Today

We learned about Buddhaism (sp) today. Very interesting. Of course, I changed shorts right before we left and forgot my notebook :-( so I had to try to remember everything. Out of our hotel window this morning I saw four students studying at 7:00 before they went to school. They were on their roof reading, writing. What a concept! Had a Yoga class this morning. Very interesting, very easy, mostly breathing. After breakfast we went to the museum and place where Buddha preached his first sermon. Our guide while in Varanasi was so good. He was understandable, spoke slowly and repeated what he said so we could remember. Don't know if I mentioned this or not but the hawkers hit you up everywhere - as you get off the bus, when you get on the bus. The Trip Leader shows us their wares on the bus so he can tell us the "real price" Then we had a plane ride. The pilot said one hour but it was 1 1/2 hours. Then we landed on the longest runway in the world and taxied for 20 minutes (no joke) Then a circuitous route to the airport - got the luggage and got to the hotel for a few hours. Some of our group will leave tonight to go home and eight of us go on to Kerala/Cochin in South India. We have a 3:45 a.m. wake up call in the morning. They will have a light breakfast of toast and coffee/tea and we leave for the airport at 4:30 for our 6:30 flight. We actually have two legs - one leg to Bangalore and then on to Cochin and the houseboat!!!! Cannot wait. Ben is doing much better.