Solo visit to Kashi, Saranath and Ramnagar fort.

KASHI which is now called as VARANASI was earlier called as BANARAS too. It is very famous all across the world for its holiness it always attracts millions of tourists every year. There is a strong belief that one doing Kashi yatra will definetly vanishes off the sins did by them in their life .

Moving towards KASHI brought a big smile on my face because it was the most awaited place in my list of places to be visited. There it was CHAURI CHAURA express which I boarded was at 9:10 P.M from ALLAHABAD towards VARANASI and the journey took 4 hr 30 min, which means it should have reached Varanasi at 1:35 A.M but the train got delayed for 1 hr 35 min and reached Kashi at 3:15 AM. It was also a boon for me that the delay of the train saved my money which I had to spend for lodge.

I nearly spent 2 hours at the railway station and was not so boring because a good company of a tea seller who had stayed in Karnataka for 15 years accompanied me at the station.

It was 5:30 AM when I started towards the KASHI VISWANATHA temple which took 15 min to reach the temple in a shared auto paying 25 INR. As I knew that there was a GANGA GHAT near the temple and it was more suitable for me to take bath as well as a holly dip. By taking bath in the holy river Ganga I entered into the temple 6 AM, there was a crowd helped me to enter the temple easily and have a great experience of  the rituals done over here.

This temple complex mainly consists of noteable two temples one is of ANNAPURNASHWARI and another is VISWANATHA. when I was out it was 7 AM, I drank a special Tea which is very famous because it will be served in CLAY POT it’s called as MADKA TEA. Then I had a task of searching my uncle’s house who had settled there 2 years before for his PHD at BHU, I had lots of time with me because I canceled my NEPAL trip due to bad climatic condition. So went in search of the house by walk and reached his house at 8:00 AM which was a great surprise for him. Here I got a best person who could guide me with all the places at and nearby Varanasi. He gave me a route map and some different Temples which is to be visited there. They were

·       KALA BAIRESHWARA

·       DURGA KUNDH

·       SANKATA MOCHANA HANUMAN TEMPLE

·       MRUTHUNJAYA TEMPLE

·       NEW BIRLA MANDIR AT BHU.

It took almost half a day to complete all these temples at VARANASI where u will not come across any difficulty for transportation. As it is well developed city which also includes Shopping Malls and PVR cinemas, I went to a movie there just to spend time. By evening reached a shopping street nearby to the VISHWANATHA TEMPLE and bought souvenirs for my family members. While moving I saw a board which was written in KANNADA language as JANGAMAVADI MUTT which is a guest house allotted for particular caste in Karnataka. It was 8 PM when I started back to my uncle’s place.

The 2^nd  day morning I had 2 places to be visited in my list they were,

·       SARANATH

·       RAMNAGAR FORT

SARANATH is almost 15KM from Varanasi where we are suppose to hair a taxi / bus / shared auto which takes 40mins approximately to reach Saranath. By the time I reached Saranath it was 10:30 AM  

PLACES TO BE VISITED IN SARANATH:

·       DEER PARK

·       JAPAN TEMPLE

·       TIBETIAN TEMPLE

·       ARCHYOLOIGICAL MUSEUM

·       SARANATH MUSEUM

·       DHAMEKH STUPA

·       BANARAS SAREE FACTORY

Among all these places SARANATH MUSIUM attracted me to the core where I saw our national emblem THE LION CAPITAL, ASHOKA CHAKRA, ASHOKA PILLER and etc.

Deer park is the place of Gouthama Buddha where he started his teachings of Buddhism initially. For all these places it took three and half hours.

It was the time to visit RAMNAGAR fort from SARANATH, I struggled a lot on my way because of very less availability of transportation from Saranath, but from Varanasi there are frequent busses. And finally reached the fort at 4:00 PM.

The Ramnagar fort is the oldest of its kind in India and also consist of a museum where one could find all the war equipments used by the kings during the major war times. Here the ticket coasted me 30 INR. From there I again came back to the city of VARANASI in a shared auto till BHU, from BHU reached my uncle’s place by 7 PM.

3^rd day early morning  had a holy dip in ASSI GHAT  which was nearby and visited the KASHI VISHVANATHA temple again. It was already 8:30 AM and my train towards HARIDWAR was at 9AM, but missed my DOON express and took a general ticket to DELHI and from Delhi reached HARIDWAR the 4^th day noon.