Once again we left the hotel at 6am, heading straight into the centre of Varanasi to take a boat trip down the water of the Ganges. Varanasi is the holiest of holy places in India, and pilgrims come everyday from all over the country to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges, or to be cremated here on their death. We started in the dark, in an old wooden rowing boat, surrounded by other boats draped in souvenirs- we couldn't get away from them even on the water! ...

We arrived in Varanasi about 9.30am and spent an easy morning at the hotel just a 5 minute coach drive away. In the afternoonwe went to Sarnath, the Buddhist pilgrimage site where the Buddha preached his first ever sermon. We went first to the archaological museum, which contained lots of Buddhist statues, and a 2000 year old Ashoka's lion, a statue of four lions on top of an upturned lotus flower and the Buddhist wheel of law. It is a recognized symbol of peace ...