I could tell you all about how magical it is to wake up in the oldest consistently inhabited city in the world, board a wooden row boat, and cruise the Holy Ganges at sunrise….but I think this little video I put together from my go pro footage will better tell the tale.

You’ll get to experience the sounds, the colors, and the essence of the experience, but one thing you won’t experience is the stinky-ness of Varanasi. Yes. The putrid aroma that engulfs every crevice of one of the most spectacular cities I’ve EVER seen!

As you watch, allow your imagination wander to what India is so well known for – it’s extremes. Magnificent splendor and overwhelming devotion sprinkled with the aroma cow feces and burning human flesh of simultaneous cremations. The stillness of nature penetrated by the intense eagerness of street vendors.  Wealthy tourists adorned with fancy cameras amongst beggars who have chosen to renunciate all material things. Death and rebirth – figuratively and literally. Clean souls but filthy water. Limited food, but unlimited hope. It goes on and on, just like the cycle of samsara…

The Mother Ganga is like a washing machine for your soul.