Varanasi

Oh! The train ride to Varanasi was sooooo cold, but we made it...... And found a lovely hotel with river views and in the midst of the winding lanes or galis of the old town. The narrow alley ways are a hub of life for Indians and animals alike, with every turn showing up a paan/chaat seller, mini shrine, shop selling shawls, chai wallahs... and you are just as likely to stumble into any of these as you are a cow taking up the whole width of the allay, a chicken clucking away, or a scrawny and exhausted dog nursing her several puppies.

On the reiver front are a series of ghats, or steps that lead down to the water's edge of the Ganga. This river really is as polluted as you might imagine, with everything floating about in it. The Mother literally washes away societies dirt and waste. From litter and puja offererings (flowers, puffed rice), to the odd dead body wrapped in cloth (some bodies are not cremated; pregnant womon, children, those who died due to a snake bite, those who died from leprosy, and sadhus or religious mendicants) and sewage from the over burgeoned sewerage system. Not only is everything floating about in it, so is everyone. People bathe in it and wash their clothes in it. Water buffalo are rinsed in it. Pots and pans scrubbed in it. Boats float in it. Fishermen fish in it.
At least the chai is not made with it.....
' There is cholera in the water, so we don't make the tea with Ganges water!'
Silly me for asking.

It was while sipping chai at one of the Ghats that me and the travelling companion were subjected to hour long all over body massages. And though it felt wonderful to be sqeezed and rubbed in all mabnner of ways, as a girl, I was a little self concious. Not that any one batted an eyelash - not even when Boli went to town on a movement I can only call the 'being dragged through a hedge backwards' - which is how I looked after he pummelled my head for 5 minutes.