We stepped out of the station at Varanasi and the first thing I saw was a ghost of a woman sitting helplessly on the floor. She was emaciated, probably looked much older then she was, had matted hair and wasn't really wearing a top as such. My heart broke, I could only start to imagine what her life is like and what she has been through. Really poverty is such a massive issue in India I don't know where you'd start!

We were collected at the station by a jovial chap who proudly told us that we would be travelling in his new tuk tuk and that he was a safe driver. WHAT A FIB!! I have never been so scared in a tuk tuk in my life - I spent most of the journey with my eyes shut gripping the handle for safety as he weaved erratically all over the road!

Varanasi is believed to be one of the holiest of all 'crossing places' that allows devotees access to the divine and enables gods and goddesses to come down to earth, in fact Hindus believe that the Ganges is the elixir of life bringing purity to the living and salvation to the dead. It is for this reason that many Hindus make pilgrimages to Varanasi and can be seen bathng, drinking, washing and swmmng in the Ganges river.

In reality the Ganges is believed to be heavily polluted particularly because of some local factories which are believed to be pumping the river with heavy metals and waste. Dealing with this pollution is going to be a tricky situation though as there is concern that any purification tactics may compormise the holiness of the water.

Varanasi is a suprisingly big place with a fantastic old bazaar but really it is all about the river Ganges and its 100 ghats. Every evening prayers are held at the prayer ghat, Dasawamdh, so on our first evening we took a boat up the Ganges to view this amazing spectacle from the water whilst on the second evening we went by foot and joined the crowds sitting watching on the ghat. The boat journey was quite cool and en route we lit some candles and released them into the Ganges whilst making a wish. It was all rather sweet but there were so many candles that eventually we all began to run out of wishes - particularly because, as Asher had told us, selfish wishes never come true! The prayers were amazing to watch with 5 male priests dressed in orange and gold performing a ritual which involved such things as spinning around pots of incense, playing the conch and chanting. Of equal interest though was the everyday life which was being conducted around us at the same time - a small girl with her skirt tucked in her knickers washing thali plates in the river, a young boy jumping from boat to boat selling flowers, a naked man bathing....only in India! We had 2 rowers and one guy steering at the rear who was absolutely rubbish, the poor guys rowing must have rowed twice the distance they needed to as we were winding along so much - on a number of occasions we thought some poor unsuspecting bather had had it!

To get around Varanasi we did quite a bit of walking (as it's the only way to get along the ghats) but unfortunately this may not have been the best move as David ended up getting a kind of heat stroke (we think) that knocked him out the following day! When we weren't using our 2 legs we opted for cycle rickshaws. On two occasions we had quite elderly cyclists which is a really tough call as on the one hand you feel guilt at expecting him to cycle you about whilst on the other hand you are aware that he needs the income. We were negotiating a fare wth one cyclist in the old bazaar when, as is common, another came over to just be nosy when suddenly, out of nowhere, a cane descended thrashing him across the side of his body. I couldn't believe it, a soldier had just hit him to make him move on - such an extreme reaction when a simple ' Please move on' would have sufficed!

Varanasi is quite an amazng place really - everywhere you look there is something new and interesting to see. Holy men, pilgrims, burning bodies, laundry, people with shaved heads, people praying, people bathing, people shopping and much much more. It really is a fascinating place but a combination of the heat and David not feeling so well probably meant that we didn't see as much of it as we could have - but what we did manage to see we really enjoyed!!