The place is buzzing. There are beautifully dressed people (mainly to match the yellow/orange colour scheme) everywhere, the entire courtyard has been dressed and there is extra loud music blaring out of speakers everywhere. I love it.
Not wanting to miss too much of the preparation I stayed close to home and just wandered the neighbourhood with not much to wow but lovely.
A tuk tuk drops me in the city so I can meet my guide for the afternoon. I hop off in the midst of total chaos, the centre of the market area and surrounded by hundreds of shops that sell saris and fabric. No cars allowed but that doesnt stop the motorbikes and tuktuks monopolising.
I am the only female not in sari or kurta but at least am in my covered up gear so dont feel out of place.
I have figured out the rules. If half of you fits in a space then go - your other half will squeeze through, giving way for anyone is wasted effort - you will not get back into sequence and you will get overtaken, do not wait for people to fully descend the stairs before you start to climb - they will stop half way down for selfies, to talk to their mates or just to piss you off. Ignore all touts, they all have a plan from which they are the only ones that will benefit. I am learning.
Similar rules apply on the road. If you fit, even partially, then go. No one wants to run into you. Use your toooooot, toooooooot whenever possible to alert people to the fact that they need to share your road with you.
Although my hotel is far from anything I am glad as the central city pretty basic and all the hotels look seedy.
I needed food and stopped at a restaurant where I ordered a kasmiri nasn, something I love at home where its a regular naan stuffed with raisins and coconut. I ordered it once since I have been here and it was no different to a regular naan with no stuffing. Here I got this:
It was time to meet my guide so naan done without me managing to figure out what the cubes of stuff were.
My guide came in the shape of a young man who was going to take me to the temples. Thats not entirely what happened as we visited a couple of shrines where he gave me some good information about the gods and the way people pray. He was interesting enough and as a bonus I could understand him.
From there he took me to the Ghats - the stone steps leading down to the holy Ganga River. There I saw many people praying, wetting themselves with the water (or even swimming) and most of them had three orange stripes on their forehead (three stripes for three main gods).
I’m going back tomorrow so happy not to spend too much time there.
We walked further on to the main cremation Ghat where he explained the process around the cremation.
Once a person dies the family wash them, dress them, place them on what looks like a bamboo ladder and then wrap the body and ladder in orange cloth with some sparkly stuff thrown in.
The body is then bought to the ghat where there were anout 10 fires going when we arrived. Once at the ghat the body (with the ladder and wrapping) is lowered into the river by the men of the family (only tourist ladies are allowed there) and then left on the side of the river to dry out.
Once dry the body is then moved to the fire place which is loaded with wood. One family representative (dressed in all white) prays over the body and the wood is lit. A worker then makes sure that the flames dont go out.
Three hours later the ashes are collected - how and from where I am not sure as there must be wood ash mixed in too. Most of the ashes are returned to the river but precious metals dont burn so are retrieved and given back to the family. In some cases parts of the body remain intact and those parts are put in the river too.
Not everyone gets cremated in this way. Poor people go to a facility where they cremate like we do. They are cheaper. Children, pregnant women, godboys dont get cremated when they die abut are put in the river with weights to hold them down.
Photos not allowed up close sadly.
My guide, who was very helpful and friendly up until that moment, wanted to take me to a silk shop. When I bluntly refused tour was over and he basically walked off. All good, I had seen what I wanted to see and said goodbye without giving him a tip. Oh dear how sad.
The tuktuk ride back was insane. The traffic diabolical but I got home safely and eagerly awaiting the wedding which I was told started at 6pm.
I got home just before 6:00pm expecting the place to be throbbing with people. Instead it was dead quiet and the decorations were being taken down. So I dont know what the heck was happening when I left for the afternoon but it wasn’t a wedding and it wasn’t at 6:00pm. Oh well.
I was too early to choose from the full dinner menu so settled for a palatable pad thai and called it a night.
Now to read my book.
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