11th January 2007, Varanasi After a late start and some delicious cheesecake, Andrew and I took possibly the bumpiest auto-rickshaw ride ever to the fort of the Benares (Varanasi) Royal Family. While the castle itself does not architecturally rival any of the others we have seen, it does have an interesting museum of cars, weaponry, ivory carving and paintings which belonged to the royal family. After some negotiating with our rickshaw driver, we then went to the Benares Hindu University, a large and prestigious university with beautiful buildings and gardens. In particular we visited the magnificent on-campus Shiva temple, and the 18th-century Sanskrit University. Afterwards we also visited the Sri Durga Temple in Varanasi, mainly because I just adore monkeys and I had heard that there were over 100 monkeys residing there. Unfortunately I didn't see
... read more