Well we had booked a row boat tour to last 4 hours and show us all 88 Ghats and give us the lowdown on the most important ones, plus a view of the festival lights from the river.
That fell through but we aren't sorry. We realised we'd not be able to take photos from a moving boat and we didn't really want to go down to the waters edge and get embroiled with the crowds so we viewed the event from our balcony which is pretty central. Taking pictures from above isn't ideal but we are both feeling a bit under the weather as D now seems to have started a cold. Its hardly surprising as every taxi driver we've had has been coughing and sneezing and the flight from Delhi to Varanasi sounded like a Doctor's waiting room on a bad day. We didn't want to be climbing up and down steep stairs tonight - except those to the restaurant.
We've experienced the hype without taxing ourselves! The restaurant here is surprisingly good with a simple menu of either Indian or Fusion/Chinese dishes. For the first time this trip we decided to have non-Indian food and opted for Chinese. It was lovely and we could watch events on the river from our table.
Its now around 9.30pm local time and the fireworks are still going off (some are really loud). We don't know if the town goes back to 'normal' tomorrow or if some of the devotees stay on to extend the celebration. We'll find out in due course. We are here for one more full day before flying to Kolkata on Thursday.
I've identified a couple of 'out of town' temples we could visit if we get bored with the Ghats but we'll play it by ear tomorrow.
David has taken several videos throughout our trip so far, including some of the boats on the river tonight, but I can't get them to load to Blogger. We did take a few 'still' photos but not as many as I'd anticipated.
So this is what its about ... Kartik Purnima (full moon)
An hour before dusk they laid out the diyas (clay lights) along the steps of the Ghats and along the walkways
That fell through but we aren't sorry. We realised we'd not be able to take photos from a moving boat and we didn't really want to go down to the waters edge and get embroiled with the crowds so we viewed the event from our balcony which is pretty central. Taking pictures from above isn't ideal but we are both feeling a bit under the weather as D now seems to have started a cold. Its hardly surprising as every taxi driver we've had has been coughing and sneezing and the flight from Delhi to Varanasi sounded like a Doctor's waiting room on a bad day. We didn't want to be climbing up and down steep stairs tonight - except those to the restaurant.
We've experienced the hype without taxing ourselves! The restaurant here is surprisingly good with a simple menu of either Indian or Fusion/Chinese dishes. For the first time this trip we decided to have non-Indian food and opted for Chinese. It was lovely and we could watch events on the river from our table.
Its now around 9.30pm local time and the fireworks are still going off (some are really loud). We don't know if the town goes back to 'normal' tomorrow or if some of the devotees stay on to extend the celebration. We'll find out in due course. We are here for one more full day before flying to Kolkata on Thursday.
I've identified a couple of 'out of town' temples we could visit if we get bored with the Ghats but we'll play it by ear tomorrow.
David has taken several videos throughout our trip so far, including some of the boats on the river tonight, but I can't get them to load to Blogger. We did take a few 'still' photos but not as many as I'd anticipated.
So this is what its about ... Kartik Purnima (full moon)
An hour before dusk they laid out the diyas (clay lights) along the steps of the Ghats and along the walkways
Thats it for tonight ... we didn't take any more photos this evening and we're hoping to have a good night's sleep if the fireworks ever die down ....
The candles all lit up look lovely but what on earth is a swastika doing there?
ReplyDeleteThe swastika has been a symbol of well being, prosperity and good luck in Asia/India long before the Nazis adopted it as their logo in the 1930s .... Suexx
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn’t know that xxx
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