The 08/10 the road towards Khajuraho started well with a beautiful asphalted surface. Alas that did not last because it became a narrow road with only one lane and degraded enough. I arrived at Khajuraho to bivouac in the garden of Rahil Hotel.

Archaeological Park gathers the most admirable temples of the west group in a turfed and raised compound. Abstraction of the erotic, zoophilic scenes with scatologic representations, Khajuraho temples offer a synthesis of architecture and sculpture dedicated to a deity present in dark and exiguous cella surmounted with the highest tower, shikara, image of the Mount Kailasha, divinities dwell, among the tops of the Himalayas.

 
Temple 
Khajuraho 
the 091/10/2007 

 
Erotic sculpture
Khajuraho 
the 09/10/2007 

I decided to remain on October 10th in the garden of Hotel Rahil to plan the journey in South-east Asia.

Before leaving Khajuraho the 11/10 I questioned several people on the best road to Varanasi. Their opinions were very contradictory. I choose outward trip to Rewa then Allahabad. I would never know if I had made the good choice. I took two days to go from Khajurâho to Varanasi. The roadway condition was very variable from repugnant one to correct one then good on the NH2. I decided to enter there before 09:00 a.m. to avoid traffic jams. I thus spent a third night on the road on the A1 Plazza parking of Reliance 30 kilometres before Varanasi.

Kashi, Benares, Varanasi, the site is known since the arrival of Aryan at the first millennium before our era. It seems that it has been a sacred place since this high time. It is the city of Shiva see the sculptures of the Descent of Ganges River in particular in Mamallapuram. The pilgrimage to Varanasi is for Indus what the pilgrimage to Mecca is for Moslems. Indeed ablutions and more particularly cremation and dispersion of the remainders in Ganges River make it possible according to canonical texts to put an end to the reincarnation cycle, samsara, according to the law of karma. Thus the individual heart, atma, is released.
This practice has an ecological consequence of most detrimental. Ganges River presents a considerable pollution threatening the populations of the basin of Ganges River.
I arrived at the Surya Hotel in the early morning. In the afternoon I walked on the Ghats. I expected a crowd of pilgrims, actually few devotes had their ablutions. I visited the “Golden Temple” whose entry is kept by soldiers. I presented at the entry, forbidden to non Hindu, a soldier asked me to keep off my shoes and pushed me in the enclosure, another asked me to be put at knee and to cherish the lingam of Shiva. Then I was coated by a Brahman. I strolled to leisure in the temple. Shikara is covered with gilded copper; actually it is brass in process of oxidation.
In the evening after sunset, ceremonies and songs are given on Desashwamedh Ghat. I left Ghats towards 8 p.m. and went back to Surya Hotel by cyclo-ricksaw, it was a great moment through the city.

The 14/10 I left with the Surya car to visit Ghats at the sunrise. There were not more people than the day before.
The view of the pilgrims having their ablutions in the much polluted water of Ganges River is surrealist. I though that the responsibility falls about it to Brahmans, sacerdotal caste, who maintain the out of date beliefs. It is also of the responsibility for the Indian Union to give the people a medical and ecological education. There is an agency for the water purification of Ganges River which is to date without effect.

 
Ghats 
Varanasi 
the 14/10/2007 

 
Ghats 
Varanasi 
the 14/10/2007 

The following week I head for a shipment port to Malaysia.