Varanasi

Yesterday we toured Varanasi. We've been here since Monday but Monday was a recovery day. We're so tired all the time we need a day in between each tour so we don't crash.

Tuesday we started off bright and early at 5 AM. Sadly since it had rained the night before and water levels were too high we couldn't take a boat ride. Varanasi is a sacred place to hindus. They come here to bathe in the Ganges river.

On their way to bathe in the river

Bathing in the river

I love confused tourist standing in the crowd of Indians with his flower

Beautiful shot of the waterfront and Ganges river

Cow eating trash

This is what we saw on our way to the Golden Temple. The alleys reaked and were filled with garbage and cows. I almost hurled a couple times. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful Golden temple. No cameras were allowed so I had to entrust it to a shopkeeper. Luckily it was there when I got back. It was beautiful though. Completely covered in real gold.

After the river tour we went and saw the stoopah where Buddha gave his first sermon. A stoopah is a place where Buddhists go to worship. There also was a pretty cool museum that had a bunch of old statues from when they excavated the site. I couldn't take pictures though. :(

Stupa

After the museum and stupah we went to see the silk market. Silk weaving is a major industry here in Varanasi. Below you can see the beautiful work they do. All made by hand. I wanted to buy a few meters of fabric but I'm on a budget so I bought two scarfs. They're gorgeous!

The rest of the afternoon we did some more shopping and then relaxed at the hotel. We did have a little adventure taking a rickshaw to Fab India only to find out they didn't have one here. Our driver just said that so we'd get in the car but eventually he took us to a store that had just what we wanted (after he took us to an uber expensive touristy place). That night we were supposed to have an evening cruise on Ganges. But still no boat ride so we were just going to the ceremony part. Before we got there though we stopped to get some legit henna. I'm telling you this stuff is legit! and gorgeous. 

We were about to leave for the ceremony when it started raining. That's no good for henna or the ceremony! We ended up just going back to the hotel but it took awhile to get back to the car without wrecking the henna. I'm bummed we didn't do a lot we had planned in Varanasi but it still was amazing and I'm glad I could see it.

Finished henna. I'm gonna try to keep it as dark as this for when I get back to the states.

That's it for now. Today is our last day in India. Sniff sniff. See you all soon.

Ems