We spent a few days in Varanasi. The ghats along the ganges are pretty special and you see everything from people washing, cows, goats, people playing cards, boats coming in, kids playin cricket, people eating, selling stuff, fishing, cooking, doing laundry and tons more! the most fascinating was the bodies being cremated. yep, you can actually see the cremations live, they carry the body down to the river wrapped up, unwrap them to reveal a sticky gooey body under a thin sheet of white towel then burn it on a bed of wood, then take the ashes and send them out on the river. i just about fainted the first time i saw it, but got used to it. the bodies dont smell because they light tons of incense and use sandalwood to cremate them. still, i found the white dust settling on my shoulders and the smoke in my hair a bit unsettling. probably someones leg or arm or sommin. you can sit on the ghats and watch all day and you'll see something new. altho the buildings are not that old (about 200yrs), they look like old venetian buildings and the river side actually has a venetian feel to it. the ganges is one of the most polluted river in the world, yet becuase the hindus believe it to be 'sacred' they dont care about the filthy state of it. theres some statistic that the river has 5000 times the amount of bacteria and pollution which would make it safe to swim in. at first i thought it a bit exageration, but many people bathing at the river have skin disorders/rashes etc. even some of the animals especially the dogs have serious skin problems from swimming in the river. albeit neither paul or i touched it and i made sure i wore my socks and sneakers whenever we went near. on our second morning we went on a 6am boat ride and it was pretty misty and quite surreal. i felt i was in a movie called "the fog" or something. people were already up at this hour doing the cremations and doing laundry or washing themselves (sometimes just 2-3 metres from the cremations) which i found a bit weird. considering theres endless places to wash yourself. more monkeys and puppies and cows everywhere as usual and the city itself is quite busy noisy and polluted. the old town has a maze of alleys that they dont warn you about and its easy to get lost as we did several times. we went for a day trip to Sarnath, a buddhist town about 10km north of varanasi where the buddha preached his first sermon after he attained enlightenment. nothing special about the place but there are a few good ruins and buddhist monuments to see, oh and throw in a "mini zoo" with a few crocs and some bird avaries, deer and what not. if nothing else it was a much needed peaceful break from varanasi. the pollution issue is getting to me a bit the past few days, i sometimes dont understand how they can pollute their country so much. i suppose with the numbers its hard to upgrade or change things easily. i've discovered chai the past few days. while i did try it when i first arrived, i've realised the best stuff is off the street as long as its boiling hot, its pretty safe to drink. the milky sweet tea does take some getting used to but its my fav drink and the indian staple. service here is also SO slow in restaurants. they dont know the meaning of multi-tasking in a kitchen and if say we order 5 items between us, everything will come out separately in 15 min intervals. i cant remember the last time paul and i ate our meals at the same time. it can be frustrating. but i keep reminding myself - its india! get used to it! heh. paul and i are good otherwise and we've actually just arrived in Calcutta as i write this. an 18 hour train ride which was interesting.... you'll have to read the next chapter to find out! we plan to go to the sunderbands tiger reserve for xmas which is at the mouth of the ganges river in the mangrove swamps, so that will surely be something to report on.The park is a tiger and biosphere reserve and has been designated as world heritage site by UNESCO. It extends about 260 km along the Bay of Bengal from the Hooghly River Estuary ( India ) to the Meghna River Estuary in Bangladesh. internet in calcutta is AMAZINGLY fast (or is that just cos it was so awful in other places?), so will upload lots of pics in the next 4-5 days).

Wishing everyone a GREAT XMAS and NEW YEAR. Have a good one.

Julia paul xox