Varanasi--Day 1

Another day, another city. Varanasi has a brand new airport. It opened three months ago and is surprisingly diminutive. You would expect the international airport of a city of over 2.5million people would be larger than Nanaimo’s; I assure you this is not the case. From what I can see the old airport was little more than a few concrete portables thrown together. I am told that it is a source of pride so when I voiced my shock at the size I was a tad bit offensive to the locals. We ended up waiting for half an hour until the new driver for Hamid realized that we were waiting in the parking lot and not going to walk up the street to where he was parked, the flight was an hour early and the driver had never met Vargha and as such had no clue what either of us looked like. After throwing out backpacks in the trunk Vargha decided to give me a taste of real Indian driving and hopped into the driver’s seat.
I have been on some adventurous car rides before, and later in the evening I would be on a far more traumatic bike ride which I have a short video from and may end up posting if I can figure out how. This first car ride however was nothing like what I had experienced before and I also never realized how important a horn was to a car. The horn acts almost like sonar, you have to constantly use it to let other vehicles and pedestrians know where you are on the road and that you are speeding pass them at all too close a distance. On what was theoretically a two lane road we flew between 50 and 120 km’s an hour narrowly evading the luxury buses and auto-rickshaws coming in the opposite direction. I have no clue how this is common place to travel in such a way down roads, it makes my excessive speeding seem tame when compared to the speed, volume of traffic, swerving through traffic and different types of vehicles; at one point there was a horse drawn carriage alongside a cyclist, crunched between a couple motorcycles and two cars on our side of the two lane road.
When we eventually reached Hamid’s home I was a little surprised to see the size of their home, 5 stories and mansion looking of which the bottom three floors have been converted into a school for about 140 students. In the coming weeks I should get many opportunities to help out at this school which I look forward to. I am not sure quite what I expected; I think I had no clue what or where I would be living and feel rather spoiled once more to be staying in such a nice place.
After dropping off our bags we hopped onto his motorcycle and headed into the city as Vargha wanted to give me a bit of a tour since at the time he was only going to be around for the one night and fly off to Calcutta for a couple weeks. We headed through the main core of the city which is absolutely bursting with people. It reminds me of a cross between Mexico and Korea, Mexico for the sheer filth and poverty that you see once you step outside of the hotels and Korea for the people and sporadic driving, however after writing that I do not think it gives a clear enough picture as to the population, pollution and conflicted nature of the city. The old and new are butting heads, Vargha even spoke to the fact he wished they blended the traditional Indian style better, the new buildings seem so very out of place. I think the hope is that one day everything will have that new look. Yet it seems so very out of place to have a couple retail stores and a mall that are uber modern next to shacks, dirt roads and seemingly wild animals strolling along.
From out brief speed through the city we ended up at the steps leading down to the Ganges. Varanasi is one of the most holy cities in all of India and this river is one of the reasons. The river was traditionally bodies would be burnt after a person died, and I was told that by bathing in the river all your sins are washed clean. I will probably refrain from this given the filth of the river, nevertheless it is nice to know such a place exists so that if I ever truly screw up and I wash it all away. The area surrounding the river is in stark contrast to the bustling streets a few blocks away. It is quiet, unnervingly so, yet at the same time peaceful and tranquil. People just sit and think, or share quiet conversations, I probably should mention that in Varanasi Marijuana is also legal and as such a lot of this peace and tranquility stems from the fact that the people who are here in a nearly meditative state are probably high. There are also numerous palaces that almost litter the shoreline. Although Varanasi itself never had a royal family because of it’s importance as a holy city the Princes from the surrounding states all built their own palaces along the waterfront.
Vargha received a call from his friend’s Farsal’s sister (I am probably butchering the spelling of names so I do apologize), her name escapes me at the moment, and as it happens she and a few friends are half a block away a top a hostel-esque building in this café owned by Farsal so we head over to meet them. The café is a top 60 year old 6 story building cement building very nearly on the waterfront. The view would be of the whole city if not for the pollution. It is a shame; because the air is so polluted it is very difficult to get a grasp on how expansive and beautiful the city is. After all too short a time a top this cool building that I will be undoubtedly returning to we headed back to the school/house as we were late for dinner. Fish Curry, fresh veggies grown on their property, rice and basically an omelet.
I will stop there and cut things short from that first day as I should probably get ready to head out for my second day here, the sun is up, morning prayers have stopped, Vargha is awake for the second time this morning. He asked me to wake him up at 6 then remembered that our plans changed and we are not heading out until 8:30.