It's so impressive when you land at Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport at Varanasi.. State of the art airport and the size of the airport is good compared to the size of the city. very good parking facility. Airport is about 15km away from the city but it's very well connected by bridges. once you enter the city of varanasi you get the real feel of a town. Narrow and bad surface roads, indiscipline traffic, lots of small vehicles driving without any rules. Today I was in the commercial part of the city starting from Mall road, Cantonment area,Nandesar,Chetganj, Sigra, Bhelupur. India's major modern retail stores are there and I was surprised to see the size of these stores, it's huge. All major foreign food chains are also there. chaotic traffic and no parking places made drive worst. Next day we started early at 6am for darshana at Kashi Vishwanath Temple,one of the Jyotirlinga. Major renovation work is in progress in the temple complex and in the surrounding areas. Luckily in the morning there was no crowd and we could easily enter and do darshan with peace. This area during the day is over crowded and vehicles are not permitted so make sure you plan accordingly. Next we went to Bengali Tolla Market. Vehicle entry is open till Girjaghar Chowraha and then you have to walk. it's a crowded area as the main entry of Kashi Vishwanath Temple is on that road. The corporation has tried to make it a model road with beautiful lighting poles and same colour buildings but lot is still desired. Similar road has been made in Amritsar,road going towards Golden Temple and it's beautiful. Here street hawkers have taken the 50% of the road only two wheelers take the vehicles inside. After a kilometre or so on right side there are two roads ,one going towards Dashashwamedh Ghat and other towards Bengali Tola. Tola means mohalla, basti. Usually this area has variety of tourist related Stores having handloom and handicraft products, Banarasi sarees etc and multi culture food joints. Unfortunately most of the stores and eateries have been closed due to Covid 19 epidemic. I found the boards of Korean, Japanese, German, Israel, Russian and Indian food restaurants. The lane width is hardly 5-6 feet in width and two wheelers, cows, dogs roaming around, you get narrow space to walk. The temperature is much lower in this area as sun can hardly come in. We stopped at few Banarasi saree stores and at Brown bakery/German bakery. Both are exactly on one opposite side of a small lane. They also have a terrace restaurant but due to Covid epidemic it was closed. We settled in German Bakery,They have cuisine from Japan, Korea, Israel, Italian and Indian. Very basic place, pitiable condition they are in since a year. Dependent on tourism, they have no business to survive. Both have few rooms also to stay, but all closed. We ordered Israel food, coffee etc. It was ok in taste. From this place we visited Madanpura, a hub of Banarasi textiles. Many stores for sarees and dress materials and range is unlimited. The evening was well spent on the boat in the Ganga. From Dashashwamedh Ghat, we were shown all the ghats. as per the boatman there are 384 ghats, I could only count some 25-30 ghats. Each ghat has a name and a history. You need good guide to see the ghats who can explain real history else search on Google. We unfortunately didn't take proper guide and relied on boatman but his knowledge was very basic. Boatman takes you till Assi Ghat and that is the happening ghat. The other side of the river is barren land and villages far away. Surprising to see nothing much developed on the other side. Ratneshwar Mahadev, which is the only temple in the river is a tilting structure,40' high has many stories around it. Manikarnika Ghat is a cremation ghat, never remains off,24*7 the cremation continues. Harishchandra Ghat is also used for cremation. To move around in this area you have to walk & climb. The boat trip's last stop is at Ganga Ghat where the Arti is performed. We saw it from the boat and from some distance so we could not feel the grandeur of the arti. The sound was also low so couldn't hear also. But I am sure from near it must be a good sight. The next day visit was of Sarnath. About 10-12 km outside of Varanasi. Luckily it was Sunday and so traffic was less, else as per taxi guy, this takes upto 1.30-2 hours. We reached in just 30 minutes. This is the place where Gautam Buddha taught Dharma to his five shishya. The stupa Dhamekh, ruins, museum, deer park and Buddhists monasteries of China, Tibet, Japan, Sri Lanka and under construction of Korea is there. It's much smaller and of less grandeur than it's in Kushal nagar, Coorg, Dharamshala. There is one handloom weavers society store else nothing much to see. Unfortunately for us,due to Covid epidemic, most of the temples were closed since almost a year. Again about the Ghats, we went again there to take a walk. Started from Assi Ghat, which is the most commercial ghat,less of religious, more of youth happening place. Pizza Vatika on the bank slightly up and under the trees is a beautiful place to just enjoy the beauty of Ganga. Mouthwatering Pizza and desserts are must try. From Assi Ghat to Dashashwamedh Ghat, it's about 3km. You can see Ghats from a nearby distance. Ghats are almost 5 stories down then the road/city. It's fun walking and understanding each Ghat. Nothing is mentioned on the Ghat so you have to search on Google to know about it. It's all majestic and must have been built with knowledge to sustain many floods. During the floods water goes upto 40-50 ft high. Now with the time needs major renovation or rejuvenation without spoiling the original beauty. More facilities for tourists can be done with a plaque giving details about each ghat. A proper walking track which is clean and straight. Few benches to enjoy the beauty of Ganga. Apart from Ganga Ghat, all the ghats were empty, few locals enjoying kite flying, cricket playing, taking afternoon siesta or chitchatting. No nuisance of beggars or boatmen were there. The work of bridge is in progress over Manikarnika ghat and so we took boat to cross one ghat and reached Ratneshwar temple. The only temple which is in the river and is tilting more than Pisa tower. I had most disappointing experience here. It's not maintained at all. This has a history and architectural wonder but is not maintained at all. From here we went up, to go back and it was absolutely surprising route. Very small lanes of about 3-4' width, every other house is a temple and only locals can guide you out. Google got confused too, even mobile signals were not coming in. Small shops of yarn and grey cloth were there at the end and reached us to Chowk Thana after about 2km of walk. It was absolutely mystery walk. Many lanes were totally dead, without any people or doors. May be back side of the houses or leading to some more mystery lanes. You can still find temples there. Chowk is the most crowded area, it's again on the side of the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple. The only transportation available from here is human pedal carts, you don't like taking a ride on it but there are no options and no place to walk also. The places we missed in Varanasi were Benaras Hindu University campus, which is supposed to be the biggest educational campus of India and also International Music Center Ashram. This music center organises Indian classical music concert on Wednesday and Saturday evenings at 8pm. Unfortunately due to the Covid epidemic we avoided street food but I would like to chart out the list which I had gathered. Remember CLIP in Varanasi. C for Chat, L for Lassi, I for Imarti and P for Banarasi Pan. For Chat 1) Kachori and Samosa near Dashashwamedh Ghat. Famous being Kashi Chat Bhandar, Bati Chokha, Ram Bhandar. 2) For lassi , Pehlwan lassi at Assi Ghat, Blue Lassi in Kachaudi lane and Baba Lassi in Bengali Tola. 3) Imarti or Jalebi. Most famous is Shri Ram Bhandar, you need patience to wait here for your turn. 4) Paan. Banarasi paan is world famous. These paan are small in size but absolutely mouth freshening. On any chauraha you will find paan shop so just enjoy it. Apart from above items Varanasi is also famous for Hot flavoured milk called Malai and Rabadi. Also don't miss lemon tea on Ghat. There are so many other local cuisines and would love to try on my next visit. Varanasi is also very famous for Banarasi sarees and dress material. That also I would like to cover in the next visit. Handloom weaving units are worth visiting as I saw a demo unit in one of the stores.