Varanasi - City of the Dead: Part 2

Click here to read Part 1 of this post if you haven't already.

After the boat ride, I took a tuk-tuk around the rest of the city, stopping off at various sites along the way. One of the first things I passed was Banaras Hindu University, one of the largest universities in India.

New Vishwanath Temple is located on the university's campus.

These two students wanted me to take their photo.

People use these colourful powders to make bindis on their heads.

Passing through dusty streets.

Stuck in traffic.

I visited a Hare Krishna Temple, though it wasn't as interesting as the one we saw in Delhi.

The Monkey Temple.

My last stop was a textile factory in the Muslim quarter of the city.

The man wasn't pushy like a lot of merchants in India, so I bought a scarf for Angela.

Back out on the streets of the Muslim Quarter, people were rounding up goats to be sacrificed for the Eid Al-Adha Festival.

I didn't see any goats having their throats cut, but I did see the aftermath in a few places.

At dusk, we returned to the river for another boat tour, since it's a slightly different experience compared to dawn.

Hundreds of boats gathered around one of the main ghats for a fire ceremony.

Befriending a dog from another boat.

Returning to our hotel.

Varanasi was one of the strangest, dirtiest, and most fascinating places either of us have ever been to. We were both a little relieved to get out of there, since our final two destinations in India - Haridwar and Rishikesh - would be a lot cleaner and more accessible.