Shanti Guest House, Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi

So to Varanasi, home of the sacred Ganges River and burning bodies!

We hadn't thought about going this far across the country but everyone
we spoke to said it was worth the trip.

Varanasi is apparently one of the oldest cities in the world sitting
on the banks of the sacred Ganges River. So sacred in fact that they
throw anything into it, including bodies, but more on that later.

So we arrived in V after our long train journey and were a little
exhausted. Everytime you come out of a station you get almost attacked
by rickshaw peddlers wanting to take you to your hotel. This seems
very kind until you realise that they only do this to make a
commission which gets added on to the cost of your hotel bill. But we
tried to avoid this but they were one step ahead with someone waiting
where we were dropped off! We tried to lose him but he had his buddy
watching us from behind and even James with his GPS navigation got
lost in the maze of little street around the claustrophobic city.
After finally stopping the husslers from following us after 30mins we
were exhausted and completely lost. We finally found someone who
helped us find the way to the guesthouse and arrived just before dark!

Next morning it was an early rise from Shanti Guesthouse with its boat
trip along the Ganges at sunrise 530am! It was amazing to see the
burning (ghat or temple) where the local people came to burn their
elderly relatives. Apparently women were not allowed at these
ceremonies now after one woman jumping on to the body of her dead
husband!!! It's quite a morbid place and sad as no one seems to be
that upset or crying for their dead reelative, strange.

Well as we said they throw everything in their so called sacred Ganges
including bodies (yes we saw a dead body floating in the river (only
pregnant women, children, priest and those bitten by Cobra can't be
burned at the Ghats) and therefor must be tied down with a rock &
thrown into the river. Unfortunately, as we saw, they aren't tied down
well enough sometimes! Very Grim!!

Whilst we saw this our boatman showed us how holy the water is in the
Ganges by drinking this thicky dirty brown murky water just momenta
after we had seen the dead body and some people pouring animal
excrement and rubbish directly into the river! YUCK! But apparently
they don't get sick as their stomach is used to this water! Amazing!

Meanwhile Indian men, women & children on the river banks were bathing
themselves with this dirty water (sorry holy water!)

So as you can gather Varanasi is quite a full on sort of the place
which boggles all your senses!