Important information for fellow travellers
Boat ride to all ghats and evening aarti: There is no fixed price and one needs to bargain hard to strike a good deal. In general they charge Rs 200 per person per hour. We were seven in a group and we were charged Rs 2200 [Oct 2016] for three hours in all which included boat trip to popular ghats (from Assi ghat to Manikarnika ghat) , Kashi Vishwanath Temple darshan and evening aarti.
Places of interest in Varanasi: Ghats , Evening ganga aarti, Kashi Viswanath temple, Sankat Mochan temple, Ramnagar fort, Benaras Hindu University.
Popular gateway from Varanasi:
- Sarnath (around 15 km from Varanasi) : Places of interest -- Sarnath temple, Dharmek Stupa, Archeological Museum, Thai temple, Tibetian temple, Chaukhandi stupa.
- Mirzapur (around 60 km from Varanasi) : Places of interest -- Vindhyavasini Devi temple, Wyndham ecological park and falls [The road to the falls is in poor condition. This place is more of a picnic spot]
- Allahabad (around 120 km from Varanasi) : Places of interest -- Triveni Sangam ,Anand Bhawan, All Saints Cathedral, Allahabad fort (entry to maximum portion of the fort is forbidden).
Day 1 in Varanasi
Situated on the banks of holy river Ganga, Varanasi is one of the oldest cities in the world. Home to rich benarasi silk work, presence of hundreds of temples including Kasi Viswanath Temple of Lord Shiva and Sankat Mochan temple of Lord Hanuman, site for the famous Ramnagar fort, gateway to the peaceful land of Sarnath and land of mouth watering cuisines this city of India has it all to satisfy the shopaholics, pilgrims, photo-enthusuiast and foodies making it one of the most popular destinations in India.
Travel freaks made a trip to this city in the month of October 2016 during Dusherra festival. We reached Varanasi Station in the morning. There are innumerous hotels and guest houses along the ghats in Varanasi giving a breath-taking view of River Ganges and the adjacent ghats. Owing to peak seasion we however couldnt get rooms in the hotels we had short-listed so had to check in to a hotel in Chandrika Nagar away from the ghats. Post lunch we hired an auto rickshaw using Ola app and went to Kedar Ghat for booking a boat for the planned Ghat darshan. The auto twisted and turned through the narrowest lanes possible frequently interrupted by cows lazing around. In Kedar ghat on decending the steep steps several boatmen approached us quoting their respective package price for Ghat darshan, Kasi Vishwanath temple darshan and evening aarti. After almost 20 minutes of hard bargain we finally fixed the deal at Rs 2200 for 3 hours (we were 7 persons in a group) and our ride began. We sailed by Assi ghat, Tulsi ghat , Man mandir ghat, Harish chandra ghat, Dashaswamedh ghat (popularly known as evening aarti ghat), Manikarnika ghat and the like. The boatsman narrated the tales and the reason for their distinctive names. Lovely changing city scape , cool breeze and slowly drifting boat made the ghat darshans one of its kind. We disembarked the boat on Lalita Ghat in order to visit Kashi Vishwanath temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. We climbed up the steep steps, walked through narrow lanes, passed innumerable small temples before reaching the entrance gate of the temple [Carrying mobile/camera, big bags, edibles etc are not allowed. There is a locker room at the main entrance where all such items can be kept safely. Also at the entrance I found a board stating foriengers are not allowed. Although I havent enquired the authenticity of the same but found no foriengers inside the temple premises ]. Owing to Dusherra several devotees visited Varanasi so after waiting in long queue and passing the strict security check we entered the main temple and seeked blessing from Lord Shiva. It took us quite sometime before we made an exit from the temple and returned to Lalita ghat to board our boat back which was now to take us to witness the Ganga Aarti at Dashaswamedh Ghat. A deep yellow hue of the setting sun filled the sky during our boat ride to the ghat.
When we reached Dashaswamedh Ghat several boats containing passengers had already reached to witness the aarti and our boat could only find a place way behind. At 6.45 pm the chaants began and filled the air with spiritualism. Purohits all decked in orange attire performed the aarti with brass lamps with snake hood, multi-tiered oil lamp, flowers, incense sticks and idol of Lordess Ganga. The whole event lasted for more than half an hour. It was truely magical and magnificient. (One advise for photo-enthusiasts do watch the ganga aarti from the ghat steps and not from the boats as its extremely difficult to take good shots from so far and due to presence of heavy lights in the backdrop). After the aarti our boatman took us back to Kedar ghat.
We disembarked at the ghat with smile on our faces it was truely a memorable evening !
Our next stop for the day was Kasi Chaat, a famous snack joint located at Godowlia Chowk. I highly recommend this shop to one and all visiting Varanasi. Dont go by the appearance of the shop. The small two storied outlet serves mouth watering , finger-licking chaat with too many options to try out. We started with one and ended up ordering all the types starting from tikia chaat to dahi phucka. :)
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