Of course, Ganges is not all about getting up early to view the magnificent sunrise. Although it is probably too hot to walk around during mid-day, other parts of the day still offer the opportunity for a fair bit of exploration. For example, people can be seen doing laundry (i.e. if you look hard enough, you may find your clothes being washed along the river by the local laundry guy. I also saw cows taking their afternoon dip to cool themselves of the summer heat (BTW, cows can do anything in India). I guess these are all part of the Ganges experience.

The 2 days that I had allocated for the area was not spent in Varanasi entirely. I also took a side trip to Sarnath, 10kms northeast of the city of Shiva. Before I go about describing about my visit, I need to mention on how Sarnath got into my travel plans. To be frank, Sarnath was not at all in my plans till late. I was browsing my Lonely Planet in the toilet since it was almost impossible to sleep in the room (yes, power was cut again). Had just completed the chapter on Varanasi and chanced upon Sarnath, the next city to be featured in the Uttar Pradesh province. As I read on, I realised other that it was very near to Varanasi (30mins by auto), it is 1 of the 4 main sites in the Buddhism Pilgrimage circuit. And this was enough motivation for me to make a slight detour.

Well, getting there was not at all complicated. Using my hard bargaining skills (don't think I am that good though) learnt from my stay in India, I walked to Godaulia and got on to an auto (Rs100) for a 30-minute ride to Sarnath. Along the way, I get to share the auto with 2 policemen (yes, they do not need to pay) and a funny driver that kept whistling to girls.