Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganga River washes away your sins and dying here will send you straight to heaven. So it’s no wonder that this city is the most important pilgrimage destination in the country. Although temperatures rose upwards of 100 degrees before breakfast, a stop to the colorful and dramatic city of Varanasi couldn’t be missed. We walked for miles around the tight twisting alleys of the old city looking for snake charmers, ducked through cricket games on bathing ghats and watched the constant cremation ceremonies at burning ghats. Mark Twain wrote, "Varanasi is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." I guess that accounts for the smell.
my absolute number one place in the world that I must visit before I die is Varanasi...I am sooooooooo trying not to be jealous you've just been...
hope it was as awe inspiring as I imagine!
xx
k.
Posted by: Kendra Wasiluk | June 10, 2009 at 03:14 AM