Varanasi

In between our tours on The Ganges, we had about a day and a half to explore the city of Varanasi.  We did a walking tour through the small alleyways in the city, saw numerous temples, visited a large Buddhist site, and enjoyed the general craziness of the city - monkeys, cows, some of the people!

This is at Birla Temple.  I remember that Clara was whispering a wish, but I cannot recall why.

Birla Temple from the outside.  Pretty impressive.

A painting on a wall in Varanasi.

There are cows everywhere.  Erica decided to count the cows while we were driving around.  She very quickly reached 100 and then decided to stop.  At one point we became stuck in an alleyway because there were cows blocking both exits.  We just walked back and waited until one of them moved.  The kids (nor I) were keen to push past a cow.

A shop.  I think our guide said that these products are used for weddings, but I might be remembering incorrectly.

Peeking through the door.  The ladies were friendly and waved back to us.

Erica at Mother India Temple.  There are no statues of Gods or Goddesses, instead there is a giant map of India carved from marble.  The map is on the ground behind Erica.

A snake charmer.

Giving one of the snakes a pat.

Clara tends to be fairly non-plussed about getting close to animals.  She didn't really care that the monkey was grabbing her foot.

Speaking of monkeys...

We had had two pre-sunrise wake-ups in a row.  We were all looking forward to a good sleep-in, but the monkeys of Varanasi had different plans for us.  They were having a great time on the balcony outside of our room.  They were jumping on the awnings, throwing chairs, monkeying around (pun  intended).

The wire is clearly a very effective deterrent.

The monkeys were so fascinating to watch (not these particular ones, they were a nuisance).  At lunch one day we sat on the roof of a restaurant.  The rooftop part was enclosed in a wire cage.  We were able to watch monkeys jumping around on the tops of the buildings, climbing across our cage, dipping in and out of water tanks etc.