After an interesting overnight 15-hour train journey - in a packed coach abuzz with Indian families chatting to the early hours, singing and playing bingo! - we arrived at Varanasi; India's holiest city, and one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world.
The final stop on our journey across northern India turned out to be our favourite, however for me it also presented the biggest culture shock. Not the unrelenting hustle and bustle, nor persistent touts, but the fact we saw death at its rawest form.
After a few hours rest at our new guesthouse, the Paradise Inn, we ventured out for something to eat and to explore the city.
We ate at an amazing little spot (as usual with a rooftop café, though this time with added caging to thwart the many inquisitive monkeys that roamed near sunset) called Brown Bread Bakery.
It had various cuisines - Italian, German, India and even catered for vegans. But the best part was it also had over 45 different cheeses.
After polishing off our delicious veggie burgers we continued on to find the Ganges.
The old part of Varanasi is a labyrinth of small dark alleyways, and having enthusiastically meandered through (while getting lost a few times) we finally saw light and came out by the murky-brown river down one of the many famous ghats, stone steps leading into the river.
There are about 80 ghats dotted along the Ganges, each with its own personality - adorned with different artwork or colours - and many with weather-washed temples above them.
Every ghat had scores of men bathing in the holy (but nevertheless still dirty) water.
Bathing in the holy Ganges is said to be a ritual that wipes away sin, like a sort of cleansing. Although I fear if John and I had got in there we'd have been in hospital with some illness...
We strolled from ghat to ghat, and as the sun started going down across the river, the crowds began to grow, with more boats setting sail for a sunset trip.
After walking for what felt like some time, we started to smell burning and see flames.
This is when we knew we had arrived at Manikarnika Ghat - the holiest ghat in Varanasi, and one of the few also known as a burning ghat, where families bring their deceased loved ones from all over India to be cremated by the river.
Around 250 bodies are cremated there every day, with the burning running 24/7, all year round.
As we got closer we again were targetted by touts but not for boat rides, this times each one that stopped us claimed they were volunteer workers for the cremations and wanted us to donate to an old dying women so she could afford to buy wood for her own cremation.
They pointed to a building near by and told us people were inside waiting to die. Waiting for death - an uneasy concept to think about.
I'm not sure if they were telling the truth about that particular building, but it is true that people do come to wait out their final days in Varanasi as the body can only be cremated within 24-hours of death.
As for the men claiming to be volunteers and wanting donations for the dying - this was a lie. We'd read up and been warned this would happen.
After waving them all off we edged closer to the flames, even at a distance the heat was unbearable.
Two things are forbidden in cremation areas: photographs, and women. Being a women that regularly carries around a large Canon camera round my neck - this was concerning.
But I abandoned the camera for our first trip out, and later managed a few pics of the ghat from the safer distance of an evening boat trip, and a few more later in the trip from a smaller burning ghat down the river.
Women aren't historically allowed in the cremation area, including family members of the deceased, because it is thought women are more likely to cry (so our travel guide says) and this is a time for respect not sadness.
But it's a bit more lenient with tourists, although I was getting stares for being there so we moved away from the rows of men around the burning bodies and found a viewing spot next to a temple, now looking down directly into the flames.
I don't think I'll ever forget seeing the bodies being carried into the cremation area. After being dipped in the Ganges and left to dry for two hours, they are wrapped in beautiful orange fabrics.
The fabrics are then removed to leave what looks like a thin linen bag, before being hauled up onto a wood platform and covered with large logs of wood.
But as the flames grow - turning a deep orange and sending plumes of smoke into the sky - they quickly rip through the fabric, leaving the burning head and feet exposed.
It can take 3-4 hours for the body to fully burn, but even after this amount of time there are still body parts remaining - the reason for the lingering dogs.
Ashes are collected by the families once the burning is complete and then put in the Ganges as a finale to the ceremony.
We read that being cremated in Varanasi is the greatest honor for a Hindu as it ensures Moshka, which means freedom after death. The person is not reincarnated and is at peace.
Reaching Moshka is not a luxury most can afford, though. It costs roughly 4000-5000 rupees (£45-£60) due to the amount of wood required (around 300kg) and in India for a lot of families this is a great deal of money.
If you have the money then better quality wood is bought. However a lot of families have to buy cheaper mango wood, which doesn’t always ensure the body is fully burnt.
But partially cremated bodies are still thrown into the river - it isn't uncommon to see bodies floating in the Ganges (yes the same place the men were bathing!).
Seeing the families gathering and saying their last farewell in this way provoked a strange mix of emotions. Also seeing the burning bodies soon turn to ashes and removed for the next body to be laid out in this regimented way makes death so clear and final.
Following our experience we felt a different way in Varanasi to the rest of India; a sense of calm and serenity. Our daily routine was wake up, take a stroll along the Ganges in the morning, where it was so peaceful at that hour.
We would then escape the mid-day heat by stopping for lunch somewhere amongst the maze-like streets, head back to our guesthouse to freshen up and then revisit the Ganges at night. The evenings were transformed by tourists and visitors arriving in their masses to see the many religious ceremonies (that happened each night) and to take night-time boat trips.
I think Varanasi will be utterly unique to anything else on our year-long trip. We extended our stay an extra night and could have stayed longer in hindsight, but it was time to move on.
After abandoning plans to visit Nepal (lots of logistical issues, but we've promised to explore on a holiday later in life) we're now moving on to the south of India. As ever, another train trip awaits - this one our longest one yet, a mammoth 24 hours!
