Our day tour of Delhi was a bit disrupted because various important sites have been barracaded off, we were told due to security. It will be Republic Day for India on January 26th and we were unable to see India Gate, the Palace and the Red Fort. Instead we visited a large mosque, Humayun’s Tomb, a Sikh temple and. local market.

Humayun was the son of the maharajah who built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his third wife. We were told Humayun’s tomb was built by his second wife in the same style as the Taj Mahal but made from red sandstone and marble.

The market was security-controlled with walk-through, bag search and CCTV cameras.

our hotel also has security on the front door with a walk-through and one or two security men. Strangely though, the side door which opens directly to the street has no security at all!!! The lift stopped working for some reason temporarily this morning so we decided to use the stairs instead … we do have lights in the passage of our floor now though.

Varanasi is an amazing place. There are many ghats along the Ganga and tiny lanes head downwards to the river. The markets and traffic are on the main streets but the maze of lanes and small streets all lead you to the Ganga. People come there to wash themselves and to wash clothes as well. Our guide told us that international visitors have been known to be taking a boat ride and are astounded when they see their own washing laid out to dry along the steps. We took another boat trip in the early morning. It has been foggy every morning so we didn’t take the sunrise trip. We looked but didn’t see our clothes draped on the steps!

We wandered around the many small lanes and streets looking at all the street stalls and, of course, being followed to buy postcards, bracelets, tiny stamps with coloured pigments to decorate your skin and so on. The fruit and vegetable stalls always look inviting. We have been avoiding salads and only eating cooked food.

In one of the lanes, there was a man making clay statues for a music festival. These were drying and then would be decoratively painted.

We have noticed across India that many of the goats have been dressed in shirts. This one was very well dressed in a polo shirt and then a second layer, maybe for extra warmth.

We went back again last night but not by boat. On the banks we found a good spot and sat and watched and listened to the wonderful calming chanting and singing while the priests went through the rituals of ceremony. Afterwards we found the Blue Lassi cafe and had banana lassi. Then a quick rickshaw ride back to our driver. Today we fly to Delhi.

Getting train tickets for India is another challenge. It was complicated getting the process set up from Australia because needed both an email password and a phone password. We were waitlisted after we finally bought the tickets and then only had our tickets confirmed hours before we were due to depart.
In Agra, we had some time to spare so we went to the gardens of the maharajah and saw the Taj again but from across the river. It’s a good spot to take some more photos of the Taj if you have time. We got the 8.11pm overnight train to Varanasi. It took an extra 4 hours and there was no tap water but otherwise the trip was better than we expected.
We met our guide at 5pm. After wandering around the markets and alleyways, we took a boat ride on the Ganga. We watched the nightly ceremonies at the gnats. There were a number of fires to burn the bodies of the dead and then ceremonial singing and worshipping. It was an amazing experience to be there… it is hard to describe but was incredibly special.
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