DASASWAMEDH GHAT AARTI CEREMONY VARANASI

We had a sleep this afternoon and nursed our chesty coughs (Moira and I) and then caught our first tuktuk as far as we could into the pedestrian precinct before we made our way onto the waterfront.  It is a rabbit warren of dirty narrow streets and suddenly we were on the river and easily walked along the ghat terraces as far as the Aarti ceremony ghat.  It is a rather staged affair and you felt the Hindu temple next to us was reacting by shouting their chants louder than usual to drown the sound of the touristy ceremony.  Luckily we found a seat on the stone steps and had quite a good view.  At the end we walked in the dark along the ghats and ended up having to cross one of the burning ghats that was rather a harrowing experience but we passed by as quickly as we could and caught a tuktuk on our own home with John guiding us with his gps.  We then had to use the headtorch to see our way down the streets to our hotel - we are getting to use all those gadgets we brought gradually - By the way Jeni, thanks for the sewing kit you gave us for Christmas - we used the folding scissors today!

Up at 8 tomorrow and a visit to the Buddha's temples in Sarnath before catching the plane back to Delhi for the night.