Varanasi

Varanasi, Benares or Kashi. The fact that this city of 1,500,000 souls has at least three names is indicative of the extraordinary mix and layers that the place presents you with. Varanasis' whole life is closely associated with the River Ganges and the river's religious importance. It has been a cultural and religious centre in northern India for thousands of years. Legend has it that it was brought into being by the Goddess Shiva 5,000 years ago. It is situated in the middle of the Utar Pradesh region of India. It sits on the Holy river Ganges, or Ganje Ma as it is known to the locals. Mother Ganges. I was there during ...  Read the complete review

Supposedly the oldest city in existence in the world (more than a 1000 years old), Varanasi (also known as Kashi or Benares) is one of those cities where the old exists in conjunction with the new and where age-old traditions are slowly giving way to the demands of a modern world. I had unfailingly heard this holy city being mentioned in all the mythological stories narrated to me during my childhood, so much so, that I once remember asking my father whether all stories happened only at Varanasi! I will not make this review a ?Tourists guide to Varanasi? by listing out details of how to get there, where to stay, etc. Those points have already been covered by ...  Read the complete review

We visited Varanasi as part of a package tour of Northern India. We had heard lots about it before we went, but experiencing it first hand was much more than we imagined it to be. The Ganges is the holiest river in India and runs through Varanasi. It is believed that a dip in the river purifies the sins of the living and ensures the salvation of the dead. A bath in the Ganges has sacred and cultural connotations that go back centuries. Early morning is seen as the best time for bathing in the holy water, as the first rays of the sun break through the clouds. Most of the tourists head down for the river before dawn. Your senses are immediately ...  Read the complete review

It may be true that Varanasi is one of the most holiest cities in the world, and when your surrounded by the activities and festivals taking place there, it's understandable how you can get carried away with it. After spending some time there, it's clear that when you dig a little deeper under the face of it all, you discover that Varanasi is scarred with a lack of respect for the dead; this of course stems from extreme poverty surrounding almost every city in India. Supposedly one of the holiest hot spots in Varanasi is the funeral pire that is kept contstantly burning next to the mother river, the Gangees. To tourists and travellers this is a 'no ...  Read the complete review

Culture shock doesn't begin to describe it. It seems to just peel away all of your protective layers and turn you inside out-leaving you naked, exposed, vulnerable. Of course, then there's the illness that will inevitably come. Then you are left, defenses stripped away, to take in all of the poverty, disease, hideous disfigurements, rancid smell, noxious air, garbage, public ablutions, con-artists, misogyny, tenacious peddlers, bacteria-laden food/water, leering men, baksheesh, lack of hygiene, mass of population. Noone said it would ever be easy... Four months of travel did not, could not, prepare us for ...  Read the complete review