Every picture of Varanasi makes it look colourful, intense and lively*. The steps are supposed to be awash in the colourful saris and the river is supposed to be rammed with exotic boats. Sadly, the Varanasi we experienced was soooo much worse. It is maybe the only time we have wished for scads of Indians wandering around and it was one of the things we did not get in spades. The steps were almost entirely deserted, the river had only a few row boats, and what was around by the bucket full was shit (sorry mom). Literally shit - cows, goats, dogs - you name it and we can probably find traces of it on our shoes. Some of the steps were covered with 3 inches of gooey mystery mud which got incredibly slippery in the rain. In short, we did not have an intense, colourful, exotic time and the best part about Varanasi (now dubbed Varanasty) was leaving.
*I have tried to upload a few typical ones, but there is a funny setting on this computer so I'll have to do it later
