by their language) and asked if he'd take me along. He agreed, for 50 rupees, after asking the tourists (who paid 300, or more, between them) for permission.
So onto the boat I got. It was wonderful, cool evening breeze blowing, the sun not so fierce now, and the views of Varanasi from the river got me busy with my cameras. Soon i discovered that I had another job to do. The boatman's knowledge of english was no better than my knowledge of French and most of the info he supplied to the east europeans about the various ghats, and Varanasi in general, were quite unintelligible, in any language. So I stepped in as the resident interpretor - earning my keep, so to speak.
more later
Bombs in Varanasi
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4782618.stm
you and I may have had our differences in the past Brahmin, but I sincerely hope you are ok.
CHECK THIS OUT - and watch out for the champagne cork !!
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=1674437
ok here's my photobucket site.
so go here -
http://photobucket.com/login.php
login name = GITadmin
password = guestofadmin (ie. guest-of-admin as one single word)
i havent found time to load all photograps, but have loaded some albums.
you will find pics in the following albums -
VARANASI (53 pics)
KHAJURAHO (39 pics)
BUBANESWAR (18 pics)
RAILWAY GRUB (21 pics)
not all the pics are good, in fact some are shaky and murky. i havent learn the use of my camera properly yet, and neither do i know photoshop (i used it for adding "contrast" and increasing some size) well. The day i took the Bhubaneswar pics, it was very cloudy - i shall post better pics of bhubaneswar soon.
sample -
varanasi
khajuraho
erotica in khajuraho
raja rani temple, bhubaneswar
railway grub, fruits
thanks for giving out your ID.
I am just looking at the Varanasi pics on your album.
there's a bed on the khajuraho one. is that the place you stayed on your visit?
the "puja" i described in the first post about my varanasi trip -
the boat full of "bhajan" singing westerners -
those bhajan-ers packing up their gear before proceeding to the boat -
happy holi to you too and to everyone else here.
brahmin wrote:those bhajan-ers packing up their gear before proceeding to the boat -
Hey Bramin, have you ever joined a bhajan group.... we have Varkari community here in Maharashtra those who travel to Pandharpur to worship sacred gods Vitthal - Rakhumai .... They have bhajans that go on several days where they don't eat or even drink water. You have to constantly sing bhajans. Not even talk but only sing. They have to finish a long series of chapters of bhajanas only when after they eat and drink water.
I joined them once when going to Kolhapur at Pandharpur. The bhajans are so fanatic ..... their zeal rocks ... the way these guys play instruments dholaks, Tals and Ektaras. Lejhim groups make you tap your feet to their tunes and group dance. I also met a group of British Students who were their doing their research on Saint Tukaram and his bhajans. They were researching for 3 years then and all of them sang marathi abhangas (bhajans) of Tukaram so well that I literally awed.
Its miraculous... You feel just so much Close to God, more spiritual and religious than ever at such places
I am definitely planning for the 4 Dham yatra with my family soon.
i am not into rituals and cant think of going without grub for 3 days just to sing bhajans. also i dont see any point in taking pilgrimages and have never taken any.
click
this link to check out holi pictures.
