I see dead people...!

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Varanasi. Bit of an on place really!!

On the first day we arrived we walked along the side of the river Ganges (or the ganga as they call it) and had a look around. There are lots of people washing and doing their rituals towards the sun. Quite peaceful when you arent being harassed by Indians for rick shaws or to buy postcards, hash or opium!! Soon enough we arrived at their main cremation ghat (steps down to the river) and was confronted by about 8 fires. We watched them dunking the bodies into the water before loading them onto the fires. Was such an odd thing to witness. No one showed any emotion- i expected crying but there was nothing. I know that if it was someone i knew then i couldnt have just stood there and watched like they did. It was particularly odd for me as i was the only woman there, and we were the only white people too. Apparently women are banned from going to the cremation ghats because a woman once jumped into the fire after her husband. Quite extreme to ban them after one incident i think!

Too cheer ourselves up and as recommended in our trusty lonely planet book we went to the Blue Lassi shop. AMAZING lassis!! They are a creamy, curd like shake type thing made with fruit. The guy there makes 500-600 a day! even sat in his little shop we watched the people carrying the wrapped up bodies down the the ghat.

Yesterday we got up early for the sunrise. We paid an odd looking Indian 200Rs to take us out on his boat for an hour. Was lovely and quite relaxing even though there were a lot of people on the river. We spent the rest of the day hanging around and doing some travel planning. We did see a body floating down the river at one point. Another very odd sight. If they cant afford to pay for the cremation then the bodies are put into the river. Children under the age of 10 are tied to a stone and dropped in too apparently. The idea of the burning is to remove your life sins- but children are not bad so are not cremated.

There are lots of holy men here, all dressed in their bright orange robes, with beards and great big matted hair. They have lots of things painted on the foreheads too. In the morning they looked quite fresh but by the afternoons you could tell they had smoked a lot of hash!!! Must make it easier for them to meditate or something!!

Even though Varanasi sounds like it would be all doom and gloom it actually isnt. Watching the kids fly kites over the river and wandering through the tiny little old town streets has been interesting.

Last night we went for a pizza, which was soooooo good!! Im getting a bit fed up of curry and rice now so was a great change. We even had apple pie for desert- was just like at home so as you can imagine i was very happy!! :-)

We are leaving for Hyderabad tonight- takes 28 hours on the train!! We are staying there for one night then heading to Chennai on a 12 hour train the next day.

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