Flood in India's holiest city.

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It was a 26 hour train journey which was quite nice if a little dirty. My stomach got a little upset towards the end, but luckily was sharing a coach with an English guy who had been to Varenasi before and got us to the guest house nice and easily. He also provided great company on the train - of which the most lively point was when a big barrel chested Sikh decided to tell the army officer on leave from Kashmir to stop drinking on the train. The army officer happened to be on the next bunk over from me so I got a good view. It looked like it could be real trouble given the number of army folk on the train, especially when many other swarthy Sikhs came down the isle. Most of those present wanted a peaceful resolution though - so it actually worked out very well. The army officer seemed a little put out but I think he was drunk enough to forget pretty quickly.
Varenasi - it is here more than any other place in India that people travel to bathe and die (sometimes it might seem that there is a causal relation there). This is because of the high spiritual significance of the ganges here. I saw a dead body floating by while I was having my breakfast this morning - the cremation must have not worked so well for him...
Walked around the old streets for most of this morning, which were a bit muddy and a lot of the Ghats - or landings where people bathe from were a little small since the Ganges is so high right now after the monsoon. I was on my way to the bus station to check on times for the buses to Nepal tomorrow when I saw this internet place for 15r an hour (30c/20p). It is pissing down outside so I am writing a long email and reading up on the Champions league results. Always a good point for Isreali conversation (common in India) to notice that ManU is playing Haifa!
Varenasi is a very Indian city, and I think I'm prefering beautiful scenery to the Indian city experience - so Nepal and trekking should be great for me. I'm planning to come out of Nepal through Dargeeling and then take a gander at Calcutta before heading to Agra and then Rajistan.
The electricity just went out for a while here, but came back on so I'm able to send this...
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Well my last update was from Varenasi and since then I have done some stuff - so here it is...
I'm a little tired after my trek and got a little cough so apologise if the English is a little rough, or my proof reader has missed stuff.
After sending my email while it was raining in Varenasi, I got a cycle rickshaw to the bus station to check on times of the bus to Nepal. It had rained so hard that the rickshaw drivers feet went into the river that was in all the roads. I think he would have negotiated a higher price if he knew we were going through flood conditions - more than I have ever seen. Cars flooded and people wading knee high. I ascertained that there were buses ever hour after 3pm when I got to the bus station... which lucky enough seemed to be on high ground. There were some very large puddles through that needed quite some skill to traverse.

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