Oldest continually inhabited city in the world

A tourist boat cruising on the Ganges at dawn.
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Arrived in Varanassi tired, filthy and in a foul mood. In typical manner, no-one was there to meet us at the train station and we had to call them to say that we had arrived and that we should be picked up. All the while we are being harassed by people trying to get us to use their taxi, rickshaw, hotel, money, porters..the list never ends.

I was pleasantly suprised when we got to our hotel and we ended up having a really nice time. It has definitely been the best place we stayed and being enclosed provided a certain kind of escape from the hustle and bustle of India. We essentially remained cooped up in the hotel and only ventured out for a sun rise tour of the River Ganges. While at the hotel I pampered myself by getting my first head to toe one hour ayuverdic massage, a facial, full leg and underarm waxing and you wouldn't believe how much it all cost. All that, plus a similar massage for Korak cost a whopping $25!! I could do this everyday!!! The massage was awesome and after the initial embarassment of having to be completely nude I was able to relax and completely submit myself to the manipulations of my masseuse (in case you are wondering, it DOES NOT involve any 'happy endings').

People performing daily 'puja', or cleansing of body and soul.
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More about the city however.... not only is Varanassi the oldest inhabited city in the world but also one of India's seven holiest city and the holiest cities in Hinduism culture. To the rest of the world it earns its fame as being home to the Ganges River. Hindus believe that bathing in the River Ganges cleanses away your sins and dying there will circumvent rebirth. As such, Varanassi sees millions of pilgrims every year. The morning tour allowed us a glimpse into the daily lives of Hinduism followers. Every morning thousands of people come to bathe in the river and it's not just a perfunctory waddle it is a full blown head to toe immersion in the waters. We were there during the rainy season so the Ganges was quite full and was not as filthy as I had imagined it to be. Certainly it was very muddy but there wasn't the floating load of trash that you often hear about. The bathing is a religious process accompanied by prayers and the release of candles,in what seems to be a coconut shell. Thus you can see thousands of these floating lights which is quite a sight to behold. A lot of people also drink the water from the river, and our guide generously demonstrated by gulping down a handful for good fortune. The place where people come to bath are called ghats and each ghat usually has a temple close by it.  It seems to me that a ghat is really just a flight of stairs leading to whatever nody of water is considered holy. Certianly there are always priest haning around so they can collect donations in exchange for them saying some prayers for you. In addition, there are several 'burning ghats' where bodies are cremated in public. We saw one body lying on the ground awaiting its turn at the crematorium. In total there are about 80 ghats around the river!

Orange garbed priests awaiting their followers by one of many ghats.
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We also visited some temples but we forgot to charge the camera so yeah, that means no pictures other than a few of the Ganges.