In Varanasi

We had lunch in our hotel - or haveli.  A small guest house type hotel owned by the King of Nepal.

When we wanted to have lunch, we realised the whole hotel was vegetarian!  This was our lunch - very nice though. There is a salad, a drink, and dessert is he one in the middle.

We went for a wander along the ghats - the steps that lead down to the Ganges.  We hadn't gone far when I looked up and saw this

This was the wood used for cremation.  Then a very kind attendant explained it all to us.  Of course we made a donation - to help a family some where pay for their wood.  Because Varanasi does not have many forests - not now anyway - wood has to be brought in.  I read that there is an art in assessing just how much wood is needed for a cremation, which takes three hours. These are pics that I took discreetly.

As so often in India, things are free-wheeling, to our eyes anyway.  The cows wander down among the fires to eat the flowers that were removed from the corpses.