Sue here.  Wednesday was our second and final day in Varanasi and started with a boat ride on the Ganges to watch the sun rise.  Except it didn’t.  No-one warned us before we arrived that the first fifteen days of January are always foggy, and the sun didn’t put in an appearance until mid-day.  Even so, we enjoyed the trip and met some boatmen who invited us to share their fire.  

 

 

Since it is Winter here, there are impromptu wood fires everywhere, with people huddling.around them to stay warm.  We walked back along the ghats (steps leading down to the river that provide some protection against the regular floods) and saw lots of people engaged in ritual acts of worship, often involving bathing in the heavily polluted river.  People take their religion here seriously.

 

Then we drove to Sarnath (pronounced Sarna), the birthplace of Buddhism.  Buddha gave his first sermon at the deer park here.  

 

We toured a temple, then explored some of the oldest excavated ruins. 

 

 

Then back to the oldest part of Varanasi for a walking tour.  The lanes here are REALLY narrow, and although cars are not allowed (they wouldn’t fit anyway), exploring them involves taking your life in your hands as motorbikes, rickshaws and cyclists vie with each other to take you out.

 

 

We are getting used to the sacred cows in the street…

 

 

… and the wildlife:

 

 

I would hate to have had to find an address in the old town as it is divided into areas and the streets don’t have names.  Fortunately, our guide really knew his way around and, on request was able to find the flowermarket…

 

 

 

…and a coconut stall.  

 

 

I have never had fresh coconut milk before and it was a real treat.

 

I am writing this a couple of days behind as things got a bit hairy later on.  Watch this space!

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