Lucknow to Varanasi

As we leave Agra, we are given a new coach and drivers (Oz Bus #4) as the previous guys actually lived in Agra. It's a very long old day in the coach. The roads today are typically Indian - really good in places and completely non-existent in others – when you think you are making good progress on what appear to be motorways or dual carriageways, you are suddenly gifted with barriers across the road - chicane like – for expert negotiation. Plus, there's the odd cow, or goat, and very often traffic coming in the opposing direction. We also cross a large river on the way to Lucknow after which much of the land is submerged in post monsoon water. The land is therefore extremely fertile with many plants growing, including a lot of rice. We drive through a lot of shanty areas too. The route all the way to Varanasi goes through small villages and towns that are dissected by the road. Fast, fuming, noisy traffic cuts right through these communities making what must already be quite a challenging life just that bit more difficult.
We arrive at Varanasi after dark. Some of the group enquire about food options at the hotel and are informed that there is an establishment with 'golden arches' and a Pizza Hut at a shopping complex nearby. We wander along the dark road following the directions given and after 15 minutes or so find ourselves having pizza, although it's a spicy masalla vegetarian one. The following day, David visits the toilet 3 times – that's the trouble with Italian food, we guess. It's an early start though as we leave the hotel to see sunrise over the Ganges. On our way, we go through streets lined with many 'fairy' lights in advance of the festival that begins tomorrow. We wander through some small alleyways, past many people praying in their temples and then walk out in the light of dawn at the banks of the river. We negotiate our way past many bathers and manage to get into a boat without taking an unwanted soaking ourselves. There's a guy with one oar who for a good 20 minutes has a constant battle with the other guy onboard who seem to be pushing and pulling the boat in completely different directions, until we get to a point where we float back downstream. The sun slowly starts to rise above the haze of pollution as we silently look back to the shore and see more people bathing, praying, washing linen and setting it out to dry on the banks – it's suprisingly serene. Helen floats a small candle off down the river as the sun continues it's daily climb into the sky and our boat makes its way to one of the funeral pyres and we alight at the site where there is already a body waiting for cremation later in the day.
As we wander along with children on their daily walk to school, past cows and there excrement and the busy daily business, another body is carried past on the way to the cremation site. It's interesting to think that one of the main reasons people complain for not walking to school in the UK is the dog poo – but there's clearly a little more for these children to contend with here, together with the reports in the newspapers of children going missing on their way to and from school and even in hospitals.
Varanasi is our last stop before the border and whilst the distance doesn't seem that far, on the roads we are subjected to, despite a 7am start, we are on the bus to the Indian border until after dark. When we arrive there is a complex arrangement of confusion getting our exit stamps, before getting back on the bus to drive literally 50 yards to the no mans land between the border where we are deposit to take our bags off the bus and walk through to Nepal....