Our hotel
Varanasi, once known as Benares, is an incredible city in northern India, sacred to Hindus and overflowing with history and culture. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in many ways Varanasi epitomizes the very best and the most challenging aspects of India, and it can be a little overwhelming. Over 60,000 people come down to the waters edge every day to take a dip in the sacred waters of the Ganges. Along the city's winding streets are some 2,000 temples, including Kashi Vishwanath, the “Golden Temple” (which non hindus are not allowed to visit ) dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva
Every day at Manikarnika Ghat, the largest and most auspicious cremation ghat, around 100 bodies are cremated on wooden pyres along the river's edge. The ghat (steps leading down to the holy water) operates around the clock, every day of the year. The eternal flame that feeds the fires is said to have been burning for centuries now.
And every night the blessing of the Ganges ceremony takes place. The Ganga Aarti ceremony is a nightly ritual of worship to the Ganges River, and takes place every evening at sunset at Dashashwamedh Ghat. During this spiritual and visually captivating event, a group of priests performs a choreographed ceremony with chanting, fire offerings, and the waving of oil lamps to honour the river.
Friday, October 17 Bodhgaya to Varanesi.
We had a disjointed breakfast at 7 am in Bodhgaya as they seem to lose our order fruit juices and an omelet but David said his croissant was quite edible and I enjoyed my baked beans. We left at 8 am and were at Sasaram 2 1/2 hours later. The first 30 minutes of the journey was along very badly maintained country roads so somewhat slow but then we got onto a highway which was populated almost exclusively by lorries with lots of ducks as well as we went through towns.
At Sasaram we were most impressed by the tomb of Sher Snah Siri, a mughal leader in the 16th century. Sher Shah Siri was a provincial warlord, who defeated the great Mughal Emperor Humayun.The mausoleum was a very reminiscent of the Taj Mahal and the whole place surrounded by a large lake was so very peaceful and impressive, with very few tourists around. The local police were very suspicious of my binoculars as we went through the security to enter the site. We stayed there about an hour soaking up the beauty of it all.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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At this point our guide Muki left us, he returning to Bodhgaya by train, whilst we continued on to Varanasi with the driver. We arrived at Varanasi not long after 14.00 and we stopped in a busy street in the old town, where we were warmly greeted by four hotel staff and led through narrow, if somewhat fly ridden, alleyways for about 10 minutes, seeing two jumping monkeys en route, to arrive at to some ghats overlooking the Ganges. Here the hotel ferry awaited us and we were given a welcome drink aboard it and then sailed upstream for about 800 yards until we came to the hotel. It was a very impressive palace dating from 1810. Brijrama Palace had taken nine years of conversion in the early 2000s to become a 32 room hotel, the inside was truly wondrous, as indeed was the exterior overlooking the Ganges. We were shown to room 106 which we soon discovered had no view other than onto a wall and some green, plastic coated, air conditioning units.
After Chris had had a siesta we went down to reception and David told them that he was not amused at all and the duty manager completely agreed with him that the room was unacceptable. He offered to change us. After we had had their high tea, this is somewhat of a disappointment to Chris, he told us that we could move to a really superior room for the first night but would then have to move to another very good room on Saturday and we agreed to this. So back to the room to re-pack and move to the new one which was on the third floor and had a huge bay window overlooking the Ganges but by this time it was almost dark so we will wait till the morning to have the really magnificent views. We enjoyed sitting in the bay window for awhile and then wandered down and walked along the top of the ghats at ground level then back to the room for a coffee before enjoying a wondrous display of dance and music for 45 minutes in a magnificent central courtyard.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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| Arrival through narrow streets and a boat | Man with sun umbrella to welcome us | ||
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Then back for an early night as we have to get up and be ready by 5:30 am tomorrow.
Saturday, October 18. Varanesi
We met our guide at 5:30 am but the boat he had ordered did not turn up until 5:50 am. We then had a 25 minute trip along the Ganges the last five minutes of it being without the engine and just going with the current for the return trip. I was a little disappointed in this trip as we saw very few people bathing and I was under the impression the ghats would wait full of people going in and out of the Ganges. We alighted further along than the hotel and then walked through the old town with it narrow and rubbish strewn alleyways. We did see the latest new complex that Mr Modi, who is the MP for this constituency, had had built to replace the previous narrow access to the Golden Temple there. We were not allowed in this temple although the guide did not actually tell us this: he was a man of few words and marched on ahead of us most of the time, seemingly completely disinterested in us
We got back to the hotel by 7 am having navigated through a number somewhat unsavoury areas in the back streets of the town. We enjoyed our deluxe room until nearly 9 am when we went down for breakfast. The eggs and the fresh orange juice were first class.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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Then we returned to the room until 11.30 when we went out again with Jay. Each time we went out, it involved a boat trip, this time to the the ghats where we had boarded the boat for the hotel the previous day. From these ghats we walked through the narrow alleys again and met up with a car and driver and drove to Sarnath, where it is believed that Buddha gave his first sermon. This site had been excavated in the 18th century and had a very impressive stupa of the Mogul emperor at the time. Also hundreds of small stupas. There was also a well presented museum, although some of the vines had gone straight to the British museum back in those days.
Once again our guide talked to us only occasionally and then set off in one of his disinterest moods and on the way back into town he actually fell asleep in the car. So we are back in the hotel again soon after 15.00 and I had a short sleep and then we sat outside our room having coffee, a very pleasant area in which to sit. The new room 202 overlooked inland buildings and was not really large enough to sit around in, but we were very grateful for having being given a night and morning in one of the two best rooms in the hotel.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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At 16:30, we went for a free foot massage but the owner of the spa put so much pressure on us to have other massages as well that David walked out in disgust but I still had my massage. Then we went out for a 17.00 pm boat ride, this time in a much better boat (we had complained about the 0:30 am boat - both in it being so late arriving and in the fact they expected me to jump off a very high area to alight ) . We chugged past various ghats including the crematorium sites where there were several fires blazing. We then reached a site where we were told there would be a ceremony to mother Ganga at 18:30 : this was over an hour away. We asked to know why we were there so early. It eventually transpired that we could have just walked to a similar ceremony near the hotel, the same ceremony being performed in six different places. David's patience with Jai was now completely exhausted.
We said we’d go back to the hotel and sort ourselves out but in fact the boat dropped us off past the hotel and Jay told us to get out and we followed him up the steps and along some streets and found ourselves watching the ceremony. Here we stayed for almost an hour and it was very interesting. Also down below us we could see the hundreds of people that were looking up to watch the ceremony.
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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We got back to the hotel soon after seven, pleased to be rid of the services of this particular guide. At 19:30 pm we went to one of the hotels restaurants and had a 10 course tasting menu which was based on what would’ve been eaten during the period of the three owners of the hotel, roughly 1812 to 1890, 1890 to 1990 and the last period with the present owner. The food was really good but I could not understand all the waiter was telling us about each tiny course. Also once it got to the sweet courses, they seem to increase in size and I have very little room left by then.
And next morning we depart from the hotel again by boat
To get a larger photo, click on a thumbnail below
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