Literally, a 200 metre walk took me from Nepal and into India and I noticed the difference instantaneously; the streets were so much more dirty and the men, so much more leery.

Eleven hours and a numb and bruised bum later a bus brought me to the Indian city of Varanasi.

The main attraction in Varanasi is the River Ganges and what an attraction it is. According to Hindus the River Ganga is sacred. It is worshipped by Hindus and personified as the goddess named Shiva who holds an important place in the Hindu religion. Hindus believe that life is incomplete without bathing in the Ganga at least once in their lifetime. They also believe that the water in the Ganga can cleanse a person's soul of all past sins and cure the ill.

The river bank consists of a number of ghats, almost like small bays, and within the ghats from sunrise to sunset people come to pray, wash, clean their clothes, cremate the dead, brush their teeth, bathe their cows and I am sure anything that is possible. This is a scary thought, and view, when you know that the river water is septic and no dissolved oxygen exists within it's waters. Apparantly, samples from the river show that 100ml of water contains 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria; in water safe for bathing, this figure should be less than 500!

Despite knowing this, I jumped aboard a rowing boat to view the sunrise and people from the water - being extremely careful not to touch a single droplet - the colours were amazing and the views were magical. It was amazing to see the Hindu faith in motion and the idea that they believe this river to be so Holy.