After a couple of days in Kolkata, our next stop on our travels in India was the holy city of Varanasi.

If you’d like to read about our most recent stop on the trip prior to Varanasi, my previous post is linked here.

Day 19: Overnight Train to Varanasi

Just before dinner, we headed in a taxi to the train station to catch our overnight train bound for Varanasi, which was about a 14-hour journey.

We arrived a little bit early so that we could get something to eat in the train station and made use of the “executive lounge” that you can pay for and has its own food for purchase. After a delicious meal of dosas, we packed up our bags and headed into the heart of the station to find our train.

The Kolkata train station was a sight to behold. Around us, there were tens of thousands of people, heading both on and off the trains as well as setting up camp anywhere and everywhere to sit and wait for trains to come in or leave, or for family or friends to depart or arrive. Seeing this many people in one place was a shock to me and I definitely appreciated the gentle flow to the chaos.

Since our train started in Varanasi, we were able to get on early before it left the station. We were in the 2AC sleeper car, which means we each had a spot in a bunk bed located in a compartment with two other people. The photos below are from a different train ride we took while in India, but I thought I would provide them here as they give a great visual of what we experienced.

After getting settled, it wasn’t long before everyone headed to bed for our first sleep of the trip on the train!

Day 20: First Day in Varanasi

We woke up an hour or so before our train was scheduled to arrive in Varanasi. When we disembarked, we were greeted with intense heat and a lot of chaos at the Varanasi train station and surrounds.

After a chaotic ten minutes or so trying to book a taxi, we were able to get a tuk-tuk and head towards our hotel. The interesting part about the old city section of Varanasi is that the streets are very small and narrow, and only wide enough for pedestrians, motorbikes, and cows.

And, wow, were there cows! This was our first encounter with them on the trip, and they were everywhere. It presented some extra maneuvering when navigating the alleyways as we had to watch out for both motor vehicles and large bovines while getting from point A to point B. We even had a cow try and get into a cafe we were sitting in at one point! After getting dropped off on the main road, we had to weave through different alleyways before making it to our hotel.

That afternoon, we ventured out into the heat to the more ornate part of the old city, near the big ghats. We walked around a bit to get our bearings, and it was extremely hot and also very busy with tourists. We later learned that we were visiting Varanasi during the peak season as the monsoon was set to arrive in a few weeks, which explained the large crowds.

That evening, we went back down near one of the main ghats and sat on some steps to watch the evening celebrations.

Every night on the water in Varanasi, the pandits (Hindu priests) lead nightly Aarti ceremony, which involves the pandits offering fire to the goddess of the Ganges River with song and dance. We watched the ceremony with thousands of other people, and it was an incredible experience to witness a group of people feeling such sacredness from gathering in such a holy place.

Day 21: An Evening on the Ganges

We spent the morning and much of the afternoon of Day 21 doing some administrative work for the rest of our trip, as it was quite hot outside and we wanted to save our energy for our evening boat ride that we booked.

The administrative work involved sorting out our next location of the trip, which was supposed to be Rishikesh (the birthplace of yoga), but we changed to spending some more time in the McLeod Ganj area (home of the Dalai Lama). Finding and booking flights took much longer than expected, but we were happy to be doing so in the cool of the air conditioning indoors.

Early that evening, it was time for our boat ride on the Ganges River. We were able to organize our boat ride through a bakery we had been visiting called Brown Bread Bakery. This bakery is special as it provides vocational training for disadvantaged youth in the community with various initiatives, such as training employees to work in the bakery and other employment opportunities.

The manager of the bakery took us out on his little rowboat for us to experience the energy of Varanasi from the water. This was a great vantage point to take it all in as we were able to see everything that was going on at a respectful distance. We saw hundreds of people bathing in the Ganges River, and were able to witness cremation ceremonies from afar at two of the burning ghats on the water.

We loved the boat ride, and also really enjoyed chatting with our boat driver about his experiences growing up and living in Varanasi and how much it’s changed. He says in recent years, the government has put a lot more focus into developing Varanasi’s infrastructure, such as installing night lighting and keeping the Ganges clean.

George, who had visited in 2017, agreed that it seemed quite different from the last time that he visited. The boat driver also said that the tourist demographic has changed – what used to be a tourist population of 25% domestic tourists and 75% international tourists has completely switched with the rise of the Indian middle class who now have money to travel around their own country. We noticed this trend everywhere we travelled in India, and it was great to see more locals being able to enjoy exploring India.

Varanasi, though extremely hot and quite chaotic at times, was a very special place and such a unique experience. If you are planning a trip to India, I would definitely recommend a stop here to gain an understanding of the powerful spirituality and devotion associated with the Holy Ganges River.

After Varanasi, we made a brief stop in Delhi before moving on to our next destination: the McLeod Ganj area, home of the Dalai Lama as well as the exiled Tibetan government. I’m excited to share about our experiences there in my next post.

As always, thanks for reading!