Varanasi: Home on the Ganges

Let me tell you a little something more personal than the usual matter-of-fact blog entry (bah!) And I speak for myself only and not necessarily Ryan, though I believe he generally agrees on this point...

when we first arrived in Mumbai there was this inherent feeling of awe and disappointment at what I saw. disappointment with the poverty, the noise and air pollution, the begging. from that day forward, every time I moved on to a new city, I had this sense of hope that things would be different in Goa, Kerala, Delhi, Nepal...This hope has been crushed every time. Because from the train station, every city does look the same.

An important thing I have learned (and the same generally applies to cities anywhere in the world) is that all the cities in India are very different from one another once you get a chance to step back from the madness of the transportation hubs.

Varanasi is a city that looks like every other city in many ways, and at the same time, there is something so charming about this place. The Ganges are definitely worth having a look at because there are plenty of interesting things happening there. But I am particularly fond of the small mazes of alleys that run along the coast. They remind me of roads in Quebec City except about 1/4 of the size and full of dogs, cows, and vendors.

We are only here until this evening when we take off for Sunauli, Nepal, but the little time we have spent here has been a good time. Thanks Varanasi.