Travel Tips for Varanasi, the Oldest Holy City in the World, Varanasi, India

Varanasi. One of the world’s oldest cities, founded by Lord Shiva himself and a huge sacred site for pilgrims of the Hindu faith. It is truly, without doubt, one of the most crazy places you will ever have the pleasure of visiting. It will pull you into it’s whirlwind, spin you round, spit you out and you’ll wonder what the hell happened! But, I’ll tell you, it’s one hell of a ride you won’t regret and it will leave its mark on you forever.

Beautifully placed by the roaring and merciless Ganges river, or mother Ganga to Indians, you can truly immerse yourself into a world of Ghats (stairs to reach the river), temples, Sadhu’s (holy men), monkeys and more. Since I was a young girl, I dreamed of my sunrise boat ride on the river and finally this year – I got my wish!

This was actually the first place that I travelled alone in India and I was in for quite a shock. I had read countless blogs about what to prepare for, but when I got there, that was all thrown out of the window! I arrived in the evening and so walking down those almost pitch black narrow alleyways, with bikes, bulls, dogs and people at every corner was quite scary. It got to the point that I had to give myself a bit of a pep talk to go out into the streets the next day and not just stick to the river. Looking back, I’m so glad I did as the city was so worth it! ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).