The Ghats of Varanasi

Well, we are now staying at the Hotel Divya, which is right next door from the Haifa. Our room is a little smaller, but it only costs 750 rupees ($19). It's still nice, although Tamding complains about the size of the TV. I really don't watch much TV when I travel, so I don't mind. There was some confusion when I was checking out of the Haifa, as the owner was complaing about us leaving earlier than we had said we would. But I had specifically asked the person at the desk in the morning if anyone had canceled, thus allowing us to stay. He said no, so I booked a room at the Divya and had already paid for it. So I wasn't going to stay at the Haifa just because a room had finally opened up. I hate getting in those situations, especially when the Haifa has all my laundry. Which is still not done, by the way. So I am sockless, which I find annoying.

So we did a tour of the Ghats today. A ghat is a place where you can swim. Varanasi is on the Ganga river, which is the western (and smaller) branch of the Ganges. We are further up stream than where we previously crossed the Ganga. So it's a lot smaller here, maybe the size of the Susquehana. Varanasi is where Hindus come to bathe in the Ganga. Bathing in the Ganga is said to wash away any bad karma you might have accumulated in your life. People also wash their clothes in it for purification. It is also a place to hold funerals, and some of the ghats are reserved for cremation ceremonies. You might think that the smell of those ghats would be horrendous, but that's not the case. They burn the bodies with quite a lot of wood, so they really just smell of burning wood. Which is a lot nicer than the rest of India, which smells of garbage, urine and cow dung, with a little incense mixed in.

On the tour we also saw a snake charmer, which made for some interesting pictures. But Tamding got the best one. The snake charmer insisted on putting a cobra around my neck, and Tanding has the picture. I look pretty damn nervous in the picture, and that's because I was. Now, I've held cobras before, but I had my index finger underneath its neck and my thumb pressing on its head, thereby preventing any bites. But this time the head was free and I had no control over what the cobra was doing. It was disconcerting, to say the least. Shortly after that, I bought some silks, for which Varanasi is famous. I'm a sucker for silk.

After that, we did a short tour of a Hindu temple and a museum. They were both a little underwhelming, but it gave us something to do until I would have a chance to communicate with one of my clients' patent attorney. Unfortunately, he's not up yet, and I need him to turn on his fax machine. I only have a tiny window between when he arrives at his office and when the fax place closes. I also stopped in a shop that does marble carvings to buy some gifts. The guy does some pretty interesting work and I'll probably go back tomorrow to buy something for myself. And, it turns out this the sculptor holds the world record for the most depictions of Ganesha, the Hindu god of knowledge and time. He has made 81,000 sketches, paintings and sculptures so far, and he's still going strong. He does a unique depiction of Ganesha playing the tabla, which I will probably buy. Ganesha is my favorite Hindu god. When I have more time, I'll write some more about the true nature of the gods of Hinduism. Hint: they probably aren't what you think.