17th - 20th Oct. Varanasi

Temperature: Hot and humid, maybe 35 degrees
Skanky large rivers: 1
Grasshoppers: Millions everywhere around the hotel
Lovely meals: At the Radisson hotel (only 500 rps -approx 7 pounds)
Pictures taken of the river: Around 100
Dead bodies: 2 (perfectly normal)

The train was very late arriving at Varanasi, 5 hours late in fact! Even British Rail were never that bad.

Again we were bombarded by the usual touts, rickshaws etc. (which we're very bored of now). So we sat for a while eating a banana whilst about 7 or 8 touts surrounded us trying to get business. We just sat and ate and ignored them, we're getting good at that now, but takes a while to perfect.

We casually walked up to the pre-paid rickshaw rank, while being followed by about 10 people all talking to us. Fortunately we got our own way (by not going to a hotel they insisted on), and were taken to an ATM which was very close to our hotel. The trick is that they get commision (up to 50%) if they take you to the hotel which then gets added to the room tariff. We walked to the hotel and checked in, then found that the rickshaw guy had folllowed us (from a distance - very creepy) and demanded a signature (very strange), we think he was just disgruntled because he couldn't take us straight to the hotel and get his money. We didn't give it to him.

Anyway, the hotel was really nice with a garden in the middle and a room with balcony looking down on it. It sounded much better than the one by the Ganges as it explains in the book that you shouldn't venture out after dark, and the hotels lock there doors by 10pm - nice!

The fist day was spent chillin' in the hotel grounds trying to catch up on sleep. There were a few trips that the hotel arranged so we thought we would book the sunrise Ganges boat trip (150 rps). We also took a tour of the silk houses, where they have the famous silk producing looms. We ended up being pursuaded to buy some silk, which is currently on it's way home (hopefully). Later in the afternoon we ventured down to the Ganges to see all the action. There wasn't any - just a few left over touts. You have to see all the action at sunrise at about 6am.

Well it was an early start, we had to get up at 4:30am to get the taxi down to the river and be on the boat at sunrise. It was worth it, the sunrise was lovely and the river was tranquil and still. (Lots of cheesy sunrise piccies)

We got to the see the burning Ghats, where they burn their dead on heaps of timber (sandlewood is best) and put their aches into the Ganges. It's a hub of activity where they wash their clothes and themselves, pray, and swim. They also drink the river water, which is amazing because if any Westerner was to go into the water, they'll probably die of some disease as the water is extremely toxic.

After the boat trip we were taken around a couple of temples and then taken back to the hotel for breakfast, as we were starving by this time. The afternoon was spent doing chores like sending our parcel of silk, which is a chore in itself, due to crazy Indian bureaucracy, and trying to buy our bus ticket to the India/Nepal border. Of course they have the usual tout trick where they tell you there are no standard buses in the morning, then some guy comes up and tells you that there's a tourist bus that can take you in the morning. Yep, we can see straight through it now, so went straight to the train station and got a ticket to Garakhpur, which is 2 1\2 hours from the border (just to avoid the touts and a crap bus journey).

Our train is tonight at 5pm so we're just in the hotel complex killing time before our journey to Pokhara which will tale us a couple of days. We'll need to stay overnight in Garakhpur before getting a bus to the border to get our visas, then a 10 hour bus journey to Pokhara.

India: It's a love, hate relationship!