Varanasi is one of the most sacred cities in the world. It is the holiest of Indian pilgrimages and is home to Shiva, a Hindu God. Varanasi is also where the dead are brought in hopes of of achieving moksha, the salvation of the soul from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Devotees come to Varanasi to bathe in the Ganges to wash away their sins. This ritual is performed by hundreds every morning. Walking around the streets of Varanasi is like walking in a maze. You encounter devotees holding flowers as offerings as they wait their turn in line to enter the temple, grieving families carrying the corpse if a loved one down to the cremation ghat, chanting priests and many many cows raiding the rubbish left by humans.

We arrived at the Varanasi train station and were immediately spotted by the rickshaw drivers who ran towards us asking us where we were going. Though we normally walk away, this time we decided to take our very first cycle-rickshaw, which was a very funny and scary experience at the same time. We zigzagged through the traffic and slowly made our way to the narrow streets if the old city. The rickshaw had to let us off a few minutes away from our hotel because vehicles and bicycles are not allowed in the smaller streets. We walked around for a long while and never found the hotel we were looking for so we took a room in a different one!

Without knowing it, we chose to stay at a hotel near the cremation ghats that Varanasi is so famous for. We spent our first evening watching a cremation, and you really only need to experience this once in your lifetime, if at all.

We read and were told that we should take a boat ride in the Ganga at sunset so we did just that and bought a small floating candle with flowers to set out in the water. The boat ride was nice and allowed us to see the city from a distance. We even put our hands in the water...we did not dare leave it in for too long though. The Ganga is known as a miraculous river in part because years ago, when humans began polluting it, it was resilient and the water remained clean and drinkable despite the waste that was disposed of in the water. Today, 40 000 uncremated bodies and countless ashes are thrown in every year, toxic waste is dumped in, and every day litter such as plastic wrappings find their way to the water. It is quite surprising that it is so polluted since this river is the most sacred river for Hindus and it has become one of the most polluted.

The food in Varanasi was nothing special and bordered on being bad. The streets are narrow and littered with cow dumpings and the lack if sewers gave the air a repulsive smell. Though it was a very interesting experience, I was glad to move on tithe next city.