The Bread of Life is tuna flavoured..

I have to grudgingly accept that I'm starting to come around to Varanasi, the main problem is that Lydia and I have come from somewhere as mellow and chilled as McLeod Ganj back to the hustle and bustle of the big city. Lydia's Lonely Planet book says, "the predatory touts and rickshaw-wallahs here pounce on visitors like starving tigers pouncing on a defenceless deer." And they really are not kidding. If we had gone from Delhi straight to here, fair enough - but our defences are down at the moment.

But I've got my hackles up, and my fighting spirit is back - so bring it on, I say!

We were supposed to go to the burning ghats this morning - but overslept. Hardly surprising as we were in the bar till 12 (me nursing my bottle of water). Tomorrow is our last chance, and we are DEFINITELY going. Instead today we walked up the ghats from Dashawamedh Ghat to Shivala Ghat. Dashawamedh Ghat is the second busiest ghat in the area, with people coming here to catch boats to the temples or to bathe, you can catch a boat from here to take in the rest of the ghats - about an hour round trip and should be about 50Rs, although the boat people will try to charge you about 400Rs. I sense some haggling coming on tomorrow.

The river Ganges runs through the ghats - Hindu's view it as being the elixir of life, bringing purity to the living, and salvation to the dead. Fair enough. But nothing on earth could tempt me to pop in for a paddle - funerals take place here, so the water is full of the odd bit of human body, cremated ashes and chemicals - and that's not even mentioning the heavy levels of metal dumped by factories upstream. Evian it's not.

Many people come to Varanasi to die, as anyone who passes away here apparently achieves instant moksha (enlightenment). It is quite a disconcerting experience to be in a city that throbs with life, and yet walks such a close parallel with death.

Saw the early rituals of a funeral whilst sheltering from a monsoon - they bring a body down all wrapped up in colourful clothes supported on a wooden stretcher. They then douse it in water from the Ganges - I then assume they set it alight and send it out on the water. Not sure as didn't stay long enough to find out as apparently the whole rite takes about three hours and we were both feeling a bit sick. We've never seen a dead body before. We'll save that for tomorrow.

Headed over to the Bread of Life, a restaurant recommended by Rough Guides and Lonely Planet. It was great! Lasagne and a tuna burger and some potato wedges will soon have us piling on the pounds.


Varanasi is a holy city, where religion is taken very seriously. It's a shame about all the touts and rickshaw-wallahs, they really take the pleasure out of it. But if you can handle the hassle, then I say go here. It's absolutely breathtaking on the ghats.

Oh, I nearly forgot - whilst walking up some stairs at the ghats Lydia slipped and fell over into a huge pile of mud. Or at least I hope it was mud! After checking to make sure that all her limbs were intact I nearly killed myself laughing, she had mud splattered all over her trousers, all over her top, and all over her arm. I guess you had to be there - but it was hilarious as it was such a process of slipping, trying to keep her balance and nearly retaining it - then falling head over ass onto the ground. I wish I had the videocamera out.

Off to Puri tomorrow - 24 hours on the train. I really, really hope it's worth it.

Caroline xx