The City of Varanasi

First Impressions:

• pungent smell
• hot
• tons of flies
• very different than the India I have experienced thus far.

Although those adjectives could be considered negative, I really don't mean them to be. For the oldest city on earth, she isn't doin' too horribly I suppose. The people are very nice, I can find chocolate, and the tourists are differently obnoxious than in other parts of India.

However, there is literally trash everywhere; there is so much pollution that it can be hard to breathe; and the city itself doesn't feel as spiritual as you'd think it would be or have heard it is.

This is an example of the trash/animal life on the streets here. Eye-spy: 4  scrawny chickens

That is not to say that the city isn't cool to walk around and see. Above is a pic of a fruit and veggie stand. Like the rest of India, there are people selling all sorts of things on the streets.

When you're in Varanasi, you can't not walk along the Ganges.

It is said that if anything were to be constructed on the other bank of the river, the city would no longer be holy. So, everything is crowded onto the one bank.

We went to the Ganga Aarti the first night, which was a very "I'm visiting Varanasi" thing to do. It was entertaining, but because one of the girls I was with was having a hard time breathing with all of the pollution and incense, we decided to leave after about 30 minutes.

All in all? This is a fine city. I don't think it is wonderful, but I'm glad I'm getting to see it.

Side note: Despite the "sight-seeing" quality to this post, I really am here to conduct research and observations on an (AMAZING) NGO called Kiran. More on that later ...