Varanasi

We spent a week in the mystical city of Varanasi, how easily it crept into our hearts.

Varanasi is a holy city for the Hindus and the Buddhists. Sitting on the shores of the mother of rivers- Ganges, it is believed that whoever dies in this city of Gods is granted a complete liberation- moksha, no questions asked. Hence the dead of many places from all over India are transported here for a cremation. Walking down the alleys of the old town, there are always hurried funeral processions going past chanting "Rama Nama satya hai!" (the name of Rama is the Supreme Truth). And the cremations down the burning ghats proceed 24 h without stop. One is allowed to watch these ghostly ceremonies, after being told ten times not to take a photo and finding an acceptable distance for ones stomach not to cramp too much. We were unfortunately a bit sick while we ventured down to the famous Manakarnika Ghat, hence we watched this show with a dizzy head and a feeling of nausea, but it made the city we had already felt to be mysterious even more so. Varanasi is a special city indeed with its thousands of narrow alleys which are almost impossible to navigate, the almost constant mist (coupled by the smoke from the burning ghats) circling above the river, the sadhus (mostly fake) with wide crazy eyes and the goats and cows balancing on thin edges of walls and steep stairs. Days turn into weeks easily when you feel yourself to be in a surreal place like Varanasi.

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To pass the time we also took some yoga classes and tabla lessons. Enjoyed the tabla immensely, kept hearing nothing but drum beats in my head for days, there were no more taps of heels or clicks on keyboard, it was all a drumming, drumming, drumming.. :)

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In the evening there is the aarti or evening river ceremony. The lighting of thousands of little candles for blessings and the chanting that goes with it- magical! We watched this from a boat. Here's a short clip of a video to get a feel of the place in the evening.

Will always remember the beauty and the magic of this very special town.

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