Day 6
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Day 6: Wednesday 4th December

Cockroach omelette for Chris; drive to Mirzapur: Thugee Temple; board boats on Ganges beside French.

Breakfast in the associated restaurant-house. Scrambled egg a la cockroach for Chris, served up by a manic Clare. An assembly of four or five 4-wheel-drives arrive, and park beside the hotel, ready for our transfer to the Ganges at considerable speed (I'm in the front of ours with Sally, Frances and Jo behind, and Fun Chok and Ten Sing in the back (who'll accompany us on the Ganges sailing). My stomach is in an absolute knot - I'd never experienced the effects of Imodium before... now I know... wow!!

The itinerary - as Clare points out - is wrong at this point: "The morning is left free..." is simply not true.

Alison, Carolyn, Alex, and Clare, in another 4WD, drive over a dog.

We arrive at Mizrapur. While the luggage is transferred to the boats, we go to the Vindachal 'Thugee' Temple, which is up a hill through a small market road. The area around the temple is wet (and, possibly, muddy), so we're all a bit dainty getting our shoes off.

The tour culminates in us visiting the core shrine, which is a cramped cube with massive queue inside - not suitable for claustrophobics! We join the end of the snaking queue, and Clare tries to get us 'expressed' through to no avail. At the end of the queue is the shrine itself, with a 'holy' man inside. He's given 100Rs for all of us by Clare ("For all" she states, gesticulating over the whole group) - the normal tip in the jar inside the shrine is a coin, 5Rs note, or, at a maximum, 10Rs, so for 10 of us it's generous. But, in India, no place is 'sacred', literally: he then goes on to demand 100Rs from each of us as we file past!! Carolyn: "Very bizarre!".

We voyage back down the hill through the market, selling (amongst other things) snakes-in-a-basket (not exactly akin to chicken-in-a-bucket), down the bank of the Ganges, and to the boats.

There is a lengthy departure at the riverside. We're departing at the same time (almost) as a group of French tourists (complete with their considerable luggage). Clare gets in there and selects the best boats first. The eventual rowing departure appears to have the whole village out - what a send-off!!!

Stop soon after for lunch. My knotted stomach prevents admission of food, so I resort to a banana and fluids!!

Gill and Chris (a rower!) take to the oars after lunch. Dolphins swim around in the river, and the pace is an amazing contrast to the manic life on the shore (sigh).

Phrase for Today: "My grandmother has fallen over a donkey".

Then there is setting up camp on the beach beside the Ganges. I have my own tent, like Alex, Clare and Frances, only mine's set away from the others due to fear of snoring. I help to put mine up - it all works really well!

Once the tents and toilet (a hole with footpads and tent!) are up, we sit down for dinner, and as the night creeps in we end up round the campfire. I talk to Clare and Fun Chok, from Ladakh, who's off to France in Feb/Mar for 6 months of French language (he does a lot of French tours). Bed at a chilly 12:30am.