We went on a morning boat ride on the Ganges River.
On the way to the boat ride, Edward received an impromptu massage.
Our boat awaits out there somewhere.
We’re on our way.
Pilgrims came down the ghat steps to wash in the river.
The Ganges floods during the monsoon season. The level of the river has reached as high as the red line.
One of the eight most important pilgrimage sites for Buddhists, the Dhamek Stupa, marks the location where the Buddha gave his first teaching to his first five disciples who eventually became fully liberated. Dhamek Stupa is five miles northeast of Varanasi.
In its current shape, the stupa is a solid cylinder of bricks and stone reaching a height of 140 feet and having a diameter of about 300 feet.
It was recorded in 640 B.C. that the colony here had over 1,500 priests and the main stupa was nearly 300 feet high.
The stupa grounds contained other buildings that are only foundations now.
We thought that traffic in Delhi was bad with a lot of traffic circles overwhelmed by the volume of vehicles. However, Varanasi traffic was even more intense. The streets are narrower, and most of the vehicles are either motorbikes or tuk-tuks. The honking was incessant. Hardly a second would pass without the sound of one or more horns. It seems to me that the attitude of the person honking here isn’t an aggressive “get out of my way”, but it’s also not “excuse me”. Their message seems to be “look out, I’m coming through”. Here is a one-minute video of a tuk-tuk ride.
I felt that the motorists in Hanoi, Vietnam, would cooperate with each other. I don’t remember a lot of honking there except to warn someone who may not realize that you were there. In Varanasi it seemed more that each person was out for themselves. As a pedestrian you had to be more careful when crossing because the motorist will keep coming at you rather than recognizing your right to be there and go around you.
In the evening a wedding reception occurred at our hotel.
We watched it from our balcony.
The music went on for quite a while.
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