Oh the Noise
Trip Start
Jun 29, 2010
1
530
646
Trip End
Apr 07, 2012
Sarnath, Uttar Pradesh, India
Friday, December 9, 2011
We heard every word as clearly as though they were stood next to our bed and to add insult to injury he even agreed a better room rate for them than he had for us, we just could not believe it. Varanasi had not been kind to us so far.
The main bonus of our room was that it was pitch black which made it much easier to fall back to sleep (which we did) for a couple of hours before eventually dragging ourselves out of bed to use the computer and look into our options for getting out of here.
It was too late to change our flight back to Delhi and so we decided instead to look for another place to stay in Varanasi for the next 3 nights.
As it was approaching the Christmas period, the busiest time of the year in Varanasi, we didn't hold much hope for finding something more suitable.
After searching the internet we finally found one place that, although more expensive, looked so much better and the internet reviews explained that it was further towards the south, just outside the hectic city area. We booked it immediately and e-mailed them to check that the reservation was ok.
As we did not want to waste the entire day we chose to order a rickshaw tour for the afternoon which would take us to the north of the city where we could take a look at Sarnath. In the meantime we had a snack lunch on the rooftop and read about the local area, trying to make sense of this place that we had heard so many good things about.
Also known at various points in history as Kashi (City of Life) or Benares, Varanasi was one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities and one of the holiest places in India. According to legend, the city was founded by the Hindu deity Lord Shiva, several thousand years ago and thus making it one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in the country, being one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus.
Many Hindu scriptures, including the Rigveda, Skanda Purana, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata, mention the city. Hindu pilgrims came to the Ghats lining the river Ganges to wash away a lifetime of sins or cremate their loved ones. They did and still do believe that cremation there offered the deceased moksha (liberation from the cycle of birth and death) making Varanasi the beating heart of the Hindu universe and the gateway to a Nirvana of sorts.
Historically Varanasi was also famous for being a centre of industry, its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture bringing many crafts people and vendors to the area (by the look of it too many). Putting this all together we had one of the busiest trading places in India, no road infrastructure, filled to the brim of salesmen and packed with foreign and local tourists. Our rickshaw arrived on time and it was clear that the hotel manager had pulled a fast one.
The driver could not speak much English and we had been told that he would explain things to us – so in fact it was not a tour it was actually just transport that we could have arranged for cheaper ourselves. Rather than kick up a stink we smiles politely and accepted the terms as we did not want to return to a ransacked room. Very very frustrating.
As our driver rounded the end of our small street we immediately wished we had brought ear plugs, the honking horns were just so loud it was incredible. The roads were chaos, narrowing as they approached small roundabouts.
At each one there would be a puzzled looking policeman who did not know which baying pack of rickshaws to start directing first. At one intersection there were so many horns beeping constantly at the same time we thought our ears were going to start bleeding.
This may sound like a huge over exaggeration and us just being all typically western and dramatic, but it had to be heard to be believed. We were already wondering if it would be worth it.
Very slowly we headed north to the area of Sarnath and gradually the traffic started to get a little quieter. It took us around an hour to drive the 10km, eventually pulling into a small rickshaw park in the centre. On arrival we were not really sure where to go and our driver just flicked his finger in the general direction he thought we should be taking, so off we went.
We had read a bit about Sarnath that morning and understood that Buddah had come to Sarnath to preach his message of the middle way to Nirvana. He had come here after he achieved enlightenment at a place called Bodhgaya and it was there that he preached his first discourse in the neighbouring deer park to set in motion the 'Wheel of the Dharma'. It was classed as one of the most very holy sites and the place of the first 'teachings’.
Sarnath had become as a place of mass pilgrimage, both for Buddhists from India and abroad. A number of countries in which Buddhism is a major (or the dominant) religion, among them Thailand, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, had established temples and monasteries in Sarnath in the style that is typical for their respective counties.
At its height Sarnath boasted a 100m high Stupa and around 1500 monks living nearby in large monasteries. At one point in history, Buddhism went into decline and Muslim invaders destroyed the city. It was then rediscovered by British archaeologists in 1835. As we entered the large park in the centre of Sarnath we were faced with the Mulagandhakuti Vihara (The Buddhist Temples) built in the 1930’s. We paid a small charge to enter and admired the wall murals that adorned the entire wall space.
They told such clear stories and we found it incredibly interesting. At the back of the temple was a small shrine where many people took photos and prayed to whilst sat cross legged. Outside we took a look at the Mulgandha Kuti Vihar which was a protected area where Buddah’s first sermon was chanted daily. In the small sectioned area a Bodhi tree grew which was transplanted in 1931 from the tree in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka and was said to be the offspring of the original tree under which Buddah attained enlightenment.
A very special place for Buddhists. Afterwards we pottered along the main road looking at the small stalls and finally at the Dhamekh Stupa, a huge cylindrical building which marks the spot where Buddah preached his first sermon. The site also contained geometric carvings from 5th Century AD. Outside there were many children begging for money and then food. Annabelle eventually succumbed to one girl who simply wanted her empty plastic bottle.
When we had eventually had enough we went back to the rickshaw. The driver helped us to find a phone and we called the hotel to make sure we had confirmed collection for the following day at 10am. We knew that we defiantly did not want another night in our existing hotel.
The journey back was equally as painful and arduous, though it did provide yet more time for some reflection.
We thought about what we had in our lives and more importantly of what others did not have and how lucky we were to be from a place where the issues experienced in Varanasi and India in general were not part of our daily life.
As we arrived back at the hotel we felt exhausted and we would go so far as to say that our nerves quite literally felt as though they were on edge. When we arrived back we went to bookstore and bought new book for both of us to read and we watched Dancing with Stars again, trying all the time to forget about and ignore the noise outside.
