The overnight train to Varanasi was much improved compared to our past experience.  Sleep was much more forthcoming and they even handed out blankets and kept the cars fairly clean.  Arriving in another Indian city the next morning was a bit of more of the same - pushy rickshaw drivers, ridiculously crowded streets, and smells and sounds blanketing everything.  Varanasi was bound to be an interesting city though as it is one of the most sacred of Hindu places in India, and is regarded as a very important pilgrimage site.  The holiness of the city is directly connected to the Ganges River, which surrounds Varanasi.  Hundreds of temples (called ghats) crowd the riverside for kilometers near the city centre. Everything that you have heard about India happens in Varanasi.  Funeral pyres on the riverbank, sewage outflows upstream, lower castes washing clothes, and hundreds of people by the riverside cleansing themselves.

To appreciate the scene we woke up at dawn and took a row boat ride along the river to get a good look at all the activities. The Ganges River is revered as a goddess whose purity cleanses the sins of the faithful and aids the deceased on their path towards heaven (as we are told). It was fascinating to see all the rituals taking place along the river's edge. We saw many people (including a few tourists) bathing, swimming, brushing their teeth, washing clothes, spitting, throwing up, meditating, and drinking the water.  We past two areas that were used for funeral pyres, and saw a couple pyres burning as we rowed by.  Surprisingly, the river doesn't look as polluted as one would imagine, although there's plenty of garbage along the riverbank.  In the end it all seemed relatively peaceful and fitting, and did not seem as bad as everyone had made it out to be...    And then you see a child's leg floating in the river and you are simply at a loss as to how it all makes any sense.  We found out later that children are not cremated and are simply placed in the river weighted down by rocks.  I guess sometimes they do not use enough weight.  It is hard to imagine anyone wanting to bathe in water like that. We kept thinking how much you would have to pay us to take a dip in the river, Rosanna's swim could not be bought at any price, I was more open to bidders than her, but the bidding would have started very high.  The whole morning left no doubt in our minds that religion can be a crazy beast.   

One evening, which was also a Muslim festival night, we watch some live entertainment. A trio of Indian musicians got down and crazy on the sitar, a tabla (a type of drum), and an accordion type instrument. There was also duo of dancers (male and female) who performed to the music.  Their dancing seemed strangely chaotic, as they swayed around the stage with dramatic arm gestures while shaking hundreds of bells tied around their ankles.  The male dancer wearing heavy make-up and sequin clothes looked like an Indian version of Liberace.  Quite a performance it was.

You know you are ready to leave India when you walk out the door of your hostel and you get this immense feeling of tiredness when it comes to maneuvering around piles of animal shit and garbage on the street at the same time as you are dodging flies flying around your face.  I think that three big Indian cities in a row took their toll and we were really looking forward to a change of scene.  Nepal and hiking were calling us, and we were happy to make our way by train and bus to another country after a couple of days in the holy city of Varanasi.