Varanasi at 5am, from the wrong side of the river

Everyone watches the ghats from a boat. I crossed to the sandbank on the east bank instead and watched the whole crescent of the city wake up at once.

First the bells, then the smoke from Manikarnika, then the light hitting Dashashwamedh, then — suddenly — a thousand people in the water. Nobody on my side except a buffalo and two boys flying a kite.

Boatman took ₹300 to drop me and come back in two hours. Take a shawl even in March.