Varanasi -- that's Benares to you if you're my parents' age

Varanasi, a holy of holy cities on the Ganges river, was where we landed after an overnight train trip from Agra. Arriving a few hours late, we stopped first thing to buy onward train tickets through the providential tourist quota -- it had been impossible for us to secure the tickets online or at another station. It took us some time to meet up with the man from our hostel, but once we finally did, he whisked us away via auto-rickshaw, through the modern city and up to the outskirts of the labyrinthine alleys of the old city. We then followed him through twisting alleys, around cows and goats and dogs and carts and kids and laborers and shops.When we got to it at last, we found our hostel -- 6 floors of cheap cells and odd colors and a rooftop cafe -- perched a few alleys back from Manikarnika, the main burning ghat. This ghat was piled with firewood, and at all hours, wandering the neighborhood, you might hear the rhythmic chanting and hurried footsteps of a funeral party bearing a loved one's body, covered in a sheet and flowers, down to the waterside. We pressed ourselves to dirty stone walls and tried to offer respect by not staring when these processions rushed by us.

Early the next morning we took a boat along the river before sunrise to see the ghats begin to fill with people and pilgrims offering puja. We spent that day and the next mostly wandering. It was the best people watching you could imagine. The Ganges is the lifeblood of Varanasi, despite major pollution, and it washes the clothing, food, and people of the city. On the many ghats which line the river, boys and men play pick-up cricket, goats and cows sun themselves, clothing dries, people mourn or make offerings, and trade is busily plied. On our last night, we ate at a restaurant that had live music, two men playing the sitar and tabla (drums). It was mesmerizing.

When it came time to move on from Varanasi, none of us were ready to leave, and indeed, for a while we thought it would never happen! After a stressful race into the train station and search for our platform, we found that our train was delayed and delayed and delayed.... we played cards for 5 hours, taking turns standing outside on the platform to listen for announcements while dodging families of rats and the occasional cow who had wandered through the waiting hall and out onto the platforms. Luckily, soon after our little snack shop shut down, and only some 6 hours after its original ETA, our train pulled in. We were on our way to Kolkata where we had found the cheapest flights South, to Bangalore.