India has always been an important destination for Everyone. It is a country so different from any other in the world, that all who travel there come home with deep and lasting impressions.
Highlights include a visit to the Ganges early in the morning to take a boat ride past the Bathing Ghats. The early morning light of the rising sun touches the river with a golden glow that gives colour and magic to the astounding scenes along the river. Men carrying brass pots to ritually pour the water over themselves, women bobbing into the water in beautiful saris, holy men greeting the sun or seated in audience beneath large umbrellas, hawkers, children playing, curious tourists, and family groups at the burning ghats, attending the cremation of a loved one…….all part of the Varanasi scene. And all making the early morning rise most worth while.
Few countries in the world have such an ancient and diverse culture as India's. Stretching back over 5000 years, India's culture has been enriched by successive waves of migration which were absorbed into the Indian way of life. Folk culture varies among regional and ethnic groups. Street magic shows and episodes from religious texts are dramatically staged in urban and rural areas. India is known for artistry in jewelry, textiles, paintings on the walls of mud houses, and images cast in metal through the lost-wax method (a process using wax to form a mold). Music and dance are performed in temples, at festivals, and at ceremonial functions at home. |