From the train I gazed out the window, watching the crop fields and small villages fly by, animals roaming, women busy harvesting crops and children walking to school. On arrival into Varanasi, a scene I don't think you'd get anywhere in western countries, whilst the train waited to enter the station hundreds of people got off the train and walked along the railway tracks to the station.

Once heading out of the station I was hit by the touts trying to get me to take their ride to a hotel they get commission etc. With determination, I eventually found the man to take me to Ganpati Guest House, with the help of the Tourist Office.

Despite being in India for a couple of weeks and many places being dirty with litter lined streets the extent of this really hit me as we departed the train station. It was a long crazy drive in a tuk tuk weaving through traffic and narrow back streets, followed by a trek through the craziness on foot with my luggage. As the guy wheeled my case through the dirt and cow dung, knocked it into various vehicles stationary in traffic, I wondered if it would make it with us!

I went down to Meer Ghat at 6:15 ready for the celebration ritual. It was interesting to see but felt more about the entertainment aspect than specifically about offerings. Swarmed with tourists, including pilgrims, and pushy sellers (including very young children) of flowers and postcards, the air was alive.

I watched the sunrise from a boat on the Ganges, it was lovely and peaceful to watch the edges of the Ganges wake and then at 6 am the river came alive with tour boats full of people looking for the same experience as us ('tourists' I think we commented and laughed).

Along the Ganges many people were cleansing and there were a few ghats specifically focused for this purpose. There are also ghats I saw specifically for Puja, laundry washing, food washing and burning for cremation.

We (me with some people I met in Agra and Varanasi) took a walk to in the evening to the Manikarnika Ghat, the main burning ghat and auspicious place for a Hindu to be cremated. I learnt that the different cloths were determined by gender and age. I also learnt that they do not burn, pregnant women, children, lepers or animals, instead these have rocks attached and are sunk in the Ganges. The bodies burnt are sectioned according to the wealth in that the amount and type of wood used depends on how much the family can afford. They burn over 300 bodies daily.

It was not at all what I expected, although not sure what that was. It was dirty with wood and fabric parts mixed in with the earth, it was relatively quiet although not sombre and bodies were lined up on the steps ready to burn so much like a production line. But it all left me wondering if it s so different to cremation in the western world.