The holy city of Varanasi

Having arrived 4 hours late into Mughal Sarai we headed off by auto rickshaw to nearby Varanasi - the holy city.

Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Situated in Uttar Pradesh it is the spiritual capital of India.

Varanasi's ghats on the Ganges River

Hidden in the small streets behind the ghats are lots of guest houses and hotels and after a short while searching we found ours; The Marigold Guest House on Munshi Ghat just by the main Dashashwarmedh Ghat.

Our local Ghat - Munshi

We headed out for lunch at a local cafe enjoying our cheapest meal yet (Pakora piled high!) and having refuelled we ventured into the old part of the town to see the temples.

Nestled amongst the market bazaars are the Kashi Vishwanath (Shiva) golden temple and the Sankat Mochan (Hanuman) temple. The markets were selling trinkets, shoes and offerings for the gods as we had found common around the temples in India. The Golden Temple (Kashi Vishwanath) which is supposedly the one to see, you can't visit as a foreign tourist, only walk down the small alley to reach it as long as you have no electronics for a small peak of its golden top from which it gets its name.

We walked down from the main Dashashwamadh Ghat as the sun started to set to Assi Ghat, the furthest South to see the nightly ceremony performed on the edge looking out onto the Ganges. Made up of 3 men performing ritual movements in procession with various props which included incense, delicate towers of tea lights and bold burning flames.

The ritual performance each night 

We were also lucky enough to crossover with the last day of a music festival so sat down to enjoy some incredible Indian drumming before grabbing a quick pizza from the Lonely Planet's recommendation!

However the next day was what really made us get under the skin of Varanasi and start to really get a feel for how special this place is for this was the day of Dev Diwali, a second version of Diwali celebrated in Varanasi as the town's biggest festival!

Crowds gather on the main ghat on the morning of Diwali

We woke early and headed straight to the ghats as we had heard that on the festival day the whole town would head to the river to bathe on this extra special day, and what a spectacular sight it was watching families playing together in the water, women dunking themselves up and down repeatedly under the surface and men lathering up with soap before washing off in the sacred waters of the Ganga.

Holy dunking 

Families would then sit and wait for their saris and clothes to dry out, chatting and laughing together on the steps of the ghats. 

The beautiful display of sari's out to dry

People watching was the best way to experience this incredible tradition and as we sat on the ghats ourselves taking in the view we were joined by a very sweet little boy who just wanted to sit quietly next to Chris and take it all in too.

Our wee friend

We walked through the town up to the Northern ghats and walked down back to the main Ghat during the afternoon which took us past all the groups of people preparing for the evening's festivities. They were painting the floors of the ghats with beautiful designs and laying out thousands of clay pots with oil and wicks ready for lighting as soon as the sun went down.

Baskets of candles are carried and laid out

People were cheerful and excited, anticipating what we were told was to be the best festival in Varanasi, as they carefully lined up the tea lights in perfect lines along the edges of their floor murals and along the steps of the ghats.

The steps lined ready for the evening

As evening drew near, quite a crowd had gathered on the main Ghat for the nightly ritual performance (including ourselves!) as on this night it was to be more spectacular than usual with 18 or so taking part on the heavily decorated banks of the Ganges. The performance was to a large audience of VIPs seated on a floating staged area and hoards of locals that had been sitting for hours so as to keep their spot for a view of this special moment in time.

VIP's at the front for the ceremony

We then wandered up the ghats to see all the preparations from earlier now come to life.

The ghats were filled with Indians coming together to see the completely unique and beautiful sight of all the tea lights that lined the ghats now flickering with warm delicate flames.

Candles, candles and more candles!

Dev Diwali was much calmer than Diwali which we had experienced in Jaipur. It was a peaceful and emotive scene with everyone in such a happy and welcoming mood that we couldn't help but fall in love with this very special city.

Clay pot candles lighting up the city

After lots of selfies with the locals (we must be on half of Varanasi's Facebook pages!) watching a few fireworks and just taking in the beauty of ghats that were before our eyes we headed to bed ready for our sunrise boat trip the next morning.

A family celebration

Waking at 5am we headed to the Brown Bread Bakery to meet our boatman.

The Bakery offered an hours boat trip at sunrise down the ghats for INR150 (£1.50) for two, which was when you could truly experience the dominance that the ghats and the holy Ganga play in both the peoples lives and at the heart of the city.

Our boat ride

Sunrise on the River Ganges was stunning, the best sunrise in India so far. With the bold bright sun waking up the birds who were looking for breakfast and the Indians for their morning wash in the waters.

Gulls flocking to feed from the boats at sunrise

The sun comes up over the Ganges

A morning wash in the Ganges

After our round trip by boat arriving back to close to the main ghat we said goodbye to Varanasi and headed back to bed for snooze, before catching our train to our final destination in India and we hoped we had saved the best til last...