The Holy City- Varanasi

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Back in Delhi was had to pick up the surfboards from the Backpackers we left then in. Mushtaka (our travel agent) had our train tickets ready for Varanasi. Bupesh organised a porter for us at the train station and we said our goodbyes. The porter had agreed on Rps 200 but once he had got to the platform he said it was Rps 500 (we did not pay the 500) cheeky. The porter also ran off without telling us which carriage we were getting on (the trains are so long). This was to be our first of many train experiences in India. We were slightly worried about where the surfboards would go but we managed to get half of it under the seat and fortunately for us we had a nice English couple who were OK with the fact they had to put their feet on the boards. The 4 of us sat chatting until midnight and then went to sleep. The train was a sleeper train which was aircon and quite comfortable (for small people...not Craig). We arrived in Varanasi at 10:00am the following morning (running 2 hours late). We used the prepaid taxi service and tried to find accommodation. The taxi driver took us to Singh Guest house which was basic but lovely as it is the only hostel which has a small private garden to chill in (Rps 400 per night for both of us). The people were very friendly and we felt at home straight away. There are 350 Ghats in Varanasi but we did not see all of them. The Ganges was a totally different kind of experience. There were people bathing, brushing their teeth, washing clothes, drinking the water while they were burning bodies in the river and we saw a dead cow floating near by. Some children came up to Craig and conned him into buying some flowers with a candle in them to send off into the Ganges....they told him after paying for it that is it was bad karma. Everyday we saw a man collecting the cow and water buffalo dung and rolling it into balls. He then dried it out on the side of the Ghats, this is what they use for fuel. We saw a holy cow which had an extra leg coming out of its neck. We were also there for a festival where the 'well off Indians' give rice to the poor. There was lots of music, bright colors and lots of people (for some reason we were the only tourists caught up in the parade). We decided while we were in Varanasi that we wanted to go to Sri Lanka to surf. So we booked our tickets and headed for Chennai/Madras..

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