Varanasi, India - Delhi Belly, Election Day, the ghats

I finally managed to eat something or catch something that didn't agree with me and spent the day in the hotel room. I have no idea what it was, because almost all the food I had eaten in the last day was the same food that the others I was traveling with had had. I started taking Cyproflaxin tablets that had another ingrediant in them for intestinal problems. The main symptoms only lasted for about 12-hours, thankfully.

It was election day. All the stores and shops were closed. We were advised to stay near our hotel but Vince decided to walk several kilometers to the ghats (several areas with steps leading down to the Gangas River). He described to me that it was a very different experience of Varanasi, with no motor vehicles on the roads. There were many groups of kids playing cricket in the streets. He witnessed an impromptu battle bewteen two bulls, horn to horn, in the middle of a street, with the spontaneously formed crowd cheering them on and throwing water on them to keep them going at it. He also saw a large number of police and crowd gathered around an area, nearly blocking passage. He heard from a bystander that someone had been shot near the election area. That was later affirmed by the owner of a travel I was at.

He walked the entire length of the ghats. Ghats are areas of steps leading down to the Ganges where people pray, offer flowers, light candles, bath, swim, and wash clothes. They are called "the Life of India". There is one area he visited where they burn bodies wrapped in saris on wood pyres.