A post from Varanasi!

Hi folks.  Sorry it's taken me a while to get a new post up.  Just after we arrived in Varanasi, overnight our room had a strong voltage fluctuation and blew both my phone and computer chargers.  Youch! I was able to get a replacement charger for the Google phone, but was only able to order a new one for my Microsoft Surface Pro (damn, what a great machine!) via Amazon India.   So no power and so no pics editing till the new charger arrived.  It arrived as scheduled, but dead on arrival!  Argh. At least now I have a honkin' big surge protector from the generosity of
Emi, the woman that runs the excellent restaurant at our hotel. Also, a nice Brazilian guy here generously let me use his Surface charger, but it's getting so close to the leaving date I decided to just pick a few pics from my phone and post those.

So, here I am near the temple at Benares Hindu University, just having enjoyed a cold coffee with ice cream on a hot day.

A view down the Ganges from our rooftop.

Looking the other way at sunset.

An absolutely fabulous meal arranged for us by Duane (our next door neighbor from Victoria!) at his hotel, made by a wonderful lady who was a winner on Master Chef India! What a great meal and lovely generosity by Duane!

Another fabulous breakfast at our guest house.....mmmmm.  By Amy and her most excellent crew!

A lovely group of pilgrims we bumped in to,who wanted us in with them in a group pic.

Anne and a couple of  friends at a ghat near us.

A quite nice auto rickshaw man,who gave us a great round trip to Benares Hindu University.

Lots of lovely chillums to chose from, given this is Varanasi, center for Shiva worship.

One night we encountered this Sadhu we called the 'rat baba', as his hat brim was full of pet mice and rats.  He refused to have his picture taken from the front.

Two pics Naga Sadhus (naked holy men), the first smoking a chillum.