July 8, 2007 - Varanasi, India

"The greatest precept is continual awareness."
~ Buddhist Philosophy

The wake-up call came at 3:15am, from which we traveled back to The Ganges River for a morning boat ride. We witnessed everything from people brushing their teeth, with sticks, in the river to dead bodies floating alongside our boat. We then walked the 2,000+ year old labyrinth streets near the waters edge.

After a couple of hours sleep, we again headed out to view Buddhist temples. The tree that Siddhartha sat under in order to begin his journey towards enlightenment is in Varanasi. Eventually Siddhartha became Buddha. We visited this historic, archaeological site today.

Everywhere we go, beggars and young children with souvenirs to sell chase after the bus, grab at us, and are constantly yelling for attention. When entering the archaeological site there are signs everywhere (in Hindi and English) noting that no one can walk on the grass, step on the ruins, touch the artifacts, etc. However, when we entered the venue, kids came running across the ancient ruins to sell items, like it was a playground. They have no idea they're not suppose to be crawling around on the ruins, because they can't read!