Surviving Varanasi

I can hardly believe I have less than 10 days left in India.  Since I last posted, I traveled from Varanasi to Delhi and tonight just arrived in Jaipur.  It’s hot as heck everywhere these days, on Monday it was 49 degrees and yesterday a “cool” 42 degrees – we definitely noticed the difference.  In Jaipur this evening it’s a balmy 37 degrees and I had to grab a wrap sitting outside this evening.  Monsoon has not yet arrived in Northern India and there is major concern for the crops not getting enough rainfall. Traveling across the country, you can see how very dry the land is.  Even locals are struggling with the strange weather that is being blamed on El Nino and the impact it is having on currents in the Indian Ocean.  For everyone’s sake, I hope the monsoon rains come soon.

I had all sorts of plans for my week-long visit to Varanasi, but catching that bug meant I was in bed for the week except for one day, where I ventured out to see a few of the sites, mostly Hindu temples.  The most off-putting part of visiting the Hindu temples in Varanasi is the number of men trying to make a buck out of you.  I know it is part of the deal here in India but it was especially outrageous in Varanasi as compared to Kolkata.  In and around the ghats where most of the tourist hotels are located, almost everyone is on the make somehow, and very aggressively.  You just get tired of it.  All the time.  Having to say No No No constantly.  It’s made me into a rude person, I have never ignored so many people in my life!   

I did spend a day as I said, seeing the sights in Varanasi, but quickly ran out of the many Hindu temples on the list because of the touts and constant barrage of wanting money.  I did not make it past the entrance to the Monkey Temple before turning on my heels and heading back out.  Why?  I witnessed one monkey dragging a young women along the ground by her scarf (I do not tell a lie), neither the monkey or the woman was letting go.  And while that was underway, another monkey attacked a little girl and ended up biting her.  I was already being pestered by a bunch of the usual touts at the entrance and I just decided I could do with one less Hindu Temple, particularly when the monkeys were biting.  

The highlight of Varanasi for me was that first morning meditating on the Ganga, and visiting Sarnath – a place that is a little over 10km outside of Varanasi where  Buddha first taught the Dharma after attaining enlightenment.  I meditated in these grounds also which were clean and oh so peaceful – no one wanting anything from me!  Afterwards, I also visited the Thai Buddhist Temple in Sarnath and it too was a very peaceful place with n’ere a tout in sight.  The good thing about the Buddhist sites is the young man the hotel sent along to protect me (and who was a master tout himself in his own right!), did not feel comfortable entering the Buddhist sites.  This meant I got a few hours to myself without him trying every chance he got to get me to go visit some family members’ fabric store, holy store, bookstore etc …. I tell ya, if it were all to be believed, his family were running Varanasi.  

In a way I was glad to leave Varanasi, maybe being sick had something to do with it too.  But in speaking to other travelers, many had similar experiences to me.  If you ever visit Varanasi, be forewarned!

I was a tad apprehensive getting on the train for a 17-hour journey from Varanasi to Delhi (being ill and all), but I need not have worried.  I survived the trip well and even had a compartment to myself.  That was only because one Indian gentleman who boarded in Lucknow, freaked out that he had to share a compartment with a western female (that was me).  The conductor asked me to move but given I had booked and paid for the berth and had already been on the train 8 or 9 hours by then, I declined to move.  At this point a young man I had chatted with earlier, came over to my compartment I suspect to give me some moral support.  He is a software engineer and had lived and worked in Finland, had done some business in Ireland and just had received his work permit for the USA.  Oh, and was a first time Dad of 3 days.  A very nice guy.  I tell this story because it gives you an indication of how the older generation of men view women here in …. I was going to say in rural environments but Lucknow is a city of 5 million people. I am not saying all Indian men are like this, I am just saying this kind of thing happens in India, and it does not in my world in Canada, for which I am grateful.

My train arriving into the platform in Varanasi. So many people on the platform!

  

A compartment of my own. My bed has been set up for my overnight journey to Delhi.  It was a good night’s sleep.