VARANASI & BODH GAYA (20.4)

They say Varanasi is tout-filled, shit-smelling, and unsafe after dusk. I found none of these to be true.

After being offered Indian ladies back at Khajuraho by a local hotel owner I negotiated a good price (I never expected to get) for my tuktuk-trip to Khajuraho railway station. The tuktuk was packed with other tourists while the driver was accompanied with his friends. He was quite the rally-driver and played some groovy Indian music meanwhile. Arriving to the station I felt like sitting down. I saw a fellow backpacker, whose seat had some space beside it. For some reason I decided to sit there instead of the basic Finnish way of sitting somewhere where I could be alone. Maybe I felt like being close to someone. Needed someone to talk to. So I sat down asking if it was okay. It was. Later, I learned the man that I sat with was a German traveller (already for 6 weeks, 3rd time in India) Konstantin. This was a beginning of several nights of sharing a room.

We chatted some minutes with Konstantin getting to know each other agreeing on seeing at Varanasi junction station platform to find the hostel I had been recommended by Maria. Having travelled now with Konstantin, it seems we share a lot of basic traits and are in someway similar: while travelling, we are both careful and pre-emptive of anything. We both believe in punctual payback when it comes to money. We both don’t care if it’s 40 or 70 rupees if it’s a critical thing. We like computers, computer music, metal music, we like to learn about what we see as tourists, and we want to feel the atmosphere and the people of a place. We have both been good at school. We accept our parents giving financial support. We are at our 30s-ish. At some point we both started to dislike the majority of Indian food. We don’t care if a hotel room does not have any modern commodities as long as the price is right. Konstantin had a better camera than I do, he has a Jesus-like hair, had a beard which he cut away at one point. We both like to sleep long. Maybe I not so long. We discussed about politics, current monetary system and its flaws, religions, Buddhism, our own travels, and everything else. I spent in total four night with this guy. So, back to the train now (Khajuraho-Varanasi).

The overnight train was pleasant as I met again the two British ladies from the previous train (from Agra to Khajuraho). This time we talked a bit more. Solange and Jessie had met each other earlier, Solange having spent only 4 days in India, while Jessie several weeks. Jessie was able to speak Punjab as well, so she had the advantage of being able to understand what people were, more or less, saying about her. Solange was from the small 10,000 people village, Bornmouthe (or something like that), where there are sunny beaches in summer time. Jessie was from East End, London. Solange was this open and straightforward but happy person, very efficient in terms of having what she wanted, had some children back home and without a ring in the finger. Jessie was more like me, more of the silent-type, but considerate and very pretty :). We agreed to try and find the hostel I had been recommended by Maria.

When we got to Varanasi, some touts tried to scam us to pay too much for nothing in a rickshaw-ride. It was too dodgy at some point so we found a much better offer by this other guy, who not so surprisingly picked along the way his “brother” to accompany us four. The driver promised to take us quite near to the Varanasi ghats, the stairs residing beside Ganges. When we got there, me and Jessie followed the brother to find the recommended hotel (Alka). It took us quite a time and the walking was quite painful with the scorching weather and confusing alleyway jungle. Finally we reached it. No vacancy. Shit. We headed back and along the way noticed a hotel mentioned in one of our guidebooks (Ajay). Visited there and figured it would be maybe good enough. So we went back and told our driver we would take our business to this newly-found hotel. In the end, me and Konstantin settled for staying in the hotel since it was only 250 rupees per person for us. Simple enough room with private bathroom. Jessie and Solange ended up going to Alka hotel and one of its more upscale rooms.

That was quite a chore – to find a place to stay in Varanasi. We agreed with Jessie and Solange to meet them at the main ghat – Dasaswamedh at 6 p.m. So we did and watched the “puja” or religious ceremony (for the goddess of river Ganga (Ganges)) which was very.. nothing like I had ever witnessed. The atmosphere was essentially highly spiritual, with modern led-light controversy from the nearby stalls selling tourist junk. We went off for some tasty eating via the alleyways, which were actually very interesting and funnily enough easy to navigate, if one only could see the millions of painted signs on the walls. One had to watch out for scooters, cows and all kinds of junk and especially the droppings of any animal: they were plentiful. At the restaurant we listened to some classical Indian live music, played with sitar and some bongo-type drums. They played very well and it sounded very authentic.

Come next day we had agreed on waking up and meeting up our pre-arranged ferryman, or boat-rower, at 5 a.m. to take us to see what the locals were up to in the dawn-time The morning activities were diverse. At the ghats we witnessed: meditation, washing oneself, washing clothes, swimming, praying, and so on. The sunrise was absolutely stunning and was the highlight. To sense the whole city getting awake so early was something that can only be experienced. After the boat trip we went to the girls’ hotel to have some breakfast with riverside view.

