We've just come back from Varanasi on the sleeper train, which was a really interesting city. We unfortunately got roped into a tour of the temples with our hostel guide, who was determined to convert us to hinduism, all the way round, instead of just letting us observe and just be in the temples. He insisted in very upside-down and back-to-front English on telling us about all the 10000 gods of hinduism and their various reincarnations, then he tried to convince us to go and see this guru guy who would read our stars and tell us about our past, present and future lives... blah blah blah! He finished this tour with a little trip to the famous silk weaving part of town, where small children were slaving away at the looms making the silk. Of course we then got taken to his mates shop and were shown their entire stock of silk. Before we could say we weren't interested he'd layed out about 400 different cloths and tried to persuade us that we would never have another oportunity to buy "this quality silk at this quality price"... we politley declined 500 times and were finally allowed to leave the shop!! He was extrememly disgruntled that we hadn't caved into his sales patter.

At sunset we took a boat trip on the River Ganges which was really very moving, as we rode past the Burning Ghats where they were cremating the dead. The eeriest thing was when there was a loud bang like a firework, indicating the explosion of the dead body's skull. Brrr.

Unfortunately, our inspiring tour guide was there again, talking rubbish at us and telling us that in order to preserve our good Karma we had to give money to the local watchman to buy wood for the poor people to be able to burn their bodies. Made us feel really bad, but we felt that if we give money to anyone it will not be when we are forced by him. We then watched a Puja which is a ritual to the gods, with dramitic fire dance and lots of drums and chanting.

The next day we had another boat trip at sunrise (thank god our tour guide had decided we weren't worth bothering with and he stayed in bed!) This time we saw all the locals have their daily bath in the Ganges (which by the way is absolutley brown and full of raw sewage and dead bodies) but that didn't seem to deter them from cleaning their teeth and rinsing their mouths out in the filthy water... they must have stomachs of steel! Unlike me(katie), by the way, as the Delhi belly has just caught up with me!

We spent the afternoon walking about in the stifling heat and settled in a shady spot by the river talking to the local street children and trying to swap a few words of English with Hindi, our phrase book provided much hilarity and drew quite a large crowd as we stumbled out phrases such as "Do you think it will rain?" and "Where is the hospital?" in very poorly pronounced Hindi.
Anyway, we're back in Delhi now after our second sleeper train experience, which by the way was very comfortable and not at all unpleasant way to spend the night. This evening we're off to Haridwar, another very holy city in the foothills of the himalyas, near the source of the Ganges... supposed to be very peaceful and spiritual, looking forward to that.

General health up date:
Katie: Delhi Belly - poo very much like water infact!!!!
Seb: stomach of steel, he strong like bull: no problems to report, beard growing at super speed...