We faced quite a challenge getting to Varanasi and both had a feeling of trepidation before setting off as the first leg of our journey involved a 2nd class train during the day. We'd seen these trains on our travels and it looked more like 'sardine' class with 200 people in carriages designed for 70 (none on the roof though!). To our enormous relief our carriage was quite civilized; the overnight leg of the trip was a different matter as we were in the grim sleeper class, which was like a freak show from start to finish. Every 10 minutes we were bothered by an array of characters including a witch, the transvestites, a witch-doctor, beggars and chai whallas. We were sharing a compartment with (amongst others) 2 cyclists from the UK who were cycling from their home in Norfolk to Sri Lanka! They were good value and the journey went by quickly.

Our hostel in Varanasi was the Ganpati Guesthouse. We had a fantastic corner room overlooking the river Ganges. We had read a little about Varanasi and its spiritual significance in India and were very excited to be there.

During our 4 days we spent our time taking boat rides up and down the river, looking at the innumerable ghats , getting lost in the labyrinth of streets forming the old town looking for shrines and mosques (unsuccessfully most of the time) and visiting the university museum.

The most dramatic part of this trip was an evening visit to Manikarnika ghat, the pre-eminent cremation ghat. Where 200-300 people are publicly cremated everyday. The strangeness of this ritual felt other worldly. We had an unofficial guide who explained the significance of the rituals which we found quite fascinating.

Whilst in Ramnagar we had heard that there had been a bomb blast in Varanasi and security did seem tight, there were lots of police with big guns and airport security style metal scanners up and down the river bank. We were even quizzed by police as to why we were out walking so late one evening (at 7:30pm!).

Varanasi has a reputation for poor cleanliness and according to our guide book if you're going to get ill in India it will most likely be here. So far on our trip (and Craig's 2 months in Africa) we had been feeling good with no illness, but Varanasi claimed both our scalps! On arrival at the hostel Gemma managed to puke in the room whilst Craig developed an acute case of 'Delhi belly'. Not great considering it was our first shared bathroom situation and there were only 2 cubicles for the whole hostel.

Despite our illnesses we have really enjoyed Varanasi and thought it the best place we've visited in India so far.