March 31, 2016
Varanasi: Ghats, temples and a Ganges sunset cruise
"It's all relative, something is holy one moment and trash the next." As we see people sweeping up old flower offerings while others are buying new flower offerings to place in the Ganges.
We walk down to the Ghats at sunrise and all along the west side of the Ganges River. People are washing and praying. Laundry is done slapping the clothes on the rocks then spreading it out on the Ghat steps to dry. We see stacks of wooden logs. Relatives of someone who has died are getting their heads shaved and fires are burning to receive the body.
We signed up at our guesthouse a package tour including a tuk tuk ride to the 4 temples in the area, a sunset boat ride and a sunrise boat ride. We did the temple tour mid morning ending at a silk factory. We sit in a large room full of cushions, and silk items like table clothes and bedcovers are opened up with a flourish. The half kilometer area is full of factories with 790 people operating the machines that make the silk items.
Resting during the heat of the day, at 530pm we are escorted back to the river for the sunset boat ride. Along with lots of other boats we make our way to a Ghat where ritual dances are performed.
Tomorrow early morning we do the sunrise boat tour.
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