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by HELEN001
Damascus, Dimashq, Syria
April 13, 2005
From my hotel balcony, (well, narrow ledge, actually) the only buildings I could make out were two small structures close to the shore that looked like they were made of reeds or bamboo. Dotted around this area, brightly coloured flags fluttered in the breeze. A few ant-sized people were in evidence. However, what really caught my eye was a boat with what looked like a white marquee erected on the deck. Above this was a disproportionately large multi-coloured flag billowing gently. I had to go and see. Once we reached the far bank, it took a while for our boatman to find somewhere to land that didn't involve wading ankle deep through slimy green water with 'things' floating in it. We beached a way upstream from the tantalising 'tent boat'. "No cricket in Varanasi", said the boatman,"only kites", and he promptly rushed off to fly his kite.
Walking a few yards in from the shore the sand was clean and gently undulating. Unlike the water’s edge, where we passed several puppies and hundreds of birds gorging themselves on the carcass of a buffalo stranded on the beach. Shrieks of laughter came from the first bamboo hut, which turned out to be a changing room occupied by a number of young Indian girls. The second hut had great spiritual significance for me - it was a chai stall! Sipping our chai, we sat on a bench looking across the river at the extraordinary panorama that is Varanasi. Even from that distance the bustle on the ghats was evident, yet we sat in complete tranquility, watching the sun slip slowly towards the city skyline.
We were joined by three of the girls who had been in the changing cabin. They told us that they preferred to come to this side of the river because it was so much more peaceful. When we asked them about the 'tent boat,' they could only tell us that it was "like a temple for special days". After they were picked up by their boat, we wandered over to the 'tent boat'. With the exception of a solitary sadhu bathing some distance away, there were no signs of life at all. It was another one of those things you see in Varanasi that prompts all sorts of questions, but no answers.
From journal The City of Light