Varanasi - India
- Jorge Yuri and Renata
- 17 de abr. de 2016
- 2 min de leitura
Varanasi was the sixteenth stop of “Reviravolta ao Mundo”. Varanasi is the spiritual capital of India and has over 5000 years of existence. According to the Hindus, Shiva founded the city.
In our planning, we would stay only a few hours in Varanasi. Our train arrived almost three hours late, so we only got four hours to visit the city. Too bad! Not because Varanasi is beautiful and organized, it is not. It’s so dirty and chaotic as all Indian cities that we visited, but because it is a holy city, the atmosphere around it is amazing.
As time was short, we left the train station and went straight to the banks of the Ganges to see the magic of the city. The arrival is impressive because thousands of people are in "Gaths" (riverfront steps leading to the banks of the River Ganges). Another hundreds more are in the river taking their bath in the holy waters.
One of the things I wanted to do in India was taking a bath in the Ganges. Varanasi would be the perfect place, but I confess that I gave up. I don’t know if it was in respect to the people who really have a reason to take a bath in the Ganges or from what I’ve read about the water quality of Ganges in Varanasi. This was the first major goal not achived of the travel. :)
We did a one-hour boat tour to see the "gaths" and the crematorium from the riverside. Yes, crematorium. Varanasi is where the Hindus want to be cremated after death. Their ashes are thrown into the Ganges and many families travel thousands of kilometres to this. The crematorium is open 24 hours a day and in respect to the families we didn’t take pictures.
At sunset there are many rituals in the Ganges bank, but as we had little time in Varanasi, we couldn’t see any because we had to leave. :(
In Varanasi we said goodbye to our friend Pascal, who accompanied us by India since Jalhandar. Thanks Pascal for being with us and we hope to meet you again somewhere else in the world.
* Visited in February/2016
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