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I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Varanasi. Varanasi has a population of 3 million people which is far more managable than the 15ish million of Mumbai and Kolkata. It also has something incredibly sacred to the roughly 900 million Hindus in the world: The Ganges River. In Varanasi alone every single day 60,000 people come and bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. Aside from just Varanasi as many as 2 million ritually bathe in the Ganges every day. It is said that if you die along the river (or in the river) and your body is put in the river (ashes, corpse, whatever) you will immediately be forgiven of your sins and ascend to Heaven. It’s also important to drink the water on your dying breath so many Hindus keep a bottle around the house.

The Ganges is, however, disgustingly polluted. Aside from the incredible pollution that companies are spilling into the river there are also a large number of sewage pipes pointed directly into it. The 4 miles that flow through Varanasi were described as a “brown soup of excrement and industrial effluents” by The Economist that did a study and determined that the section of the river has over 120 times what is considered a “safe” level of fecal matter. Other parts of the river this figure jumps up to 3000 or so. Around 1000 children die every day from the effects of the dirty river. You will not catch me swimming in the river.

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Walking along the river was one of our favorite activities, despite the nearly overwhelming level of people bothering us. Varanasi really ramped things up. One scam was particularly clever. Chris and I were walking along, minding our own business, when a couple of kids came up and started talking to us. This is common so we continue to walk along as they ask us the same questions most people do “Where are you from?” “First time in India?” “How long in Varanasi?”. Then we get to one of the burning ghats. These are places along the riverbank where they cremate the bodies in public by burning them on logs. I know that this is a particularly sacred place and you are not allowed to take pictures here so when the kids start saying “You aren’t allowed down here. Go up into that building for a better view.” I believed them because there were a couple other Westerners up there. We go up and are immediately confronted by an incredibly nice man who pulls the ever popular I-am-going-to-force-myself-to-be-your-guide-and-then-charge-you routine. He starts explaining the rituals and talking about the 100ish people staying in the house behind us who were waiting to die at the moment. He also swears that he doesn’t want our money. He does, however, mention that the “guruji” is coming and when he does we should donate generously “from our hearts.” We mention how we don’t want a guide and we simply want to be alone to appreciate what is going on here but he doesn’t care in the slightest. He uses catch phrases like “burning is learning” and “cremation education” which when we return later another person uses these same lines doing the same scam on us.

The “guruji” shows up with impeccable timing before we can sneak off. He comes and the first thing he does is attempt to bless us which means you are doomed to give them money or else they will get pissed off. I’ve had enough of this and end this awful interaction by leaving quickly. People guilt tripping you into giving money is pretty tough to avoid and these people have all the tricks for getting tourist’s money. Chris and I finally avoided the clutches of these people and hung around the burning ghat for a while. We would laugh because the same people would keep coming up and assaulting other foreigners with their money collecting routine.