Varanasi 5th March

Hi,

First of all our linen suits are a big hit (amongst us anyway). In the street they seem to only attract laughter from small children rather than repelling the grouts.

The Taj Mahal was amazing, and just about made up for Agra being the biggest dive we've ever visited. The train station (where we hid for a lot of the day) was exciting although during dull moments I/Kieran entertained the locals by provoking the monkeys into a frenzy. Basically I offered it a bottle thinking it would do something amusing with it or at worst run away, at which point he decided he was a lot harder than me and chased me half way down the platform.

We opted for second/ghetto class on the sleeper train to Varanasi and it was more comfortable than expected. Our concerns regarding James' snoring were confirmed when a very calm looking Buddhist lady started ferociously slapping his bunk during the early hours for the unholy noises he was making ("it's just a cold"). So far we have strolled across the Ghats and absorbed the sights of burning corpses and cowshit and even taken a night time boat trip. Apparently there are dolphins about (not cute - blind and probably horrifically mutated) but unfortunately we haven't spotted any yet.

Today we took a seven hour tour of the nearby Hindu temples and also the birthplace of Buddhism (which was nice). Anywho, we're pretty sure two of the "crazy monkeys" (as the staff call them) on our balcony have taken a particular disliking to eachother so, naturally, we're off to stir it up.

KJT (innit)