Packing light for a spiritual trip to Kashi Copy

Varanasi is a city that asks you to arrive with less than you think you need. Not because the shops are lacking you can buy almost anything you have forgotten in an hour at Godowlia market but because the physical shape of the old city, the narrow lanes and steep steps and multiple daily shoe removals, will punish you gently but consistently for every unnecessary kilo. A trip to Kashi is not the trip on which to bring the wheeled suitcase you inherited from your grandfather, however sentimental the attachment. Bring less. You will move more freely, spend less on porters, notice more of what is around you, and a real thing that happens walk out of the trip lighter in ways beyond the physical.

The single most important choice you will make about packing is the bag. The old-city lanes we live and work in are between four and seven feet wide, which is enough for two people to pass in one direction and one buffalo in the other, but not enough for anything with rigid outriggers. A large hard-shell suitcase becomes a genuine obstacle the moment you leave a taxi. We recommend a soft-sided duffel of forty to fifty litres, or a small wheeled cabin bag no larger than fifty-five centimetres. If you have a backpack you like, this is the trip for it. Anything larger, and you will find yourself either paying a porter or dragging the bag over a step every three feet.

Clothes: bring less than you think, and less again after that. Varanasi has good, cheap, reliable laundry most of our homes offer a wash-and-fold service that turns clothes around in about eighteen hours which means you can safely bring four days of clothing for a seven-day trip. Cotton and linen are your friends. Synthetic fabrics feel unpleasant in the summer heat and take longer to dry in the winter damp. Pack in muted colours if you like the city itself is loud enough that you do not need to add to the visual noise or pack in whatever you would wear anywhere; nobody here cares what you wear as long as it covers what needs covering.

On modesty: this is a religious city and a working temple town, and while western clothes are entirely normal on the ghats and in most public spaces, temples themselves ask that both men and women cover shoulders and knees. This is not a strict enforcement in most cases, but it is the local expectation, and dressing accordingly makes every temple visit easier. A pair of loose cotton trousers and a light long-sleeved shirt is a good universal outfit; for women, a cotton kurta over leggings works equally well and is what most of our female hosts wear day to day. Avoid low-cut tops, above-the-knee shorts, and anything sheer. You are not going to be turned away for wearing them, but you will feel more conspicuous than you want to.

Shoes are the second-most-important choice you will make. You will take them off between five and fifteen times a day depending on how many temples you visit, which means every shoe with a lace, a buckle, or a complex strap is an active enemy. Bring one pair of slip-on walking shoes leather sandals, cushioned mules, or a well-broken-in pair of loafers and one pair of light indoor slippers if you like to keep your bare feet off floors. Do not bring flip-flops as your only pair; the ghats are wet in patches, the steps are steep, and the lanes are in the interest of full honesty occasionally littered with things you would rather not step on with an unsupported foot. If you have expensive trainers you love, leave them home; they will come back marked in ways that no laundry can undo.

A shawl is possibly the most useful single item you can bring. In summer it is a shoulder cover for temple visits and a light protection against the fierce late-morning sun. In winter it is a wrap for cold evenings on the river, when the temperature can drop into the single digits Celsius. In monsoon it is a light head-cover in sudden showers. A large cotton or wool-cotton blend shawl in a neutral colour cream, dark brown, muted saffron will earn its space in your bag ten times over.

For temple visits specifically, a few things help. Leather bags and leather belts are best left in your room; some temples ask you to remove them at the door, and it is easier to not bring them at all. A small cotton tote or cross-body cloth bag is perfect for carrying a phone, a wallet, a bottle of water, and any offerings you have bought at the gate. Some temples ask for phones and cameras to be checked in at a booth before entering the inner sanctum; this is safe but slow, and if you have a very small purse you can often carry your phone through in it without difficulty. A small stainless-steel or brass diya is a nice thing to have if you want to light one at a lesser-known temple; the mainstream temples provide their own.

Health items are worth packing thoughtfully. Bring a small basic kit: a strip of loperamide (Imodium) for stomach upsets, a strip of paracetamol for headaches or mild fever, a tube of an antiseptic ointment like Soframycin, a small pack of oral rehydration salts, a small bottle of hand sanitiser, and a strip of your preferred anti-nausea if you are prone to motion sickness on boats. If you take prescription medication, bring enough for the whole trip plus a week Indian pharmacies will refill most things, but the process is easier avoided. Water: drink bottled or filtered water only; every home we run has a large filtered-water jug in the kitchen you are welcome to refill from, and we encourage guests to bring a reusable bottle for this reason.

A refillable water bottle is worth its space three times over. It is more sustainable than the bottled-water alternative, keeps you drinking more, and is not something most first-time visitors think to bring. A one-litre metal or hard-plastic bottle is fine; something with a carabiner or loop that clips to a bag is even better for the walking days.

Electronics: a small power bank, a universal-plug adapter (India uses type D and type M sockets), a compact camera or a phone with a good camera, and a pair of earplugs. That is it. Do not bring the drone commercial and hobby drone use is restricted in most of the old city and outright banned over the ghats and the river, and the fines are not trivial. Do not bring the laptop unless you are working; you will use it less than you think. Do not bring a tripod unless you are a serious photographer; the crowds and the narrow lanes make it awkward.

For the boat and the ghats specifically: a small torch or a phone with a good flashlight is more useful than you would guess. The old-city lanes are lit but not brightly, and by eight in the evening some stretches are quite dark. Sunrise boat rides start in the near-dark, and it is nice to be able to find your shoes at the pier without groping. Bring a lightweight rain jacket if you are travelling in the monsoon (July to September); the rain when it arrives is heavy and short-lived, and a rain jacket lets you keep walking.

Cash: bring some. Most reputable shops and all our homes accept UPI and cards, but the small vendors the kachori stalls, the paan shops, the boatmen, the flower sellers at the ghats deal exclusively in cash and mostly in small denominations. A working supply of ten, twenty, fifty, and hundred-rupee notes will make every small transaction smoother, and it is a small kindness to the vendors not to break a five-hundred-rupee note for a fifty-rupee purchase. ATMs are plentiful in Godowlia and Assi and less so in the deep old city; withdraw at a bank ATM in daylight rather than at a hole-in-the-wall machine at night.

What not to bring: a hair dryer (we have them in the rooms), a travel iron (we handle laundry), a full-sized bath towel (all our homes provide them, and quick-dry travel towels are pointless here), formal shoes, formal clothes generally, more than one book, and expensive jewellery. Anything you would be sad to lose is best left home; the city is safe, but pickpockets on the busiest ghat evenings and at the railway station do exist, and the ghat steps have swallowed more than one dropped ring.

One thing to bring that is not on any packing list: a notebook. A small one, softcover, with a pen that will not leak in the heat. Everyone who comes to Varanasi and does not bring one regrets it. The city gives you a lot of very specific small observations the exact angle of the light at Assi at 5:52 a.m., the price of a boat ride at Panchganga on a Wednesday, the name of the man at the paan shop who remembered your face on the third morning and none of it will survive a week of ordinary memory. Write it down. You will thank yourself in six months, and again in six years.

The final piece of advice: pack in the evening, unpack in the morning, then take one thing out. Whatever it is. A pair of trousers, a book, a spare charger. Put it back on the shelf. You will not need it. Varanasi has a way of arranging itself for exactly the person who arrives with slightly less than they think they need, and slightly more attention than they think they have.