There’s really no other way to get around this city, with its little lanes, or gullies, where the Lord of Jyothir (light) Lingas resides. The main temple in town, Viswanath Dham, and its main entrances (Gates 3 and 4), are cordoned off from the Gowdolia Chowk by police barricades, in order to prevent non-residents from utilizing automobiles and even 2-wheelers within a 700 meter distance. Even auto-rickshaws are not allowed. You can only walk, or use cycle-rickshaw. Only VIPs can enter using vehicles, usually police protected.
So foot it is, except when you want a boat ride on the Ganges, which can be cost-prohibitive after a while unless you have a friend on the river (like me, the first boat-woman of the Ganga).
I have 2 amazing friends who give grand tours of Banaras: Ajay Ji, who also teaches me Hindi, is a historical knowledge house of the city. He takes you on tours based on the topics you bring up along the way. If you talk about interfaith and minorities, you might see a mosque, like my friend Pragya did. If you bring up music, you’ll probably end up on a boat ride with a smiling, laughing, singing boat man who spends his days composing little pieces about the greatness of the Ganges and the importance of keeping her clean. Ajay ji can do specific tours as well, if you’d like to see only Yogini Mandirs or other spaces. Walking around with him, you’ll stop in places only he knows– or meet people whom he knows on the by-ways across the city.
Rohit Dravid is my other friend who focuses on taking yatris to important pilgrimage points. Being a local, there’s not a single temple he isn’t aware of. And somehow, he can get you to see a ton of them in a small span of time. My cousins went with him for an afternoon, and probably prostrated at 10 or more temples in 3 hours and 10 kilometers. No easy feat for your feet, or for this city that boasts of a few lakh visitors each day, and more on the holidays. Crowds abound at every corner, every pious place is piled with pilgrims.
It’s also important to just walk along on your own, in solitude (though there’ll definitely be other souls traveling alongside), in silence (though you’ll definitely hear the sounds of sadhaks chanting or singing in every space). But you’ve come all the way to Kashi, so don’t go without cultivating your own practice. Sit on the ghats and watch the Ganga, or the people. Or go for a boat ride (I suggest my boatman, Sahani, at Pandey ghat), simple soaking in the serenity even in all the chaos.
Depending on what you’re hoping to “accomplish” or “learn” or “observe” while you’re in Banaras, you can explore for an indefinite amount of time. Even a few years won’t expose you to every experience.
I’ll continue talking about Banaras in future posts, giving some ideas of where you can walk to.