Onto Varanasi

Landslides and flooding made our trip to Darjeeling a bit tricky so we headed for Varanasi instead. Said to be one of the oldest cities in the world and one of the holiest Hindu places on earth. Well let me tell you, it took about 7 and 1/2 hours on a bone shaker bus followed by a 3 hour bun fight for tickets at Gorokhpor railway station and a 6 hour train journey to pitch up in Varanasi at 5.00 in the morning. Well by this time we were feeling really chipper...... not. Famous for its Ghats where people come to bathe in the Ganges and bodies are cremated on individual funeral pyres was a bit of sensory overload to say the least, but I have to say its a filthy dump where every creature on 2 and 4 legs defecates and urinates everywhere with gay abandonment. There was probably a time many years ago when it was a beautiful and spiritual place but for us, it was squalid. smelly and needs cleaning up. I think these pictures say it all.......Goodbye Varanasi!