Varanasi

I have to say, I'm so pleased to be leaving Delhi and so excited about boarding our first night train.  I've watched quite a few BBC documentaries about the Indian Railway, so I have an idea of what to expect.  We are in a compartment with 2 bunk beds either side.  Andy keeps saying hi to everyone because he's so excited.  It made me smile a lot.  As I stared wistfully out of my window waiting for the train to depart and thinking of the journey ahead.  Screeeech.  My romantic thoughts come to an abrupt stop as a man hops off the opposite platform and walks over the tracks and up to the train and gets his cock out and pees against the train.  Hmmm.  He is clearly not the only one though, as the station does whiff of it.  I think I'm just getting used to it now but it is a change from my norm.  Thankfully we set off ok.  I thought sleeping on a train would ok but that wasn't to be.  Anyways after no sleep again, we arrive in Varanasi.  Much the same really except not so built up.  But the same sounds and smells.

Mother Ganga
The reason I wanted to come here was to see the Ganges. I was so tired yesterday that I couldn't quite hack the idea of walking anywhere, so we just stayed in the hotel in the evening and watched HBO.  Dont judge me!  We even slept through our boat tour this morning.  Why on earth did we say yes to a 5am boat tour in our states- I dont know.  It's not too bad though as we finally made it to the Ganges.  It is as I imagined really.  Men and women bathing in the water and people just sat on the steps looking off into the distance.  I had watched a documentary about the Ganges ages ago and ever since then wanted to go.  In my vision though I would be wading in and splashing around.  Unfortunately my English constitution would have meant that I probably would have been ill for the next month if I'd done that, so I stuck to just taking photos:(
It was beautiful though witnessing how deeply this river was intertwined in people lives.  One boatman expalains that Indian people have 2 mothers.  Their 1st mother who brought them into the world and then Mother Ganga. We stayed until the evening and the moon was really bright and low in the sky.

The only thing was that we did stand out like a sore thumb and so kept being approached.  "Boat ride sir?/Shave and a massage?"  One man was so intent on shaving Andy that he practically had to wrestle his arm free from the man's hand.  I dont think I'm getting used to this yet.  I just tend to ignore people until they disappear.  Unfortunately it is Andy that gets most of it being a dashing tall white boy. People keep asking if I'm Indian, so I guess that does play a bit in my favour and not so much at the same time.  People will just bump me out of the way and one man even stepped on me to speak to Andy.  This is getting on my nerves quite a bit.  I'm patient but not that patient...  Poor Andy - he's handling it really well.  I think I would have had some kind of breakdown by now.

The Ganges!