Sophie's travels 2011-2012: 3/3/2012 Varanasi, India

We had a very early start: 4:45am to get down to the Ganges on our crazy tuk tuks in time for sunrise. The early start was definitely worth it, the river was amazing, very peaceful and very different in the morning compared with the evening. We watched a group of young monks meditating and learning yoga on the river front, lots of people doing their washing and swimming and people completing their pilgrimages, washing themselves in the Ganges water - all amazing to watch as we floated down the river again. Then the sun rose which was spectacular! We rode past the main crematorium ghats again and saw the ‘leaning temple of India’, a temple that was built too top heavy on the mud flats and is sinking on an angle like the leaning tower of Pisa as a consequence…

We caught our tuk tuks back to the hotel then did a walking tour around a local silk factory where we saw how various different silk items are made and given a lesson on how to tell if something is real silk or not. We made some purchases then went back to the hotel and met the rest of the group.

In the afternoon we went out to one of the big temples and museum sights which was good to see. We wandered in and out of numerous temples and even managed to visit a zoo which was on one of the temple sites which was cool but a little sad to see how some of the animals were kept.

We wandered the main street of Varanasi a little then used the evening to pack and I bought a beautiful patch work silk dooner cover which took 2 months to sew by hand (and cost accordingly!).