On to India - 1st stop, Varanasi

Varanasi is India's holiest cities and this is where I started my tour of the country. The morning after my flight from Nepal, I took an early morning boat ride along the river Ganges to watch the Hindu pilgrams performing "Puja" (an offering to the holy river) and bathing to wash away their sins along the ghats (steps).

This holy river is also extremely polluted with industrial chemicals, human waste and ashes/ body parts from the corpses being cremated along the rivers edge (at the "burning ghats"). It was quite a sight to see!

Outside of the city I also saw the spot where Buddha gave his first sermon. There is a bodhi tree here that was grown from a cutting of the tree that Buddha sat under when he became enlightened.

That evening I explored the maze-like narrow alleyways just above the ghats. There was something interesting around every bend - I nearly bumped into 4 chanting men carrying a corpse wrapped in colourful cloth on a bamboo stretcher.