The tourist's Varanasi is focused within a few blocks of the
Ganges. When I was there two years ago I stayed at a hotel right
on the river and spent most of my days (and evenings for dinner)
in that area.
This time I stayed at a hotel a bit inland and visited some
temples I hadn't been to before. In addition, I spent several
afternoons walking or taxiing through commercial areas of the
city, one in search of a branch of the Royal Bank of India in
Varanasi (there isn't one) and another in search of a
distributor of some Ayur Veda products I wanted to buy (I found
it and it had what I wanted).
In January 2015 when I was here for 12 days the weather was cool
and overcast for all but one day. This visit, also in January,
was warm and sunny every day. You'll notice that most of the
photos in the varanasi 2017 gallery are of people -
that's because I took my quota of temples and sculptures last
time.
The natives go about their business with intention. They are so
used to visitors with cameras (and wide open eyes) that they
don't see you - even if that's where they seem to be looking. I
can stand being visible when touts want to sell me something if
I can appear invisible when taking people pictures.
Some of my memorable moment were sent back as photos in more or
less real time emails to a few friends. I've reproduced the
photo journal for Khajuraho and Varanasi here.
