Varanasi

Varanasi - a city of mystical awesome wonderment. My awareness of Varanasi was awakened by our friend Jason, with whom we shared Sevastopol in our Peace Corps days. He traveled to India in 2008 and wrote about Varanasi on his travel blog. Jason captured me with his comment about smelling barbecue.

This is the most holy city for Hindus and I have to say that the spiritualism in this city is palpable, even to an irreligious non-believing cynic like me. At times I believed the dense air here consisted of a haze of mysticism. And the sights - the crowds of pilgrims walking the streets, bathing in the Ganges, preparing bodies for the funeral pyres of the burning ghats. My daunting task now is to try to convey what about this city is so special.

After the congestion of Delhi, we were told we would enjoy the relative quiet of Varanasi since it was a much smaller city. I wonder if the person who told us that has ever been to Varanasi. This "smaller" city has 1.8 million people and not a single stop light. The crowds in the street are equivalent to leaving Grant Park after the July 3 fireworks display. This video doesn't quite capture it but you'll get the idea.

The streets are so narrow that the tour eschewed our usual tour bus in favor of 4 five-passenger SUVs. Driving was harrowing, to say the least. This video doesn't come close to the eye-closing terror of sitting in the front passenger seat but here it is, since I went to the trouble of filming it.

Entry and closet doors

Our hotel in Varanasi is the Palace on The Ganges. It is not a palace, but it is two or three steps up from our hotel in Delhi - and it sits pretty much on the Ganges, way upriver from the active ghats and ritual bathing areas. The hotel is lushly and interestingly decorated, as you can see. The rooms were warm and stuffy and had a unique method of climate control - there was one air-conditioner remote for the entire hotel. We had to call the front desk if we wanted the temperature in our room adjusted. They responded in less than a minute but it still seems like an eccentric  way to save on electricity. Our check in went without a hitch, even though it was only mid-morning. We had only a short time to settle in and resume the obligations thrust upon tourists.

I took several additional photos of the hotel, available with this link, including a group shot of two for downloading for you interested tour members.

Entry to the Palace on the Ganges