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NOTE FROM JONAH: This is the continuation of a photo series from India. If you’re just joining us, here’s what you’ve missed:

1. I’m not alone here
2. People ‘like’ my diarrhea
3. Dancing In(dia) the Streets
4. Indian trains: Contemptibly cozy, crammed and claustrophobic
5. Feeding a City Part II: From Macro to Micro
6. Confusing realities of child labor
7. Enlightined in Bodh Gaya बोधगया
8. Kathmandu — You’ve met your match: Varanasi वाराणसी

A couple months back I wrote a post entitled “Kathmandu: The greatest place on earth to get lost.” While I still believe this hyperbole to be true, I do believe I have found a good match — Varanasi, India.

On the shores of the great Ganges river is the dichotomous land of funerals and tourism. Hindi people come to the banks of Varanasi to burn their dead before setting them to drift down the river.

However, this is not the only purpose of this river.

As dead bodies, fingers and various bones follow the current downstream, others use the same river for drinking water. Not only the same river — but in the same location on this river. Animals drink and cool off from the hot Indian sun as other residents use the multi purposed river for bathing.

To make things one more click more interesting — there are reportedly 32 sewage drainage systems which empty into the Ganges in Varanasi alone. Combine the human excrament with this societies practices on waste disposal and you have one interesting body of water.

Dead people; bathing people; thirsty people; hot animals; human feces; pollution and an endless flow of trash. This is the Ganges. Now — enter the tourists.

Varanasi has become a hot spot for both Western and Indian tourists. Hotels, restaurants and temples line the river on what are called Ghats.

As used in many parts of South Asia, the term ghat (Hindi: घाट “steps”) refers to a series of steps leading down to a water body, usually a holy river

Like many bodies of water, the Ganges also functions as a tourist attraction. Boats of people float along side the messy rif-raf. While there are plenty of Western tourists here, the large majority of the tourists here are Indian.

Different Ghats seem to have different draws. While bodies burn on one Ghat – another Ghat seems to be hot spot for weddings. Arranged marriages are carried out while tourists stare blindly at the Indian brides who have enough jewelry on to weigh down a house in a hurricane.

While the Ganges is the main attraction here — its certainly not the only attraction. Next post, we’ll walk back from the river into the maze of a city located behind the Ghats.