In Varanasi we spent in total 2½ days with Konstantin. Girls, more or less the same. Jessie was headed to Darjeeling and Solange to Amritsar. Anyway, back to the story. After the morning boat-ride and breakfast we we boys and girls again our separate ways, agreeing on seeing at 6 p.m. at the main ghat to catch our boatman again for evening ride. The daytime was always exhaustingly burning hot, so we stayed in shade, surfing Internet and sleeping some back in our hotel. I’m disappointed I tried neither paan or bhang in Varanasi. I should have. Next time then. Anyways, at 6 p.m. it was time to see some corpses burning. Actually, we had already seen with Konstantin some dead stuff, when we went on foot to the main burning ghat. We witnessed there some piles of wood burning with the body inside burning, but could not see that much. The most dramatic thing we saw was when this man, grieving for his not-so-old-looking deceased wife, removed the decorative piece of cloth covering the corpse from her face. The man wanted to see his wife one last time. He started to cry and appeared to be in lot of pain. Later on we learned that people on this ghat are usually quite happy and seem to be minding their own business instead of focusing their attention to the burning corpses. The ghat was filled with huge piles of wood, had some cows walking along them and busy workers building new “ad hoc crematoriums”, since the stream of corpses was constant and quite plentiful. Just burning all the time. Pregnant corpses and child corpses were not burnt actually; instead they were just given to Ganga as such, to float around freely. The procedure for burning a corpse was as follows: the corpse is taken to the shore of Ganga, splashed some water on it, especially to the mouth, after which some of its decorative cloths are taken off. It is then placed on some between two layers of one pile of wood. It is then the spouses or oldest brother’s task to circle the pile of wood some five times doing some rituals. Then he lights the corpse on fire.

When we arrived to the burning ghat at nighttime with our boat, it was kinda magical. Our boat was accompanied with this Norwegian guy called Ken, who had kinda Scottish accent, and he was a photographer. Had been in the biz for quite a time, since he talked about the times of Soviet Union as well. He knew India very well and had been there many times, many years. He was just waving his head when he saw how commercialized Varanasi has become after his last visit. He was the only one on the boat to photograph the burning corpses, since he had a license for it. He knew to tell us that people are happy at the ghat, since the corpses are released from the eternal torment of reincarnation. The people who are buried here will go “straight away to heaven”. Beside the ghat is a pilgrimage home for people about to die. The procedure is.. quite hilarious but not so at all: people who go there have two weeks time to die after which they are burnt at the ghat. If they do not die in two weeks, they are kicked out.

After seeing the burning corpses we proceeded to see the daily puja from the river. The rituals some chosen ones (read: the rich ones) performed were very profound and had some kind of awe-inspiring spiritual-side to it. The feeling in the air was magical and filled with so much devotion. I mean, it is after all the number one tourist-place for any Indians. So there were lot of Indian tourists and funeral-attendees also present.

Ken taught us something useful about Indians: when you are able to lose the concept of personal space, the Indians will accept you and respect you. I have noticed many times it is quite a hard thing to do, actually. But I now try to be in close encounters with Indians :).

On the 3rd day we departed Varanasi with Konstantin in a train no more than 2 hours late in the end. So we got to Gaya, a city near to Bodh Gaya, at 3 a.m. It was a chore to find a hotel with vacancy, but somehow we managed, after many attempts, to find ourselves 250/250 rupee deal for a decent room. I was feeling very sick from the train travel and all the sicknesses I carried, so I just wanted to rest. We slept in the hotel until maybe 10 a.m., after which we bargained us a rickshaw to Bodh Gaya. We went to a hostel called Deep Guest House, which is a bit more expensive on the budget-side, but the cleanliness is outmatched by any I’ve seen so far in India. The first night we got off very cheaply for a proper room with TV. After laying down our biggest gear we set out for the town.

Bodh Gaya is known for its Mahabodhi temple, where Buddha received his enlightenment under a tree, whose supposed descendant still grows there. Bodh Gaya is also known for its variety of temples from different countries. Even Dalai Lama spends some of his time in Bodh Gaya. Bodh Gaya is situated in Bihar, said to be one of the most violent states in India. Actually I just read about two bodies having being found from Gaya the same day..

We spent most of the afternoon in the main attraction of Bodh Gaya: Mahabodhi temple and its surroundings. The place was filled with tourists, many of them seemingly Buddhists. A lot of actual monks were meditating under the tree where Buddha himself has been said to have received enlightenment. The atmosphere within the perimeter was relaxed and respectful, kind of meditative excluding some noisy Indian tourists. They can’t seem to be able to keep their mouths shut :).

Om restaurant catered our nutritional needs very well during the day. We visited some other places such as the big Buddha statue and some Japanese temple. The rest of the temples we would see tomorrow. So, it massive downfall of rain and thundering started when we were eating after the long day. We walked in the heavy rain back to our hostel, all soaked up but happy about the day. I fell asleep while watching “the Manchurian candidate” from the TV.

Today we’ve seen maaany temples: Bangladeshian, Tibetan, Japanese, Bhutanese, Thai, Chinese. While Konstantin had to hit the road towards Kolkata to catch a plane to Amritsar, I stayed in and will now start my chillout/meditation period. Already today I attended a one hour zen-meditation session in the Indosan Nipponji temple. It involved some monk chanting and playing some bells for the half of the session. It felt very good; after all travelling in India can be quite nerve-wrecking experience. I will continue to seek peace from here until Monday, when I will catch a train towards Delhi, where I will spend the last few days of my first trip here in India.