good morning everyone the last time you saw us we were exploring the pink city of Jaipur
but since then we have made our way over to one of the holiest cities in the world Varanasi
today we are so excited because we are finally getting to do something we have always wanted
to do and that is to take a sunrise boat tour on the Ganges river and explore its world
famous Banks
[Music]
So now seems like the perfect time to tell you guys a little more about Varanasi it's
a city that we're really excited to be in and a city that we've been wanting to go to
in India for a long long time so for those who are Hinde Varanasi is a very special place
because the Ganges River or the Ganges River depending on where you come from and how you
pronounce it it's very important and special because it's said that as a Hindu if you die
here by the Ganges river and are cremated here you are freed from the cycle of rebirth
and there's a possibility of Salvation which is super interesting we don't totally 100
percent understand it we're trying to learn but we know it's really really important and
the water itself is also very important you can see a lot of people bathing in the water
and that is because it purifies it like releases you from your sins so it's like to people
bathe in the Ganges River the ganges river to wash away their sins so people come here
and they seem to be bathing here very regularly Varanasi is really known for its like importance
around death and ritual and ceremony so a lot of people come to the Ganges River to
perform lots of different rituals and there's some spots two places you can see people getting
cremated now we couldn't quite get videos there yeah it's not really it's like a funeral
right our guide told us we could take some shots just from really far away and that's
that's what we grabbed but yeah you can see people being cremated here and their ashes
are then returned to the river and the idea is that they are freed from this continuous
cycle of rebirth it was really really cool to see what's happening on the banks though
especially at like 5 30 in the morning yeah people are up they're active they're yeah
they're getting washed they're starting their day here so we also opted to get like the
private boat tour which is about 2 000 rupees probably a lot more than you need to pay but
like for us it was a little easier especially when we're talking to you guys and bringing
you guys along with us but if you don't get the private tour this is kind of what you're looking at
but it's only 100 rupees each if you want to do that
nonetheless I think a little boat tour to kind of tour across the banks is a really
really neat way to soak in the first like little bit of Varanasi well otherwise I think
you just can't get like the grandness of the space so there's a bunch of things here called
ghats and a ghat is stairs leading down to a body of water and so here in varanasi there's
like over 80 ghats and people go to these different ghats these different stairways
leading down to the river to do their bathing to do their ceremonies their rituals to do
the cremations you can usually kind of walk across them all like along them all almost
like a Promenade yeah but you can't right now the water's too high so this is a really
nice way to see Varanasi see the ghats like just get an idea of what's happening in this
city and just watch because this is the kind of place you just need to sit back and just like just watch
[Chanting]
now we're back on the banks and we've got a great chance here to just really admire
Varanasi in the morning she bright it's very bright very bright and it's so it's so neat
to be by the Banks and see what people are up to at 7 30 or whatever time it is now there's
a lot going on it's just like peaceful though like people are out doing things that you
can tell they've done 100 times it's just part of their day it's really beautiful I
think this is the place to be in the morning there is something very like I don't know
how to describe it there's like a Feeling that the area has I think especially in the
morning because people are like really going about their like bathing rituals and stuff
particularly in the morning and uh I don't know the whole place just has a feeling an atmosphere
wow you're gonna get pooped on [Laughter] don't open your mouth
so now we are heading over to the main ghat uh like Nicole said there's over 80 of them
and this one is supposedly like the oldest ghat it's still quite early in the morning
so not a lot of shops are open but that doesn't mean there's a shortage of things to look
at there are lots of things to dodge as you're walking through both in front of you and also
at your feet because it is not necessarily it is not the cleanest walking path through
a city that we've been on but I think that's a little bit of the Varanasi charm for you
to head over to the main ghat we have to walk through this like kind of Street Market it
is just opening up but believe it or not there are still like lots of people already selling
things a lot of the shops are still closed but there's lots of people like basically
setting up stalls and shops on the floor or on tables
you're still dodging people as you're walking to so it's a very Lively Market
wow so we've made our way to the main ghat here in Varanasi it's called Dashashwamedh
ghat I hope I'm saying that right it is uh it's one of the oldest ghats here and it's
like the main one yeah and they say it's the ghat that Brahma created to welcome Shiva
which is really cool lots of things going on here too as with everything in Varanasi
you can see a lot of people performing they're like cleansing they're cleansing rituals at
the Ganges River I find myself feeling like a little dazed as we walk around here like
it doesn't seem to matter where we go I just feel a little bit like maybe overwhelmed like
there is just so much there's so much to see there's so much to look at there's so much
