Hotel Sunrise Varanasi

... our local guide in Varanasi, you don't know India until you've been here. It is impossible to accurately describe what it is like to rickshaw and walk through the crazy traffic and crowds to the boat (now motors allowed) to see the aarti ceremony( the sacred light ceremony performed after sunset to give thanks for the day and put the Ganges to sleep) and view bodies being ...

... to do the fire treatment. Ahhh! I thought, There is yet a 7th category of those who are not burnt. The poorest of the poor. All those listed above, who are not burnt are tied to a heavy weight and slipped under the surface of the Ganges whole. This might explain the rope marking on the man's neck. <br><br>Photography at the burning Ghats is strictly prohibited. The deceased are being lovingly disposed of under the religious traditions of the culture. Their ...

We arrived at about 12.30 to Varanasi station. Taxi touts strangely find my hair a bit of a giveaway that we are not local and swoop with the speed of a kestrel immediately a foot is placed on the platform. I provided our first First-Aid moment when putting our backpacks into the old Ambassador taxi. I forgot that unlike modern cars where the boot lid is designed to be out of harms way when you open it, that of the 50 year Ambassador is actually cleverly designed to ...

... pretty excited to see it, usually before rocking up to a monument or city I'm fairly non-plussed. But for the Taj I made an exception, and it did not disappoint. I have not the skill nor the time to detail every curve, or properly give leanance to the magnitude of this outrageous monument. My only advice is "go see it". No picture does it justice. No words properly convey the beauty- although surprisingly simple and straightforward in design it really does just have the ...

... my way back here again, it feels way too much like my home and there's many lessons to be learned here.<br><br>The effects of the heat are not so intense once you acclimatize but soon we're heading for the colder Indian Himalayas via my beloved Taj Mahal and a couple of other stop overs.<br><br>Swine flu is now running rampant in India so it was a likely scenario that i did in fact contract it earlier.<br><br>Unfortunately, i have given in and got a pair of those ugly ...

... some beautiful tunes streaming from the ipod. Bless the ipod. Lots of people come up onto the tops of their buildings to see the sun go to sleep for the day, getting up high if the go. From our position we could see kids flying paper kites, kids wrestling, families of monkeys scaling walls and leaping tall buildings in leaps and bounds, meditators, yoga sessions and families having a laugh together and just being. There is a reckless spirit of fun. Below us on their ...

... didn't last long, and retreated to the Taj pool for recovery. In the evening we ventured down again (this time with Duncan - who was feeling marginally better, and Maddie was left behind, having relapsed). It is a quintessential Indian experience to go for a boat ride on the Ganges in the evening setting sun. Large row boats ply the river side Ghats, and we were quickly 'claimed' by a tout who ushered us down to the river side and handed over ...

... wrapped in. Then, there is the actual sight of the bodies burning on the ghats (steps) along the Ganga River. I don't think I was quite prepared when we first walked passed. Wandering through all of this noise and craziness, feeling overwhelmed, and then, in front of us fires blazing, with bodies in them. The first one we saw had its feet sticking out. People sitting all around watching. A chai stall next to the fires, where people can drink tea ...

... as they loved to say! I certainly was open to it as there are so many beautiful women here!), the U.S. election (again all seemed very positive about Barack Obama) and life in the U.S. in general including how it's being affected by the world economic crisis. A few had family in various parts of the U.S. including Chicago, Boston, and parts west. <br><br> <br><br> Originally this train trip was to arrive in Varanasi around 4p on the 13th but ...

... taxi drivers. You have to hand it to them for ingenuity.<br><br>We had come to Varanasi because we were on our way to Nepal and one of the more popular border crossing was only a day's bus journey to the north of the city. Varanasi is an extremely holy city (or 'tirtha'); one of a number of places considered by Hindus as a ford to cross from the world of suffering to a more divine location. As such, many people flock there to die by the shores of the Ganges where they will be ...