We left Birganj around 7.30am, this time on the Sundowners bus that was to take us all the way to London. Customs hassles took all of an hour, but this was mainly to check out the bus so in fact it was just free time for us paying passengers. Once again, the trip took us through some pretty dreary countryside. The occasional wells and mango orchards broke the monotony of rice fields and barren ground. We got our first view of the Ganges – it was a sizable river, but we understood we would be seeing a lot more of it in the near future.
We finally reached Patna, a large, busy but drab city, around 6pm, where we booked into the Hotel Aspara. Before alighting the bus, we had a period of entertainment through the bus emergency window at the rear, with the locals checking out this strange brand of Europeans that had arrived in town. The hotel was nothing flash, with the meal once again poor value for the money. There was a 7.30pm curfew in the town, but we had little inclination to travel around anyway.
with one of the guys having cut his hand on a mirror, requiring it to be stitched up by our on the trip. We finally got away at 8.15am but did not reach Benares (since renamed Varanasi) until 6.15pm due to a long delay in procuring a petrol permit. There was nothing particularly memorable to report from the trip, except for the great sunset, with rays shining up through the clouds, which we caught as we crossed the Ganges just prior to reaching Benares.
There was a pleasant surprise in store for us with our stay at the Hotel de Paris, just out of Benares. We had joked as we were driving along and approached the old colonial building in its massive grounds – Wouldnt it be great to stay there for the night when next minute the bus actually turned into its driveway. It was a super flash with monstrous gardens and heaps of servants, all dressed impeccably in white and calling us ‘Saab. We had our first taste of mixed rooming, with the two Canberra nurses joining 4 of us guys in the dorm. We enjoyed a 4 course meal, followed by coffee
served in the lounge. It was hard to restrain a laugh or two after what we had encountered for the first couple of overnight stays in India. Total cost for the overnight was a mere 37Rp (5 bucks) full board.
The following morning, we were up for a 5.30am start, but it was well worth every minute. With our guide, we set off to check out the early morning activities on the Ganges in a procession of 3 boats. This is the holy place of the Hindus, and the belief is that bathing in the river rids you of your sins. Further, to die at Benares is an automatic admission to heaven, so bodies are brought here from afar to die and be cremated. Benares also rates 3 universities, prompting the throwaway line from our guide that it is the centre of learning and burning!
On our visit, we saw hundreds of Indians, predominantly Hindu, bathing off the Ghats. As well as bathing, people were filling brass jars with holy water for the home, and also doing their washing. The system of dying and cremation (except infants, holy men and the ill, who are dumped whole into the
river) was explained, with examples shown. While we could see the cremation processes in the distance, fortunately are requested to be respectful and keep their distance. Apparently, despite all the activities, the Ganges still has a remarkably low bacterial level, so it must indeed be blessed. We had an element of doubt however, after the rather gruesome discovery of a badly corpse at the edge of the river, just as we were leaving.
One half of the Ganges River was bounded by a long row of quaint buildings, while the other barren. This latter side is that on which death means reincarnation as a donkey. We checked out a couple of temples on the original side of the river before returning to the hotel for a scrumptious breakfast.
