Day 23 - 23rd Feb

Got up early and went to see if we could have our actual room yet. Some Europeans were refusing to check out early even though they were ready and could see we were waiting  so we walked down the ganges, taking in the sights and smells. Matt fell for the 'shake your hand and trap you into a massage' routine and literally had to peel the guy off him and run away. The guy had already massaged his hand and arm though and Matt sait it was the best it had felt in ages.

 It was already quite hot by 9am and beginning to get busy. People were bathing in the river and washing their clothes. We didn't consider going in as the riverside buildings also seemed to have their sewage outlets running over the 'pavement' and into the water too.

We got offered umpteen boat rides, hashish and several cobra viewings but declined them all politely.

We wandered around the streets of Varanasi for a while, including a wrong turn into a street entirely dedicated to breeding, raising, killing, plucking and gutting chickens in the baking heat. The guidebooks were right about how hectic it was but it wasn't as dirty as many places we've seen.

Monkey on our balcony

Back at the hostel we stood outside and ate some of the fruit we had bought. This quickly attracted a monkey -  then 8 more followed. Sunny faced them off for us but don't think I'll be standing up for myself to many monkeys.

Chatted to Sunny for a while (Europeans still refusing to move) and he told us that the place where the guy had died was Yogi Lodge, the hostel that we had enquired about on the phone from Delhi. He said that maybe that is why he was a little snappy on the phone!

Finally in our room we caught up some days on blog and tried to relax a little. There was a small balcony ourside our room but it was only facing the next buiding. which was less than a foot away and was all caged off to stop the monkeys coming in. The monkeys were still spitting distance from my eyes so didn't bother risking rabies.

In the evening we decided to attend the ceremonies at the Ganges. We walked along as far as one the burning ghats (where they burn dead bodies and commit them to the river) but couldn't just stand and take it all in because there was a guy trying to talk to us and tell us info. When we tried to escape him he hassled us probably more than anyone has hassled us before and demanded a 'donation' to help pay for the funerals of people who couldn't afford it. It sounded like a reasonable cause (although burning bodies next to the ganges on fires needing 700kg of wood with several kg of very expensive sandalwood is not the funeral that everyone achieves) but he would not back off and was getting more and more aggressive in his tone and spiritual threats for our eternal damnation that even Matt got angry.

Must check for shadows..

We sat and tried to relax by the river for a while, just watching everyone go past on boats and the candles floating over the water. Before we left, we were invited to have a chat with  Ganesh baba, who told us about his life and rituals - basically a combination of sitting, praying, washing, yoga and hashish smoking. He was one the the few 'babas' who did not seem to want to make money from tourists for being a 'baba'.

We missed the cermemony near the main ghat but very much got caught in the crowds of literally thousands of people walking up Luxa Road afterwards. This was madness. There were market stalls on either side the road, as well tuks tuks, mopeds and cars all trying to push their way through the narrow streets.

When we finaly arrived back at the hostel we looked into changing our flight out of Nepal so that it left a week later and spent more time talking to Sunny and his dad. They confirmed the date of Holi festival for us and were adamant that we should stay in until lunchtime. For me, it was because the morning was the men's time and women should not be allowed. For Matt it was because he would not return with his clothes! Apparently, after noon it will all be ok but we will try book a room in Kathmandu which has some sort of balcony so we can watch from a safe distance.

Matt went to bed and I chatted with really nice French people who have a similar route to what we are taking. It was very pleasent to have a general chat with them instead of having the usual backpacker conversation.