We arrived in Varanasi yesterday, this is one of the oldest cities there is. It is a very holy city and many religious ceremonies take place here. We went to see one of the Hindu ceremonies yesterday by the river they take place in the ghats are there are many different ones in the City. Today we went to see the place where Buddha did his first preaching and the tree still stands there from where he stood. We also went to the temple there and it depicted on the walls the life of Buddha. This religion first started in the 8th century BC, I didn't know it was that old. We were given a leaf from the tree but only one that had fallen to the ground as it is forbidden to pluck them off. Our tour leader took lots of them and said that all the workers in the hotel would expect them if they knew he had been there. In the evening we went on a boat in the river and had traditional Indian music, we then lit candles and put them into the river to sail out, they say if your candle reaches to the furthest point of the river you can see without going out then your wish will come true, ours didn't go too far due to the rain, but it did look really pretty!We leave tomorrow for Nepal, we have both enjoyed India so much and will really miss it. Even the yukky toilets, the weird smells, the rubbish on the streets....only joking, it is a great country to come and visit it is so diverse and interesting! I'll even miss the cows on the street they are sooo cute but its shame they tend to harm themselves by eating anything they see and I mean anything, I saw one eat a napkin the other day!