The Silk Weavers

We were spared an early start and will have our early visit to the river tomorrow. Breakfast was taken at a German bakery run as a charity to support a school for poor children. It was sitting on the floor with a low table again, fine for the young ones but a bit of a struggle for the oldies. The breakfast was great and the coffee not too bad. It was the first time we had french type bread for two weeks. Usually it is thin sliced for breakfast toast. It was a lovely start to the day and was followed by a visit to a family silk works.



After seeing the hand weaving looms and mechanical looms powered by electricity it was off to the sale room for masala tea and an entertaining sales pitch from a fellow who had spent time in Europe, particularly Germany. He had all the sales chat, "Asda price" and "lovely jubbly". Suffice to say that many items were purchased and the bags will be a bit heavier. It was by now 1.30 so no one had the energy to shop any more. The roof garden was very pleasant and we sat and chatted to a Dutch couple who were extensive travellers and were spending two months in India. Their philosophy was that they were healthy, their children and grandchildren were healthy so they travel, giving a bit of money to projects directly. They had been to visit someone who was working with "the untouchables", those who clean animal skins when they die and dispose of the carcasses. Their friends gave them money when they went anywhere, knowing it would go to a good cause.

4.30 was the roof terrace yoga class. No we didn't join in, but enjoyed watching those who did and the pain on their faces when they had their arms or legs moved by the yoga teacher.

Our evening meal was really cheap. We had one of our regular thalis, first introduced to us in a restaurant called Ann Purna in Edinburgh. We had passed political candidates earlier giving their speeches (there are currently state elections in Varanasi) but a noise outside turned out to be another wedding parade, a young man on a white horse collecting his bride from her house. As we wove our way home on a cycle rickshaw we came across several wedding parades, mostly with the groom on a white horse. The lighting for the parades were attached to a generator with open fluorescent tubes providing the light, something which didn't impress Tom. These parades continued into the night and some were woken at 4.00 by Hare Krishna chanting. We were getting up at 5 anyway to make our way back to the river for the classic dawn boat trip past the ghats.