the ganges, varanasi and fog

Dear all
I have returned from travelling on the ganges. quite an experience. they were open rowing boats with a wide flat interior that was suitable for lounging around. I helped our indian oarsmen by rowing for a couple of hours, and helping out with steering. It was very pleasant floating down the ganges enjoying the scenery. much quieter than the city. we also saw the freshwater dolphins which was quite exciting.
we camped by the river, where it was a large stretch of sand. It was bloody freezing. I am so glad that I brought Ellies high quality sleeping bag and lots of thermals and jumpers. only those with sleeping bags got any real sleep as the others were too cold.
It was incredibly foggy in the morning so we set off with all the boats tied together. Luckily as it was so hard to see anything that for some time the boatmen had no idea where we were. Eventually we pulled in at a village near varanasi but not quite there as it would have taken tooo long.
this afternoon / evening we visited the ghats in Varanasi - a very hard to describe experience. the ghats (which sort of means steps) stretch for about 2 km or so along the river. Each ghat also has some sort of accompanying building, quite a few of which seem to have monkeys climbing around them. it is where Hindus come to pray, wash, burn the dead and just about anything else you can think of. we saw quite a lot of families carrying out the ceremony and burning dead relatives. we passed a floating dead cow in the river. we lit 250 candles held in little leaf bowls full of flowers and sent them off in the river with our wishes. We have done some walking through the streets which are busy with everything you can think of .
Tomorrow we are supposed to take the train to Orchha but as the fog is particularly bad at this time many trains (or all) seem to be being cancelled. we may end up hiring cars and driving; it will be a very long drive but it won't cost a lot extra and at least we will get there.
I am getting along quite well with the others in the group despite being a fair bit older than anyone else. those not in couples change room partners every few nights which allows for us to get to know everyone better.
that is all for now. I hope you are all well. I will post again soon.