Varanasi India

Varansi claims to be one of the oldest living cities in the world, and it is the main Hindi city with the holy Gange river passing through it. We started with a rickshaw (man cycle with two seat carriage) us from station to river, again the traffic crazy and streets incredibly filthy and noisy. We found a guesthouse overlooking the river and walked around the tiny alleys filled with people and many animals from goats and cows to monkeys. For those who can afford it cremation in the Ganges is considered very sacred. Through the streets there are people carrying bodies that are wrapped in cloth and flowers, they drench them in the river and put them on fires which are constantly burning next to the river, we watched this for a while, which was a very weird experience seeing the bodies quickly burn, they then throw the ashes into the river, hundreds of bodies are burned daily. In the evening we watched a ceremony on the main Ghat, men performing rituals with smoke, singing and bells next to the river, for their loved ones. We went to a restuarant with live indian music with was really nice.
We woke at 5am to get a man to row us along the river, at this time pilgrims come to bathe in the river to perform rituals to the rising sun. This was amazing. They all bathe in their sarees in the freezing and incredibly polluted river doing many rituals, all along the river. As the sun rose and we watched the hundreds bathing it really was one of the best experiences of this trip.
We spent day hanging around. The people really piss you off. Every person we have dealt with has tried their hardest to rip us off which gets tiring and disheartening. Walking anywhere is an effort with people constantly at us. But we got to the bus station in the evening. We found out the next day there were fatal bombings in Varansi just after we left, so lucky we werent in the wrong place at the wrong time.