Varanasi Favorites

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Favorite thing: The domestic water buffalo, prevalent almost everywhere in India, are omnipresent on the less populated ghats along the Ganges. Used for draft, dairy, and (at the end of their working lives) meat, their dung is also used for fuel.

During the heat of the day, you'll often spot the buff cooling off in the river water, and at night you'll probably bump into them wandering around the ghats!

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Favorite thing: My favorite thing about Varanasi, is that there is just not another place like it!! One minute u love it, and the next thing u hate it!!! It is so spiritual, and there are so many unusual things happening everywhere that u actually feel like u had the most amazing experience and the memories will never fade!!

Fondest memory: I just loved sitting on the Ghats and watching the boats and the people....and in the evening, gazing at the Ganges from our river view room and it is all lit up from people putting candles in the water...

And wondering down the narrow streets, and watching the children play and dodging the cows that are hoarding the streets!

Taking the rickshaw through the chaotic streets and just sitting back and taking it all in...

The sounds, the smells, the sites are like nothing i have ever seen!!

Favorite thing: The places very near to Varanasi that one can also visit are:
Sarnath (10 kms), the holy land where the Budhha preached Buddhism,
Ramnagar (14 Kms), where one finds the Ramnagar fort, the palace of the King with an exquisite museum
Chunar (40 kms), where one finds the Chunar fort, house of Mughal rulers for many generations
Vidhyachal (80 kms), with one of the Shaktipeeths
Chandraprabha Wildlife Sanctuary (70 kms)
Allahabad (135 kms), the confluence of the three rivers, Ganga, Jamuna & Saraswati (popularly called the Tribeni Sangam)

Favorite thing: So here's some Hindi words commonly used that might make your travel to Varanasi simpler:
Water (Paani), Food (Khana), Lane (Gali), Road (Rasta), House (Ghar), The Ganges (Ganga), Money (Rupiya), How much? (Kitna?), Where? (Kidhar?), How? (Kaise?), Why? (Kiu?), Who? (Kaun?), When? (Kab?), Price (Kimat), Cloth (Kapra), Tea (Chai), Yes (Ha), No (Nehi), Very good (Bohot Achcha), Bad (Kharab), My name is ... (Mera naam ... hai), What is your name? (Tumhara naam kya hai?)

Thank you (Dhanyabad)

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Favorite thing: Saw these guys repairing this boat using just hand tools. Reminded me seeing similar repairs being carried out using hand tools on Dhow boats in Dubai. The photo also shows how bad the pollution is in the Ganges as the edge of the water is green!

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Favorite thing: I arrived at the ghats at dawn when the sun was just beginning to climb. It first glowed a dark red before turning pink, then orange and then yellow. The sun bathes the ghats with these different colours as they all face the sun at sunrise. So don't forget to have one eye on the sun whilst taking pictures of all the goings-on on the ghats.

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Favorite thing: Varanasi claims to be one of the oldest living cities on earth - “older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together”, as per Mark Twain.

In a more realistic approach, its history dates back to 1400 BC, but Varanasi became a centre of pilgrimage for the adepts of Shiva after the reform of the Hinduism around the 8th century

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Favorite thing: Along the same 7km river banks in Varanasi where 60.000 people perform daily their sacred and secular activities, 30 large sewers are continuously discharging into the river.
Hence, the river is so heavily polluted that the water is septic – no dissolved oxygen exists.
And the problem gets worse every year, despite efforts made by the authorities. To quote an example from the LP 2005 edition, faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml water exceed the safe ceiling by 30 times (1,5 million bacteria agains 0,5 million safe ceiling).