We both showered, ate breakfast and then left for the hospital. Walked through the maze to the main street and hired an auto-rickshaw to take us back to the BHU.

At the hospital we found the Ophthalmology building again and went to the room at the back where last night's doctor said she'd be. However, she wasn't there and after waiting for a bit we went back to the registration desk and were directed to the main waiting room. 
 
 
Here there was a.room full of people waiting, as one by one each person was called forward for an examination. The examinations were done at the front of the room, so everyone was watching the tests being done as they waited their turn.
 
 
Got dilation drops in eye at 9:12am
At 9:15am they did a simple eye test. And by simple, I mean simple. Ken had to walk towards the chart to let them know when he could see the first letter.
Another drop at 9:20am
Then at 9:56am he had an 'Indirect Ophthalmoscopy'. This is the room the test was done in. (Kind of disgusting!!! Note the urine stain. The general dirt doesn't show up.)


At 10:03am a colleague came in to re-examine with the indirect ophthalmoscope. Then at 10:45am another test was done.

Throughout this process, each new doctor would focus their attention on the wrong eye. It's normal for an eye doctor to always check both eyes, so only when it seemed like they were finishing up and they still hadn't looked at his left eye would Ken point out that it was the left one that needed to be examined.

After this test we went to consult with her supervisor. The supervisor thinks it is inflammation in his eye and wants to prescribe steroids to reduce it. (Note that this turned out to be an incorrect diagnosis. What Ken actually had was a large retinal tear, though we didn't find that out until we got to Delhi several days later.)

To be sure there was no retinal detachment he ordered an ultrasound b-scan. The scan confirmed there wasn't any detachment and they will prescribe steroids.
 

According to the Google, "The brain's right side also helps us to comprehend visual imagery and make sense of what we see." So Ken's theory is that since the left eye is connected to the right side of the brain, his brain is basically rejecting his eye because it can't make sense of what it's seeing.

Pharmacy was a gong show with people clamouring for access to one of the ticket windows and people at the back of the pack thrusting their prescription forms through the slot to try and jump the queue. After a very long wait Ken finall got to the pharmacist And was told they didn't have the drugs. A nice man from the lineup led us to another pharmacy next door and showed us where to line up. Thankfully, this pharmacy did have what we needed and the lineups were much better organized. (Comically, the pharmacist tried to change Ken's dosage from 60 mg to 50 mg because they didn't have a 60 mg pill. It took several tries before Ken was able to convince them to just give him two 30 mg pills to replace the 60 mg pill.)
 
 
The auto-rickshaw dropped us off in the wrong place far south of our hotel, but we were up for a walk so we decided to go to the river and follow the shore to the hotel along the ghats. The first ghat we arrive at was the Harishchadra Ghat, which is the other of the two main ghats where bodies are cremated (not the one we'd been to before). We stood at the side of the ghat watching while a man explained to us about the ritual and ash from the pyres drifted down around us like snowflakes.

Some of the stuff he told us about ritual...
- cremation is a purification ritual, not just a way to dispose of a corpse. Cremations are only done for those people that require purification.
- anyone who does not require purification (or who can't afford the cremation cost) is just weighed down with a stone and eased into the river (and according to the guide book, occasionally these people later bob to the surface, horrifying the tourists)
- people that don't require purification include: children, pregnant women, holy men, lepers, those with chicken pox and anyone who died as a result of being bitten by a cobra
- even the bodies that are cremated are ritually washed in the ganges before hand
- only the male family members are permitted to attend the cremation, because it is thought that women are prone to cry, and any crying during the cremation will prevent the soul from being released from this world
- Hindus believe that anyone who dies in Varanasi is automatically granted entrance to paradise, so people who believe they are near death wlll move to Varanasi to die there 

We continued on our walk along the ghats back toward our hotel, past the many boats and lots of laundry drying on the poop-coated steps of the ghats.
 


Soon we came to the big Brij Rama Palace which overlooks the river right in front of our guest house. It used to be a royal residence but now a posh hotel that we can't afford to say at.
 
  
Back at the hotel, Ken sat down and went through all the medications he'd been given, Googling each of them to see what they were, labelling the envelopes with the generic drug name and setting up a schedule for when to take what.
 
Then we took what we though would be a short nap and ended up sleeping for several hours. We woke up in the evening after dark and weren't sure initially if it was still the same day.

We were hungry so we went for to a nearby place called Banana Lasi where they serve their lasis (which are a thick drink made of yogurt) with fruit mixed in, like pineapple-banana or orange-chocolate-coconut. They were so good that Heather had two.

Went for a night time stroll along the ghats. They were far less busy than they had been during the day.

But when we got to the cremation area we found it in full swing. Apparently the cremations go around the clock. 

In the mud on the shore below the burning ghat we found a cow lying on it's side. A man told us that several days before it had been in a fight with another cow at the top of the ghat and fell off the ledge into one of the funeral pyres. By the time they put out the fire and got enough people together to pull the cow out, it was badly burned on one side. That was 4 days ago, and it's been getting sicker each day, despite being paid a visit by a vet. And now it's lying on its side in the mud at the edge off the Ganges amidst the debris of the cremations, wheezing and occasionally kicking its legs in an attempt to right itself. 

After watching the cremations for a while, we continued on, climbing up above the ghat (as the ghat is not really passable with all the fires and dead people and what not) and walked around back between giant piles of firewood to get to the other side.

We went as far as the Scindia Ghat, with it's off-shore temple tilting as it sinks into the mud. 
 
Coming back turned into the Old City and worked our way slowly back through the maze. Then back to the hotel and to bed.