Falling down the rabbit hole into Varanasi, India

Now that was a fast flight, a mere 1 hr later and we’ve made the hop to India. Welcome to never-never land, we’ve ventured far down the rabbit hole it appears. Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in India as the great Ganges River (the locals call it Gahn-Ga, not Gan-Geez) runs through here. It is a town frequented for pilgrimages to bathe and pray, as well as a final resting place.
Let’s see how to describe??...... bright colors, clean your nostrils over-powering dirt, beautiful dresses, in your face poverty, cheerful smiles, Amazing food, quick flooding streets, trash-trash-trash, scams, haggling, mecca of all silk weaving, sweltering heat, sign-less streets, crowded traffic, noise, horns, dodging cow paddies, bodies cremating, ashes floating, bathing with dirty water, pollution, begging, dodging the cows that left the paddies, friendly people, sharing and the list goes on. Varanasi for our first city has a massive list of love it, hate it’s already. A mix of the best and the worst that you want to experience.
The holiness of the city floats through the air, yet each time you step out of the tuk, a small scam or hand-out awaits. It’s a place where walking on the street would prove highly difficult as the traffic of bikes, motos, tuks, cars, jeeps, and rick-shaws would likely run you over. It’s a place where the finest silk in the entire world is found. We saw the ancient artists weave the most impressive pieces for tourists like ourselves to haggle over. Paying only a fraction of what they’re likely worth for someone who just worked 2 months hand-looming a bedspread. Truly impressive, the looms are so complex and we found it to be more like fine art than anything else. The river really is the central focus of the entire city though, it’s all about the great Gang-Ga River. We partook in the quintessential boat tour up and down the river to view the colorful buildings and ghats. Ghats, we’ve learned at basically bathing areas along the river, mostly made up of simple concrete steps leading down into the swiftly running river. Overall, Varanasi lived up and far exceeded the chaotic reputation we knew the cities in India would carry. It was truly a different land!