Going to Varanasi tonight

Kim and I are taking an overnight train to Varanasi tonight.

Varanasi is important to the Hindu relgion. Hindus, like Buddhists, belive in re-incarnation where after you die, you move into a different circles (based on your performance in your last circle), the goal is to eventually get to to the point of reaching enlightenment - at least this is how Buddhism works - and once you have reached this point you are done - the suffering ends - you stop re-incarnating.

Anyway, the reason that Varanasi is important is that it is a kind of re-incarnation loop hole. If you can die in Varanasi you get to skip to the end of the re-incarnation cycle.

So Varanasi is famous for some of it's crematorium ghats (stairs by the Ganges), where bodies are cremated as well as for it's purification ghats.

That said, with Hindus, I'm not sure if you actually have to die in Varanasi or if you have to be cremated there to finish re-incarnation.

Not really related, or possibly directly related to re-incarnation, there are lots of vegetarian restaurants in India.