Sunrise on the Ganges

We were up around 5:30 this morning, excited for a sunrise cruise on the Ganges. We climbed down the stairs from our hotel to the river, hired a driver, and hopped in his little wooden row boat. As we rowed upstream, we got to see Varanasi at its busiest and most important time of the day. Hundreds of Hindus come down to the water at this time of day. Kids were having a quick swim before school, men & women did laundry, sadhus (ascetic holy men trying to attain enlightenment) meditated, and people prayed with beads, water urns or candles. The men strip down to their jocks and dunk themselves over and over in the water. The women, of course, dunk in their full attire. There was a group of 3 old women in the water, taking turns dunking themselves. They clung to each other to prevent themselves from being carried downstream, even though the water is pretty much stagnant at this time of year. The main ghat was the busiest, but people were crowding nearly all of the other ghats as well. Our boat driver was able to tell us who was visiting from southern India based on their attire. We even passed a few boys in a rowboat trying to catch some fish, although I doubt that anything they did catch would be alive. It was very interesting and exciting to catch a glimpse of such an important daily ritual in the lives of the people of Varanasi. It was a beautiful morning with the sun rising behind us and giving the ghats & buildings behind them a pinkish glow.

We spent about 2 hours cruising up and down the river, just watching the people. We then went back to our hotel for a nice breakfast, and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. When it had cooled down some, we ventured out to get a few errands done. We had to get train tickets, but needed money first. We navigated our way through the maze of tiny alleys near the river and continued walking, looking for an ATM. By the time we finally found one, we were nearly at the train station and had walked through most of Varanasi. We continued on to the station, purchased our tickets from the wonderful International Tourist office, then decided to treat ourselves to a massage at one of the 'ritzy' hotels nearby. We took a cycle-rickshaw to one of them near the Raddisson but the massages were too expensive, so we decided to have a drink instead. We headed to another, nicer hotel down the street, but the drinks were too expensive as well. We gave up and took a cycle-rickshaw back to the main ghat area. We walked around a bit, watching everyone prepare for the nightly candle ceremony then headed back to our hotel. Again we had a great view of the candles being released into the river as we ate dinner before heading to bed.