Om's omlettes for brekkie again and then we headed to the nearby Golden Temple through windy cow-pat infested lanes. As with many of the temples in India only Hindus are allowed to enter - which is fair enough. And you cannot be converted so if your parents aren't Hindus, forget it. LP said the temple could be viewed from a balcony across the way. A local tried to lead Oz to what he said was the balcony but was probably his shop but I spotted the right place and in we went. The top floor was closed and the view from the first floor could be described as disappointing. We watched the alleyway from above and saw cows shitting on the piles of flip-flops outside the temple and then a man - obviously an untouchable - come along to mop up the cow shit. What a strange country.
We then wandered down to the ghats avoiding the boat sellers and head massagers and found ourselves at one of the burning ghats with a cremation about to take place. A young lad came along and asked us to move but said we could watch from the second floor of a building. We went up and discreetly took a photo each. He seemed to think it was OK as we hadn't been seen but then more Indians came up and accused us of taking photos and started threatening us with the police and 3 months prison. At this point I said "come on, Oz" and we strode out with the young lad shouting behind us "baksheesh". We disappeared into the maze of alleyways until we were safe. Had we been set up? I'm not going back to find out.
We wandered through the alleys and after asking directions several times we made it back to the river and wandered along to the mosque. It didn't look very spectacular and when we climbed the steps it was shut. We ventured through the alleyways yet again and eventually found the road. We hired a rickshaw driver to take us to a Chinese restaurant near the station. He seemed to be struggling with the destination but another local explained it to him and we were off. He took us straight to Aces where we'd eaten the previous night. "No", we complained and after much frantic pointing at maps we were on our way again. He stopped on the way to ask directions but we got there. He seemed disappointed with his reward but then everyone here always does.
Meat! We broke our enforced vegetarianism and went to the station. The station had a tourist office. "Come back in the morning and buy your ticket then" we were told. This is easy. We then went in search of a temple opened by Gandhi which Tony Wheeler had got in completely the wrong place on the map. The LP maps are pretty atrocious at times and they quite often don't even have a scale. I threw a strop when they wouldn't let me put my shoes in my bag to carry them in. I didn't fancy leaving them outside, too many people about. "Who cares about your effing religion anyway?". I'm sure it's not going to be the last time I lose my temper in India.
Later in the evening we hunted out El Chico's which turned out to be Yelchikos but it did good meat curries as long as the meat was chicken. Hindus won't eat cows, Muslims won't eat pigs, mutton is always on the menu but never in the kitchen and that leaves chicken (that was starved to death). We bumped into Jack in the restaurant and talked to him about dodgy stomachs, work, holidays and Japan amongst other things.
2012
Had we been set up? Of course.
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