Holy cow!

Twenty miles back into India, having cleared customs, I was carefully pacing myself so as to be steady on my chain when one of the cows walking across the road decided to change direction. I almost avoided him, but managed to nudge him with my radiator. These animals are so hard to predict, but the result for me was not good. I was fine, the cow was a little dazed and the bike was pretty much OK, but blue water spilled out of the radiator and I knew that a visit to a repair shop was likely, as was a wait for parts to be sent through.
Jim managed to wave down a truck, which, with the help of a couple of locals we managed to load the bike into. Sitting on my bike in the back of the truck, I contemplated how I would have rather had been riding this road, but the cow had thought otherwise! A somewhat disjointed journey followed, being dropped at a railway station, arranging to get my bike onto the train, then waiting 10 hours for the train to take me down to Varanasi, where I hoped that I would be able to have spares sent to. The train journey was comfortable enough, but took 6 hours before I franticly disembarked and had 10 minutes to sprint to the luggage carriage and get my bike off of the train without the availability of a ramp. My bike weight around 230kg and the train stands around 18" above the platform. This really is an adventure!
The next few days was spent arranging for parts and repairs to my bike and looking around the temples and ghats in Varanasi.
Varanasi is quite a small city, but it is very congested with both traffic and people. It is famous as being a direct route through to heaven, so many old people visit in their final years. This includes maharajas, and hence the various palaces surrounding it. A peaceful dawn boat ride along the Ganges is the ideal way to see the Ghats. Locals have their ritual baths there as the dawn breaks. I make it as far down as one of the body burning ghats. I had heard that this was a sight to see, and it certainly was. It is a very graphic experience as the bodies are exposed, but this is a deeply religious and traditional process. The holy men and the children are not burned, but are placed into the Ganges river. I watched only from a distance and then headed back towards Assi Ghat, where I was staying, contemplating how delicate life is. Later in the day, KK, who is a close friend of a friend of mine took me around the university here, which is one of the largest in the world. We then went to visit the Krishnamurti Foundation to make a presentation to the children on our trip. It was great to see the look of excitement in their faces as we spoke of the faraway lands that they could only dream of visiting. Many Indians that I had met had never been outside of their own country. This goes some extent to explain the reason why whenever I stop in the streets on my bike, I get mobbed by around 200 people! KK has been a great host during my stay in Varanasi and I look forward to welcoming him in London.
Arrangements for the bike seemed to go on and on, with numerous telephone calls. Eventually, I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to put the bike on the train to Mumbai and Pune, where I had a number of friends and there were more suitable workshops and to have it repaired there. Varanasi just wasn't equipped for my oversized motorcycle!
...and before you ask, my last words before bumping into the cow were NOT 'Holy cow'!