Varanasi, well what an experience! We arrived safe and sound despite Helen having a horrible journey due to her cough. Throughout the journey several people approached us as they were concerned. As there was no doctor in the National Park it was a priority to see one in Varanasi.

Varanasi...is one of the worlds oldest continually inhabited city and is regarded as one of Hindu's seven holy cities. As we observed, pilgrims come to Varanasi to visit the River Ganges to wash away a lifetime of sins or to cremate their loved ones. Apparently, Hindus believe its good to die in Varanasi as dying here offers 'Moskha' (liberation from the cycle of birth and death!). It was also here that Lord Brahma sacrificed 10 horses into the River Ganges. So for several reasons Varanasi is very important to Hindus.

Our initial thoughts of Varanasi, it's chaotic, cold, dusty and smelly! During our time in Varanasi we saw loads of women with shaved heads, who apparently shave their hair off when they become widowed. Varanasi also has loads of animals including horses, cows, pigs, dogs, cats etc who are allowed to willingly roam just because they can!

We spent our first day with the doctor trying to get a diagnosis for Helen as she had a fever, dry hacking cough and just generally wasn't feeling good and he could not make a diagnosis but told Helen to avoid dust and smells which is impossible in India. We arranged for a blood test just to rule out anything serious for the following morning.

Helen had her blood test and refused to stay in as she wanted to see the sights of Varanasi as she has always wanted to see the River Ganges for herself, so off Nick and Helen went (armed with her jap mask) to the ghats.

The ghats have long stretches of steps to the western bank of the river and it was here they saw it all (but not a cremation...) loads of people were bathing in the river which was clearly very polluted. (The River Ganges is amongst the top 3 worlds most polluted rivers!) It's amazing how people follow lifelong beliefs and religion to bathe in dirty water but we're not one to argue as we know beliefs mean a lot to people.

Varanasi has about 80 ghats but we only saw about 15. The walk along the river was amazing as its a world class 'people watching' destination

People were also washing their clothes, playing cricket, washing their cattle etc but there were a lot of painfully thin dreadlocked Hindu men dressed in orange wandering around begging for money. However bad we felt, we didn't give any money as its lifelong embedded into us that giving money does not always improve their quality of life.

We met with the doctor again to receive the blood test results and they confirmed that Helen is perfectly healthy with no infection but that she suffers from a severe allergy to dust. Just as well we are getting out of India in 4 days time for Thailand.

The afternoon was spent in a nice cafe-cum-gift shop that obviously has free wifi and yummy cakes (massive slices and Nick had his plus half of Helen's!)

Varanasi is certainly one of the most dirtiest and dustiest city in India and while Nick appreciates the beauty of Varanasi he could not bring himself to like Varanasi. Helen on the other hand, can see why it is of utmost importance to Hindus and the beauty of the ghats/River Ganges but she did not enjoy her time in Varanasi as she could not stop coughing.

We had a early morning train from Varanasi to Kolkata and for the first time during our travels we both slept through the alarm but thankfully Helen's cough woke her up (some good did come out of having a cough!) and she realised the time (30 min before our train was due to leave!) and woke Nick up in a mad panic.

There was no way we were missing our train as we had forked out for 1st class. We managed to pack and get dressed in record time and get the tuktuk to race his way around the streets of Varanasi to the station. We were relieved to find that our train was delayed (this explains why the hotel staff were so relaxed and confident that we would make our train!). We need to remember that we are not in England anymore!