Aarti ceremony

Day 7 of our Indian trip.

We travelled overnight on a sleeper train from Agra.  It was an interesting experience.  The train was delayed by several hours because of fog and mist.  We slept on bunks in a crowded carriage;  there wasn't a great deal of privacy, but we did manage to sleep and we all probably survived better than we had anticipated.

At the end of the journey we transferred to a coach for what should have been a short journey into Varanasi - but owing to repair work on one of the bridges over the river, we were forced to take a long detour which also put us in the middle of slow moving traffic jams, so we arrived at our hotel very much later than originally planned.

However, we took tuk-tuks (motorised rickshaws) into the town and then walked down to the banks of the River Ganges.  For Hindus, Varanasi is one of the holiest cities, located on the holy River Ganges.  If they cannot die there, they would like to be cremated there or, at least, have their ashes scattered on the river there.  We took a boat ride in the evening, where many faithful floated small lamps on the river representing their hopes and prayers.  From the river you get a good view of the cremation sites (see John Gravett's image taken this evening).  

We returned to the ghats (the steps leading down to the water) to watch the evenng Aarti ceremony, where the priests perform a ceremony of worship with incense and oil lamps, accompanied by musical chanting and continual ringing of bells.  A very noisy experience!

Back blipped after my return to the UK as I had limited editing facilities with me and intermittent access to wifi.