Varanasi, the Hindu mecca,
India
Friday, January 19, 2007
After a wonderful time in the desert, we all headed east to varanasi on the overnight train from Agra. It is a very important town for Hindus because of the river Ganges. If you bathe in it all of your sins will be washed away, and it is also the place to be cremated and have your ashes put into the Ganges. There is another site nearby which is very important to Buddhists, the site of Buddha's first sermon. It was interesting to just walk around watching people. Once in awhile you would have to stand aside as people came down the narrow steets carrying a body on a bamboo stretcher on their way to the cremation area on the river. Needless to say this town has an eery feel.
(I am not going to type that much in this entry because I am in Madagascar now using a french keyboard and the letters are all mixed up! It is driving me crazy!)
