I will warn you now, this is going to be quite a long blog and bits of it may gross you out!

I shall start with the train journey. The train was only 1 hour late this time, and it was in the early hours of the morning, so not too hot. Whilst standing on the platform watching the rats running around in all the poo (as the toilets are just a hole dropping straight onto the tracks) I turned around to find a huge bull sauntering past me on the platform, giving me quite a shock. We then watched, as we had so many times before, a train pull on to another platform whilst tens of peolpe tried to jump onto the moving train to get a place in the unreserved carriages. At the same time others were trying to get off the train. It is unbelievable how crammed some of these carriages are. Hundreds of people squash in, with 5 or 6 people to each bed and many more in the ailses and doorways. It made us feel very relieved that we had a reserved 1st class carriage to ourselves on our train, but also guilty about this luxury. Our 1st class cabin had only cost us about 15.00 GBP each, which to us is so little, particularly for an overnight journey, but to the majority of Indians that amount is so much.

So, we arrived at Varanasi. We had heard mixed reviews of this place, as it is so full of tourists, but we really like it. It was such a contrast to Kanpur and I think we appreciated the change. We are in a heat wave in India at the moment. On Wednesday temperatures reached 42.4 degrees, so our afternoons are mainly spent indoors! Our Guest House is on Meer Ghat and had an amaing view of the Ganges from the rooftop restaurant. The Ganges seem much cleaner here than in Kanpur and the Ghats spread all the way along the river, so it's nice to walk down there, but you do get hassled to take boat trips, buy posycards, buy flowers, etc, etc....

Even thought the Ganges looks cleaner, we still haven't been in, and don't plan to do so. Hundreds of people do go into the holy river, including many tourists, but I read in an Indian newspaper a few days ago htat the government do not feel it is safe to swim in, plus you never know what will float along as you swim.... For those of you who don't know, the Ganges in believed to give self purification (which is why thousands travel each year to bathe in it, particularly Indian tourists). It is also believed that if you die in Varanasi you will be free from the re-incarnation cycle, so this is a popular place to die! They then perform cremations in the form of funeral pyres at the 'Burning Ghat' and throw the ashes/remains into the river. They wrap the bodies in a cloth, make a big pile of wood, carry the body on a stretcher to the wood and then put more wood on top of the body and set fire to it. This is particularly popular at dusk, when you can see many pyres happening. You can go to watch, but will often be asked for contributions to help the family pay for the fire wood. It's very strange watching this ritual, and years ago many wives would commit 'sati' (throwing themselves on top of the fire) on their husbands pyres. This has now been banned, as many women were drugged with opium by their husbands families and forced to throw themselves as the families felt it was a great act of respect.

We met up with a friend, Aubrey, here and arranged to take an early morning boat ride to watch the sun rise. We had read not to be shocked f we saw dead bodies floating by, as many families could not afford the funeral pyre, so just threw the bodies into the water. We had already seen many dead bodies being carried down the streets in various places in funeral processions before, so were prepared for this. What we we not prepared for was to see a dog on the shore of the river eating a human hand as we rowed by! We realised that the body sets fire from the centre, so the hands and feet often don't get fully burned (particularly if the family cannot afford for more wood to be put on) so these remains are thrown into the river. Now you can see why I'm reluctant to swim in there!

The boat ride was great and worth getting up at 6am for. It was really busy on the river as it's nice and cool at that time. We arranged the trip with an Indian man, who then signalled for the boat to come for us, and he had two boys rowing it! The main one looked about 11 and his little friend about 8, and they took turns in rowing. We did not get very far very fast, so when we go for another boat ride tonight we shall make sure we have a strong man rowing us! I think it is just another ploy to get more money out of tourists as they hope you shall feel sorry for the children and let them stop the trip early and/or give them a big tip. We did neither, as although I did feel sorry for the kids, we knew it would not be them who benefitted. We also bumped into some other friends we had met in Jaisalmer (Mark and Laura), as they were in another boat! After a while our boat sprung a leak, so we all had to swap over into a different boat which was just returning to shore.

There seem lots of small festivals and ceremonies constantly happening here, which is great to see, even if we have no idea what id going on! The town is full of small streets and alleways, which are like a maze, but there are some great places to eat as there are so many tourists. We went to a great place for breakfast and whilst sitting there I thought I saw something move. Graham said "what's wrong" and I said "I think I'm seeing things". He said "No you're not, there's been a mouse running around for a while- this is India". It's strange how things like this have just become normal to us, even in a more upmarket restaurant.

The place we are staying at is good, but they don't serve alcohol and have a 10pm kerfew! So, we go down to our friends hostel for beer in the evenings. On the first night we did not have a torch with us and on the journey home Graham stood in a warm latrine! Luckily we had a bottle of water with us, so he could wash his foot (he was wearing flip flops) but he was still really grossed out and got straight in the shower when we got home.

We have anther night here, so going to take a sunset boat ride tonight, then meet some friends for dinner and maybe go to a music concert. Then, tomorrow we take the train to Delhi for the final part of our India tour.

Maggie x