Varanasi is an incredible, very old city with tiny, twisty little alleyways that are too small for traffic ... but motorbikes, cows, and 10 million people don't seem to care. It makes for a cramped space with lots of cow poop (most of it the runny kind that isn't fun to step in), but they offer a lot of shade from the blistering sun.They call it Shiva's city (Shiva is the Hindu god of destruction), and it is home to the Ganges which sprouted from his hair.
It's one of the holiest cities in India. 
There are Ghats (stairs leading down to the water from temples above) lining the river, leaving no room for anything else. The most well known of which is the "Burning Ghat" where people from all over India bring their dead to be cremated in open fires amongst many other burning piles, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Huge wood piles surround the ghat ... it takes 250kgs of wood to creamate one body. Any part that doesn't burn (mostly ladies hip bones) gets tossed into the river. 
People drink holy river water, next to a dead body being cleansed, next to 100 people bathing and laundry being done. It's quite a sight.We are going home soon, so we are in full scale buying mode. Anything we might want, we tried to pick up in Varinasi so we didn't have to spend any more time in Delhi than we have to. Although, as it turns out, we are stuck in Delhi due to the flights being full. And we might even end up in London before we get to Chicago. But we should still have a couple of weeks in Chicago before we finish our trip, so their will be a couple more blog entries before the end of this travel maddness.
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