As we prepared to leave Khajuraho, I started to think about our trip to India. I started to try and sum it up in my mind. I wondered what I would say when people asked me about my trip to India. India was an interesting and fascinating place to visit. It was a wild array of experiences. From Khajuraho to Varanasi, which included airport time, the flight, and so on, I discussed this with Vicky and some of my fellow travelers. Varanasi was our last stop on our trip, so I started re-reading my journal and getting lost in deep thoughts. After we arrived in Varanasi, we boarded a bus for the ride to our hotel. Our main guide, Ajay, always gave us a talk as we came to new cities and he did this on the bus ride from the Varanasi Airport to our hotel. His talk lasted about fifteen minutes. As always, I was taking notes in my notebook. I made notes about three items during Ajay’s talk. I will cover each of them now.

First, Ajay made a number of statements. I will repeat those statements, only with one or two sentences spoken in the middle taken out where you will just see “…”.

Ajay said, “Varanasi is the holiest Hindu city in the world. Varanasi is a very holy place……but always lock up all your valuables in the safe before leaving your hotel. Never take any valuables with you when going out in Varanasi”.

Second, we were driving through Varanasi and passing loads of garbage, litter, cow pies, etc. and watching people urinate, crap, etc. It wasn’t any worse than most of the rest of India, but typically as bad. Ajay said, “Varanasi is very beautiful (and he paused) on the inside”.

Third, Ajay described the Ganges River in great detail, physically, historically, and regarding its significant religious importance. At the end, Ajay made the statement, “The Ganges River is very pure”. I asked Ajay how clean or dirty the Ganges was, but he only responded that it was pure. I told him that I understood and withdrew the question. After Ajay was finished with his talk, he came back to where I was sitting, near the back of the bus. I told Ajay that I expected that the Ganges was an open running sewer. Ajay said that we would be going out in the Ganges twice in small boats. He said that I would see sewer pipes empty right into the river and that I would see people bathing only a few feet away and even see people washing out their mouth with the Ganges water. Ajay paused and then looked me right in the eye and calmly said, “The Ganges is pure IF YOU BELIEVE”.

Vicky ready to go out on the town - in Varanasi

Out on a boat in the River Ganges

Sunset on the River Ganges