Heat hit me when I stepped off the plane in New Delhi. The smell hit me here.

It's hot in New Delhi, it's hotter here. It is noisy in ND, it's noiser here. There are traffic jams in ND, there are more here. Everything that I read about India can be seen, smelt or heard here. No amount of reading can prepare you for Varanasi.

Javi and I booked all our trains, and had all our hotels reserved before stepping foot in India. With only 15 days, and an eagerness like no other to see as much as possible it was the best way for us to be less concerned about having to spend another night in a place due to lack of train tickets, or arriving at a hotel and unable to stay to do it being fully booked. This worked for us, although I know many others prefer to have things freer.

We generally spent about 40 euros a night on places, wishing to stay in upper market establishments since we are on our honeymoon. When looking for places in Varanasi it was really difficult to find somewhere that was neither too cheap nor too expensive. We found a gem. Shivakashi guest house, where the manager went above and behond to help us and make sure we had the most pleasant stay in a not so pleasant city. Also breakfast was included.

The main highlight in Varanasi is the ghats which are all unique and different, some are for burning of the dead, others for bathing, for cleaning clothes, for ceremonies etc. The best way to see these, or so we've been told is by taking a boat along the river. This unfortunately can't be done during monsoon season as the river is too fast flowing for the boats. We did however venture into some of them to see the action.

Our guest house was right next to the Chausatti Ghat which we obviously went to see, and next door to that one is the famous Dashashwamedh Ghat, which has a nightly light and fire celebration. The first night, even with the heavy down pour, we headed out to see this. We did it again the second night, which I must say was better, but neither were particularly fantastic.

Manikarnika Ghat is the most famous burning ghat, which we went to see, although not during the actual burning. We were there right before one so all the wood was prepared and the body was being brought down. Out of respect you cannot take photos here, and we did not wish to intrude on this sacred moment. Also you are hassled A LOT here to go to a better place, for a better view, and then they ask for money from you. NOT going to happen.

People ask for money all over Varanasi for nothing. You are hassled at every turn and people are begging on every street. It's soul destroying walking past them and not helping. Javi and I couldn't leave without thinking we had done something, even if it was just a small thing. A woman who had asked us every day, not for money, but for milk for her baby that she carried round was finally given it on our final day there, as Javi couldn't take it any more. We spent 270 rupees on powdered milk for him. This isn't a lot of money for us, but for them it is loads and hopefully we've helped just a little.

For every beggar there is a cow. Litterally, on every street, no matter whether big or small there will be at least one cow. These, unlike the poor eat well. They eat the rubbish that people dump in the street, once we saw a cow eating the poster that a person had pinned up to advertise something. They hang out where they want and on one occasion there was one blocking our path into our hotel. When it did decide to finally move, it sat itself down in the gateway making it impossible to enter. Luckily someone on their motorbike came along and rescued us.

Motorbikes too are in an abundance here, probably because they are cheaper than cars. Not to worry though, all the family can fit on, up to 5 on a motorbike, without helmet and with no sense of which side of the road to drive on is perfectly acceptable.

Varanasi is more about the colours, smells and tastes than of things to actually see and do. Food is obviously important whilst travelling and trying your best not to get the dreaded delhi belly. A recommendation not only from the manager in the hotel, but in the lonely planet book is the dolphin restaurant. What neither mentioned was the difficulty one might have in trying to find it, as you walk tiny side streets and asking every second person you see if they know where it is and all saying yes and pointing you in a different direction. Also not mentioned are the steps that you need to climb to get to the roof top terrace where the one beer we ordered cost more than the food we ate. The food was nice though and the views were maybe not nice but worth the climb to tick off another ghat on the list. The Man Mandir Ghat.

A day trip out of Varanasi to Sarnath is a nice change of pace, although the views of the ghats changes, of the poor it does not. We hired a tuk-tuk for the day costing us a little over 10 euros to takes us everywhere. Starting at the university in Varanasi and the temple within the grounds. Also a stop at monkey temple before heading on a journey through "villages" for want of a better word until we reached our destination.

Sarnath is famous as it is where Buddha came so all the temples and monasteries are buddhist in this area. We stopped at many, all varying slightly but all with the compulsary shoes off policy, so be warned, take shoes that are easily removed and put back on with out much hassle. Here almost everything was free, what becomes expensive when going into so many temples is the man you need to pay to look after your shoes for you. 10 rupees isn't much but when paid five times in just one day, and tips for all the other people too, it begins to add up.

One thing not worth paying for, that we did was entry into the "zoo" although not expensive it was the worst kept, dirtiest zoo I've ever been in, and that is saying something since I entered many bad ones during my time in China.

Chinese food is nothing like the food we have in Britain. Indian food here is very similar to Indian food back in Europe, just spicier. Butter chicken, or masala and tikka are common dishes on menus here, and not because we are in tourist areas, we've eaten popadoms and pakoras from street sellers too here which are very similar to previously eaten before coming here. Many people here are vegetarians, and on more than one accasion we've eaten in vegetarian restaurants which are nice.

Almost all the food we've eaten here has been nice, with the execption of one place. It was near our guest house in Varanasi, and I'm gutted I can't remember the name to warn fellow travelers. It had too much on the menu, pizzas, pasta, chinese food, japanese food and indian of course. Thinking it would be safer to go Indian being in India and all turned out not to make much difference. Javi's chinese noodles were served a good 20 mins before mine, and even after receiving the chicken, a further 10 minute wait was had for the rice.

Train to Agra now where the Taj Mahal awaits me.