Ellen Besso Coaching

Our plane was an hour late leaving Delhi, so we were late arriving in Varanasa. Our driver was not thrilled. We drove through very poor areas near the airport. I noticed that the energy felt quite different here than Delhi. As the traffic built, the driver switched into an impatient, pushing, & yes, honking mode. Once in Varanasi the traffic seemed almost impassable, with hundreds of people walking & driving in cars, motorcycles & richshaws. It turned out that it was the build-up for Dawali, the festival of good luck.

As we neared our destination at the riverside in the old city, the lanes our driver navigated grew narrower & narrower. Then finally we had to get out & walk as the cab was not allowed past a certain barrier which divided the old river section of the city from the rest. We were met by an employee of the Ganpati Guest House, wearing an orange shirt, which came in very handy as we followed him. He carried my medium sized suitcase on wheels on his shoulder, while Don carried his own bag. We had to walk quickly to keep up with the young man; by now it was dark (gets dark early, 6:30 or so). We crossed 2 very busy traffic circles after him; nobody stops, you just dodge between the motorcycles, rickshaws, cars & bicycles. In the excitement & overwhelm of the arrival, I don’t think I realized how dangerous this was that first night, especially for westerners lacking in the street smarts!

As we crossed through the 2nd traffic circle, the power went out in the city, & generators kicked in. There isn’t enough power to feed the city, & there are planned outages every day. We followed the Ganpati employee down increasingly narrow alleyways paved in stone, trying to avoid water & muck. Finally we reached a short alley that was roughly 3-4 feet wide (it varied); it was totally pitch dark. I felt uncomfortable for the 1st time. Then people living on the alley lit a flashlight for us, that felt better. A minute or 2 later we reached our hotel. The workers there were very welcoming; we may have been assigned the best room in the house! Expensive for India but worth it ($35/night); very beautifully & colourfully decorated unlike some of their other rooms.

The next morning at 7 we went out on our balcony & saw the Ganges for the 1st time. It was totally other-wordly…very peaceful with a few tourist boats rowing by…quite wide & curved with a wide sand spit on the opposite side & the town on the curve on our side. As I may have mentioned, Varanasi is the holy city for people of all religions & it is very auspicious to come there to visit, to ride on the river. Many people come there to die & live out there lives near temples with food donations.

The first morning we walked down many steps from our hotel, called a ghat, & went along the walkway by the water as far as the main street. The walkway has a series of ghats over perhaps a mile stretch. The burning ghat is where the bodies are cremated (Don went yesterday, I haven’t been yet. The tourist public is isolated from the ceremony in a separate building now, it wasn’t like that 30+ years ago when he was there. He heard a brief fundraising talk from an official, then made a substatial donation to a very old woman to fund wood supplies for poor people). We then went up & along the street in search of a hat for Don (he lost his in McLeod Gang). That was an adventure, & not of the good kind. We had to dodge traffic again & were bothered constantly by beggars & touts, as we are whenever we set foot out, unless we have an Indian with us. After asking 2 tailors, we finally had to succumb to the services of a tout & Don ended up with a slightly too small baseball cap with a large brim!

Today we took a tour by cab & saw several temples (Hindu & budhist) & an old fort museum. There was a problem at the Budha’s temple; the armed guard accused our driver of picking us up in that town & acting as an unlicensed tour guide & they got in an argument. A young guy tried to intervene (I think, but it was all in Hindi) & the guard pushed him away roughly twice & threatened him with the but of his rifle. It took a while & in the end our driver had to pay a fine of 400 rupees, at least half of his day’s fee (we paid it for him). Thinking about this later & speaking to one of the hotel waiters, we think it was a clear-cut case of baksheesh, or bribe.

Tomorrow we will explore the maize of laneways more & stay away from the busy traffic-filled streets. We have met a few nice people here at the hotel & friendly workers; somehow the fellow-travellers often seem to be just leaving when I meet them!

We have a couple of more days here, then fly back to Delhi, stay 1 night near the airport, then fly out the next morning early to Trivandrum in Kerala, in southern India, where we will spend the remaining 2+ weeks of our trip. Varanasi has been an important stop for both of us; I’ve wanted to visit it for over 30 years. It is a very spiritual place & brings the whole idea of life & death & mortality home to us.

All for now.

Namaste