Varanasi, May 9

A short entry from Varanasi, where we are sitting on a roof top terrace, drinking masala chai in the heat. It's 43 degrees here now. The heat has surprised me a little, because it was still below 40 in Central India. The hot season has now really started.

It was wonderful to see my mother again, and in India, on top of that. It was a weird experience, as if two not-connected parts of my life suddenly met. I try to do my best to make everything as comfortable as possible, but this is India so I don't always succeed. Fortunately, mom finds everything interesting and new and nice. So where I see chaos and feel annoyed, she just dives into her bag to fetch her camera.

We met in Delhi and spent two days sightseeing there. The ruins of Qutb Minar, the Medieval capital of the Delhi sultanate took me by surprise. Nobody can say that only Hindus left beautiful Medieval architecture in India. We also visited the bazaars, the Red Fort (Lal Qila), the Lotus Temple, the parliament buildings and the grave of emperor Humayun.

Travelling in air-conditioned trains is a new experience for me, with its own problems. It is a difficult and time-consuming process to get tickets. I had our train tickets reserved from Delhi to Agra, but couldn't reserve tickets to Varanasi from Agra. So I bought tickets from Delhi to Varanasi instead. That meant we had to go to Agra and back again to Delhi. After seeing the Taj Mahal, Akbars mausoleum and the Itmad-ud-Daulah (baby Taj) - second time for me, we still had to organize our way back to Delhi. In the end we took a taxi, which I thought ridiculously expensive. My mother though, used to European standards, didn't think much of it. Anyway, we arrived just in time at New Delhi railway station to catch our night train to Varanasi.

The sleeper train was comfortable enough, travelling in the 2nd class. My own experiences with the 3rd class sleepers from Sanchi to Delhi are another story. I'd rather not write about it.

So here we are, in India's most holy city, built along the holy river Ganges. A place filled with priests, beggars, thieves, holy men, cows and touts. We've already witnessed two beautiful evening ceremonies, when people wish the river goddess goodnight. My mother had problems with the heat though. I don't like it either, but as soon as we go into the mountains (in a couple of days) I'm sure it will become more bearable.