We walked into India from Nepal on 18th August. The border crossing at Sunauli was very laid back and we had to seek-out the immigration offices on both sides of the border in order to get our passports stamped. We then got a crowded local bus to Gorakpur train station and were met by thousands of people that looked like refugees sitting and sleeping on the fly infested platforms. Welcome to India we both thought!!! We got on our train, lay down on our comfy beds and were blasted with lovely aircon and then at 10pm we arrived in Varanasi. We got a tuk tuk to the hotel and the tuk tuk driver led us down a maze of unlit, ancient, narrow, cobbled streets full of sleeping people, cows and cow pats. We were totally lost and worried about where the driver was taking us but he finally led us to the hotel and we both felt relieved.
Varanasi is a very holy place that's full of history. It's wonderful, colourful, crazy, filthy, at times heartbreaking. It's a great place to just sit and let your senses be overwhelmed. The place has a party atmosphere due to all the happy pilgrims that visit here to bathe in the holy Ganges river. They also have the famous burning Ghats to cremate the dead and it was fascinating to learn how they do this and observe the goings on. It was like being transported back to the dark ages.
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| A man attending a cremation having all his hair removed |
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| An actual snake-charmer |
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| The nightly light and dance performance on the bank of the Ganges |
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| Some of the thousands of joyous orange-clad pilgrims |
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Next we got the overnight train to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal. We loved it and thought it was truly beautiful.
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| A romantic sunset boat ride |
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