to make sure you're not gonna step on there's so many smells and there's always people approaching
us like people are constantly trying to sell us stuff and it like maybe overwhelming is
the right word but I just feel like all my energy needs to go into like making sure I
don't trip over something or step in something or like accidentally fall in the river something
I just feel a little like I think dazed is the right word
also around the ghat here there are these platforms where there are some like men sitting
on them they are like seen as holy leaders and I guess you can go and talk to them and
I don't really know what they would do I imagine it's like talking to like your own faith leader
at home like a pastor or a priest but I think they like maybe talk through your sins and
help cleanse you of some of your sins in addition to the river have a more spiritual experience
and do some like ceremonies here as well so it's kind of neat although we have heard online
that sometimes that they're they're their own like self-proclaimed holy leaders so maybe
the legitimacy in terms of like a faith perspective might not be like standardized that's call it that way
so guys it's been some time now since we last saw you we were so tired and it got so hot
we decided to just head in do a little bit of editing wait for it to cool down a bit
and then come back out again to show you more of Varanasi I was gonna bring you guys out
when we actually get to where we're going but I figured I'd do it right now and show
you the chaos of being at one of the streets here in Varanasi it's so busy and there's
so many people it's just so overwhelming to like all your senses
[Music]
all right we're on our way our chosen mode of transportation for today is uh human-powered
Rickshaw yeah first time we haven't taken one yet we see them all over the place here
in India and we actually haven't been on one yet so today is the day there's uh it's a
very small seat I'm not sure if this is for one person I feel like it should be for one
person we don't really fit on this seat yeah
[Music]
We are headed over to Assi ghat which is I think the largest ghat here in Varanasi it's
also one of the newer ones so so far something that's really nice about this ghat is that
it's so much bigger that I just feel like all the people who are trying to sell you
stuff are more spread out so we're not getting approached as much there's a little more space
to breathe walk around just kind of like take in the sights take in the feeling of the space
and watch people do all the rituals that they come to Varanasi to do so one of the cool
things about assi ghat is they have this big people tree here and at the base of that people
tree are some shrines and some lingams which is like a Divine symbol in Hinduism and a
lot of people would go to the river cleanse themselves and then come up to the tree and
like pray or worship at the at the shrines or at the base of the tree which is actually
really neat I don't think the other ghats have that so this one makes it a little bit
more unique
that's really neat they got like all sorts of like food vendors right beside the
Ganges River yeah that's cool there's like a bunch of like tabley benchy things that
like all people are just sitting on and chatting and eating their snacks and stuff so this
looks like a much more like communal area like a place to properly hang out guys it's
like a One-Stop shop here you don't have to go anywhere else you get your food here you
get your views of the river you got a table you got your cleansing and your spiritual
ceremonies this is the one to come to your people tree you're good
so even though there's like a big ceremony about to start and so there are a lot of people here it definitely
feels calmer people are just like hanging out they got like their whole family around
them they're all just lounging drinking some chai or just chilling which feels way calmer
in this really big ghat than any of the other ghats that we've been to we are waiting for
the ganga aarti to start which is like a ceremony that happens every single night and you don't
know what its for do you I don't know what its for as you were saying that I don't either
We're gonna look that up one second one second
okay we're back we are now slightly more educated thanks to the power of Wikipedia and Google
so the ganga aarti is like a ritual that is performed at the banks of the Ganges River
and basically what it is it's like an offering of like fire and light to the ganga which
is in Hindu religion an actual deity
all right I think we got to cut this short I think it's about to start yeah I think we're
starting so we're gonna watch the ceremony and hopefully it's cool for you guys too [Music]
[Music]
all right well that was super cool I think what surprised me the most is there were times
of like really like like really tranquil the music was kind of gentler and everyone was
quiet and then there were other moments that were really like energetic and just like full
of life and there was just so much going on it was like what do I take in it was really
awesome like really a full body experience you can smell it you could hear it you can
get some of the there's some water splashing at us at some points but now the peace is
gone and the chaos is here as everybody's trying to leave at once so that's our cue
to basically end this Vlog yeah so we are going to leave you here that is the end of
our time here in Varanasi and the next time we see you guys we are going to be in Kolkata
stuffing our faces full of delicious Indian food thanks for watching
we probably should have taken like religious studies more seriously when we were in school now I really wish I
knew all this to be fair to be fair we went to a Catholic school and like so we took religious
studies but we just learned about one yeah bummer it's amazing how many how many like
different religions there are in the world and how like so cool and interesting they are