"Fortunate are those who reside on the banks of the River Ganga"

That's what's painted onto a rock here in Varanasi, one of Hinduisms holiest cities and set along the western bank of the Ganges. Lonely Planet's description is pretty apt: "Brace yourself. You're about to enter one of the most blindingly colorful, unrelentingly chaotic, and unapologetically indiscreet places on earth...Most visitors agree it's a magical place, but it's not for the faint-hearted. Here the most intimate rituals of life and death take place in public and the sights and sounds in and around the ghats can be overwhelming. Perservere. Varanasi is unique, and a walk along the ghats or a boaty ride on the river will live long in the memory."

We arrived just before dawn after taking an overnight train. This turned out to be the perfect time to visit the ghats, the long rows of stairs leading in to the river that stretch for miles along the Ganges. We hired a man to row us on his rickety row boat to watch the spectacle that takes place at sunrise every morning. Many of the ghats are packed with people: ascetics sitting in Lotus position on columns, people practicing yoga, bathers swimming in the holy waters, people washing clothes. The riot of colors of the people's dress, especially the women's provided a contrast to most of the crumbling buildings above the ghats.

This is considered an auspicious place to die for Hindus, and we passed the "burning ghats" where cremations are performed throughout the day. Seeing giant piles of wood on fire knowing that a body is contained in the middle is almost a surreal experience. Some aren't able to afford the cremation, and we also saw a group dump a dead body into the river.

We spent the rest of our time walking along the ghats or hanging out in one of the restaurants above them, as this is one of the best people-watching locations in the world. We also took some time to relax on the grounds of the nearby University, which felt like a world away.

As with most of India, there is the other side to Varanasi. Despite it's religious significance, this is one of the most polluted rivers on earth. Raw sewage pours into it from the cities along it. People litter as if it were a trash bin. On the boat we saw a corpse floating near us. The bacteria levels are hundreds of thousands of times the safe limit. I almost gagged when I saw people cup their hands and drink the river's water. The smell on some of the ghats was putrid. We just read that there are plans to have the river clean within a decade, but who know's if the government will follow through. The touts and beggars are another issue, although not nearly severe as Agra.

One of our days we took a day trip to Sarnath, one of Buddhism's holiest pilgrimage sites, where the Buddha is said to have given his first sermon after achieving enlightenment. This was a great little city full of parkland where we were able to relax.

All in all, we thought Varanasi was a tremondous experience, and thought it was a fitting end to our time in India.