I visited Varanasi in 2010, it’s truly a special city. Wandering the endless twisting alleyways, occasionally having to retrace your steps because a cow is bloc

I visited Varanasi in 2010, it’s truly a special city. Wandering the endless twisting alleyways, occasionally having to retrace your steps because a cow is blocking the way, getting thoroughly disoriented by the constant bends and turns, and discovering the myriad of ghats along the riverside is a unique experience. If you go there it’s also worth paying a boatman to row you to the opposite bank, which is a very different place to the center of Varanasi. If you want to see a similar but also very different settlement on the Ganges, Rishikesh is also amazing, I liked it more than Varanasi. There’s more access to nature and it has a comparable spiritual heartbeat. The Beatles wrote the White Album in an ashram (now deserted and half reclaimed by jungle) just on the outskirts. Shiva watches the mighty, unpredictable river that becomes calm and docile by the time it reaches Varanasi.