28th May 1992 Day 313

The Diary
We had omelettes (made by Om) and toast for breakfast and then headed to the ghats at the nearby riverside. "Change money, good rate, this way, you want boat, 10rp, come see my shop....." on and on it went. As bad as at Kuta. Nobody takes no for an answer until you've said it 10 times, ignored them for 5 minutes and then walked away. Shouts of "hello" from 10 yards away were invariably followed by "you want boat, 10rp". 


Despite this the ghats were still quite a sight and had an unreal, ethereal feel about them. People were bathing and washing clothes all along the ghats just yards from floating sewerage and garbage. It might cleanse the soul but it'll probably pollute everything else.

We walked south along the ghats in the midday heat. It was hot but it surely isn't the hottest place we've been to. When we got to the end of the ghats we came inland and then more by accident than design we arrived at the pontoon bridge that crossed the river to the fort. We walked across, got up to the entrance and were told that it was closed until 2pm. LP wrong yet again. We sat down in the shade and had a drink. A few people sat and watched us, some even tried a conversation although some were more successful than others. 
"Which country is Afghanistan in?", 
"Sorry, I don't understand", 
"Which country is Kabul in?",
"Afghanistan - you just told us!"


Oz replied with "which state is Dallas, Texas in?". At least it wasn't the usual "which country?", "How long in <insert current county>?" etc.

Oz scrubbing up

We waited 45mins and then we were let in. 3rp each for entry to the museum. We walked around guided by the arrows but a few explanations would have helped the displays which definitely had potential. We had to wait for a while, while a queen was sneaked out (!!). No-one was allowed to look at her. As if anyone cared. We walked on to the outer walls, everyone else disappeared into a temple, so we left.

Sweaty

We bargained with an auto-rickshaw driver and for 12rp he took us to the monkey temple. I'm not quite sure that LP has got all its facts right regarding the monkey temple and what it is properly called. I don't think we saw the one described in the book. It had lots of monkeys though but it was very unremarkable. We then dd the long trek back to Om's but our auto-rickshaw driver made a couple more attempts to do business with us. I attempted to buy a newspaper but absolutely nobody here seems willing to part with change. 100rp = 2 quid but it might as well be 200quid.

So far we'd only eaten a packet of biscuits so we set out in search of food. The Chinese restaurant was closed so we settled for Aces which did a large selection of, surprise, surprise, vegetarian dishes. It was like a British Rail waiting room in a small branch-line station that was about to be closed down. The food was edible though. We went back and Oz phoned home. "Worcester lost" said his Dad.


2012
Varanasi was an assault on the senses and even the previous 4 months travelling in SE Asia had only partly prepared us for it.


The driver probably did take us to a completely different monkey temple. Maybe I shouldn't  be so hard on Lonely Planet. The Thailand LP was rubbish though.


John Osborne - Worcester CCC tragic