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Published: January 4th 2007
We're here by the ganges, feeling really ill 😞 it's supposed to be the river of life, but almost as soon as we arrived we were struck with the dreaded runs, or delhi belly, or whatever you want to call it. We are taking it in turns all day and all night to run to the loo!
We arrived in the morning of new years eve, and had a hairy rickshaw ride to our hotel - the rickshaw seats here are sloped and very small indeed so every bump is precarious and we both had 2 bags each so it's a wonder we didnt drop anything. When we got near our hotel we had to climb the biggest steps in the world up a huge height before we could stop, there on the roof, and have some breakfast. And from there we could see the ganges down below, a peaceful stretch of men in sarongs bathing in muddy water, and little boys flying kites.
After a breakfast of oh I cant even say, the thought of anything edible is turning my stomach! we wandered down to the river. It wasnt so peaceful after all - do you want a postcard? how about a massage? I do astrology, very cheap! you want a boat? urgh, no! but we wandered along anyway, by the time the sun was setting, we could see a fire in the distance so we headed oer that way. We got nearby and we werent sure, but we thought it may be a funeral pyre - it wasnt the official place for it (we're going to see that later tonight) but they were certainly burning bodies - I saw what can only be 2 cremated legs with feet being wrapped up in bamboo. It feels really wrong to gawp at this sight - we left pretty quickly - though it is thoguht to be the most auspicious place to die as it releases you from the cycle of life death and rebirth.
After this we headed back to the hotel roof to see in the new year. We talked to a buddhist brazilian all night and then as midnight roughly approached, we went around saying happy new year to everyone and then all climbed the stairs to the highest point. THe roof of the hotel next door was also filled with people playing bollywood music and dancing to us, precariously balanced on the sides of walls which must be more than 200 ft above the river!
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Claire
non-member comment
Happy New Year
Hello you two, you made it!!! We were talking about you on new year and hoping that you made it somewhere nice. Sorry to hear about the bellies - travelling wouldn't be the same without it - hope you get better soon. Hope you got my card before you left. Love and hugs Clairexxx