|
Day 9:
Saturday 7th December
Buddha's
enlightenment; ruined monasteries; deer park; museum (4-lion column); silk
factory; temple of Mother India; ghats by dusk.
 The 5:30am wake-up call was rather unexpected at 5am! Clare forces an apology from the front desk...! We're up early for sunrise over the Ganges
- at the river everyone seems to be doing their washing. The sun rises.
 
  A boat trip around the
ghats at sunrise takes us past the 'cheapo' incinerators, past the penthouse apartment of the untouchable who owns the Ghats on which cremation is carried out (dealing with death, he has to be untouchable...), and past the strange assortment of buildings looking over the Ganges, of which most are temples - there's even a sinking one.
  
Return to the hotel for breakfast, and Alex and I lodge our washing and pray we'll see it again.
We take cars toward Saranath Shrine, avoiding the dying dog as we leave Varanasi.
 En route we stop off (due to Clare's curiosity) at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery with a huge golden Buddha
and painted murals about the lifetime and enlightenment of Buddha. Beside the temple is the tree under which Buddha dictated his sermons to his scribes.
   
  Complete the journey to
Saranath Shrine, the site where the Buddha preached his first sermon. It's the excavation of a multitude of ruined monasteries and stupas, with a deer park round the back; I bought some (what looked like) potato peelings from a child selling them for feeding the deer
who then becomes distraught when I don't want any more.
We deposit all bags and cameras in the cars before going to the associated
Archaeological Museum [p2
and p3] across the road which houses the famous four-headed dragon statue. A lot of statues have had their faces and hands struck off, presumably from 'religious cleansing' of India over the ages.
   The journey back to the hotel stops at a silk factory where fabulous cloth is made and sold. Jo and Frances appear as models to demonstrate the wearing of the sari.
  
 A quest with Carolyn and Alison for APS film takes us down the road from the hotel to a little shop which despatches riders to source the film. Outside the shop, in the alley, is a Chartered Accountant... There is a shop in the hotel, incidentally, which is stocked with postcards and film, but the owner (with the keys) hasn't been back in 2 years, apparently.
Lunch back at the hotel with Jo, Alex, and Sally - toasted cheese & tomato sandwiches with chips (but it takes about an hour to make!).
  A load of us sat by the pool while a wedding reception (another one!) gathered around us. Carolyn and I talk to a guest then join everyone else at reception for a cycle-rickshaw ride
to the Temple of Mother India (Bharat Mata), with a relief map on the floor and picturesque postcards of Indian beauty, pain, and maiming.
Back to the ghats for a sunset cruise as the light fails to see the burning ghats. On boarding the boat two sisters hand out 'floating candles' to everyone but soon even sisterly love succumbs to the promise of cash and they end up fighting (the candles are all handed back until they agree to split the profit!).
  As we bob around the ghats
waiting for the light to fade we are merely one in a throng of boats all waiting around for the same thing. We are often accosted by boat-traders (always in tank-tops) selling primarily "Ganga water", although there's postcards and little statuettes as well... As the light fades to darkness we hover about the burning ghats, and eventually set free our little candles.
We exit the boat onto a ghat beside the Aarti (ritual) of dancing, bell-ringing, and candles. The throng of white tourists then squeeze through the packed street market and all the associated hawkers, pausing at a 'general store' caravan for Clare to buy supplies for tomorrow lunch. We walk a fair way away from the ghat before picking up cycle rickshaws.
Back at the hotel dinner is free choice so Sally & I, and Carolyn and Alison keep hold of our rickshaws for a trip out to dinner. The rickshaw drivers keep pointing to a restaurant but their coworkers are doing the same to the French so we elect for
the Poonam restaurant.
Some of the others - Kirby, Andy, Graham, Lynn, and Alex - walk to the hotel, which isn't far, and arrive about 5 minutes after the rest of us. We order a mix of dishes, and the French promptly arrive!
Someone at this meal feels ill (?) and is taken home before the rest of us leave after filling in the questionnaires they distribute...!!
| 
