Bowl of Compassion / Saraswati Education Center: What started out as a walk to find a quick bite turned into dinner with a view and a fun volunteer experience. We happened upon this small homestay/cafe/school when we were walking down some of Varanasi’s narrower alleys. Upon learning that all of the proceeds from the cafe funded the school, we decided to eat here. We sat on the roof, watched tons of nearby kites fly around the sky, and caught a gorgeous sunset over the Ganges as we waited for our food. The food was yummy and clearly homemade – we particularly enjoyed the dum gobi (a spicy cauliflower dish) and the chapati. As we ate, the owner, Somit, came up and talked to us about the project that he had started with the homestay/cafe/school. We were impressed with his commitment to getting children out of poverty and off the streets in Varanasi and ended up hanging out with the school kids for a few hours after dinner. We helped them with their English homework, taught them about exponents (one girl was a math genius), and sang Twinkle Twinkle (Doug led us all in the rendition). We also chatted about life in Varanasi with them – one boy was insistent that he had ten gulab jamun for breakfast every morning (equivalent would be like having ten munchkins). It was an unexpectedly awesome way to spend our first night in Varanasi 

Strolling the Ganges: Varanasi is much less about sightseeing and much more about soaking in the essence of the city and just watching life unfold. Life in Varanasi centers around the Ganges – the holiest river in Hinduism. Hindu pilgrims from all over India come to experience Varanasi including praying, bathing in the Ganges, participating in aarti, watching time pass on the steps of the various ghats, interacting with holy men, and cremating their relatives. For us, the best way to get a feel for Varanasi was to watch all of these activities unfold along the Ganges. We spent a lot of our time walking and taking in all of these daily scenes that felt exceptional to us, but are just daily life in Varanasi. Over two days, we walked from the Namo Ghat to the Asi Ghat, covering all of the main ghats in Varanasi. We saw everything from kids flying kites to sadhus covered in white paint to indicate their holiness to people bathing and washing their clothes in the Ganges to bodies being cremated. Some of our favorite ghats were:

• Dashashwamedh Ghat where a ton of action was constantly taking place from prayer circles to the evening aarti
• Manikarnika Ghat where the majority of bodies in Varanasi are cremated. It was an intense experience for us to observe the process of cremation from laying down the wood and rinsing the body through the actual burning
• Janki Ghat where the stairs are painted the colors of the Indian flag and there’s awesome street art
• Shitala Ghat where we got to see the layers of ancient Varanasi and the way the city and people pour into the Ganges 

Walking through the city: As one of the world’s oldest cities (5,000+ years old), Varanasi has some of the most interesting streets that we’ve been on. When we weren’t exploring the Ganges ghats, we spent a significant amount of time walking the winding, narrow alleyways near the Ganges and experiencing life unfold there. Navigating the streets was a constant adventure that involved dodging many, many cows and the inevitable poop that comes with them (though sometimes we weren’t as lucky), hopping up onto storefronts to avoid motorbikes whizzing by too quickly, observing holymen in their long orange robes walk barefoot, heeding way for people carrying their deceased relatives overhead, and marveling at all of the sweets and street food amidst this chaos. One of our favorite experiences in Varanasi and potentially India was happening upon an aarti in the street. As we were walking back to our guesthouse, we were stopped by a small mass of people gathered around a puja and drummers. We stood for 20 minutes in that narrow way, listening to the puja praying and performing a fire ritual, punctuated with the noises of six drummers around him. It felt surreal. The scenes and smells on the street were often overwhelming but enticing. After leaving Varanasi, we felt a general sense of relief to be able to walk down a street in peace, but also a longing to go back and experience the streets of the city that were unlike anywhere else 

Cultural and food tour with Avinash: We have had great luck with Airbnb experiences, but it seemed like our luck ran out with this one. We were set to have a full afternoon/night experience with our guide Avinash that included trying the street food, learning about the numerous temples and Hindu rituals, taking a boat ride down the Ganges, and having dinner at a local spot. It sounded exactly like what we were looking for! Within the first ten minutes of our time with Avinash, we figured it probably wouldn’t be the best tour. It seemed like he was on a mission to walk as quickly as possible (comically fast – often losing us in the streets), feed us many different street foods in quick succession with no explanation as to what they were, and answer our questions with one word answers or blank stares. After stuffing our faces with street food (more on the dishes below), we went into a few temples and were blessed by a puja with a special Shiva tikka (Doug is not a fan of things on his face so didn’t love it). We followed that with a boatride on the Ganges. It was really nice to get on the water and we enjoyed chatting with Indian students and later a family that was interested in learning why we were in Varanasi. Our guide pretty much ignored us the entire time and tried not to avoid our questions about what we were seeing

To Avinash’s credit, we did try some delicious, unique food including:

• Malai Rol: An Indian sweet similar to a crepe doused in milk and cardamom 
• Pani Puri and Dahi Puri: Cripsy hollow dough balls stuffed with chickpeas and spicy water. Dahi puri had a bunch of  sweet and spicy toppings layered on top
• Amawat: Mango jelly slice similar to fruit leather
• Chikki: Nuts and jaggery slab that tasted like kettle corn
• Malliyo: Milk foam with nuts and saffron. Almost the consistency of whipped cream
• Aloo Tikki Chaat: Tangy, spicy, and crispy potato patty topped with yogurt. It was unreal
• Chamcham: Cylindrical curdled milk with cardamom, coconut, and pistachios 
• Rabri: This was our favorite – it’s milk with sugar, cardamom and nuts that tastes similar to rice pudding

Sarnath: We hadn’t considered going to Sarnath until the tuk tuk driver who took us to lunch asked if we wanted to go after we ate. We didn’t end up going with him (he asked for 1200 rupees when the price should have been 400), but we did some googling at lunch and decided it would be a neat place to spend the afternoon. Sarnath is the place where Buddha gave his first sermon back in 528 BCE (anyone else remember that?) and as such is an incredibly holy place for Buddhists. It was neat to see groups of Buddhists that had come from far away to see Sarnath, just like Hindus and Varanasi. We enjoyed walking around the ruins and appreciated the peaceful respite from Varanasi for a few hours