Varanasi

This is one of the world's oldest cities and one of Hinduism's 7 holy cities. It is said that when cremated here your soul goes straight to heaven. At night bodies are set adrift and alight on the Ganges. There are 2 temples on the river that have constant cremation fires. Every night the sun is sent to rest with a massive ceremony on the steps that lead down to the river.

The streets are a maze of narrow alleyways paved in stone and full of shops, people, cows and patties. The shops display a huge range of products but most prominent is silk. Silk fabric, scarves and bejeweled clothing in a wide variety of traditional styles. The colours are bright and astonishing.

The larger city includes the district of Saranth which is where the Buddha first preached his wisdom.

My morning started with a sunrise cruise on the Ganges. The sun rises and sets red here. There's a story that the monkey god once mistook it for an apple and took a bite out of the rising sun. This was followed by a visit to various temples and then a ride to Saranth to see the Buddhist sites.

I had thought that this would take 2 days and was worried about time since my train being late knocked a day off my trip but this only took the morning. Now I have plenty of time to explore before my train out tomorrow night.