Still, Sarah kept insisting that she liked this place…and we couldn’t sseem to get a train ticket for love nor money. So when Tom emerged from his cell, we took to the streets.

It’s a cracking town. Chaotic, noisy and smelly. People live in these streets with their animals and the filfth is astonishing. It sits on the river Ganges and is the most important place for Hindu cremations. Which means as you walk along the endless Ghats (Steps leading down to the river) you come across cremation rituals. Piles of wood are weighed out, the pyres built and the very public final act is played out. It’s neither somber or a celebration. Just very public.

One boat is rowed out with a shrouded body perched on the bow. The couple on board push it into the river and it floats off down stream.