Mon 19/01/04 I got up early in the morning for my boat ride on the Ganges. It was a foggy morning, so unfortunately I didn't get to see the sunrise, the fog certainly added to the atmosphere of the day. From the clothes washers thrashing clothes on slabs, to the funeral pyres and the boats stacked full of wood. The people bathing in and drinking the water, to the tourists, it was all incredible. Here's a short piece of prose..                             Ganges           A rabid dog feasting on the rotting corpse,           Of a dead pig, washed up by the putrid, faecal waters           Of you, Holy Ganges. Probably not going to go down in history for that one! Anyway, I went to a couple of temples afterwards. My guide was helpful, and mentioned a couple of interesting things, such as that Hinduism like Christianity has a trinity. Om is the word for this joint godhead, and the individual Gods are just different personalities of the same thing. bought a silk table cloth and posted it home (looks very good on my wall!). Tuesday 20/01/04 Had a lazy breakfast and watched TV before checking out at noon. Settled my bill, and left my bag in their cloakroom whilst I sat out on the lawn reading, and planning the next few days.A Dutch couple turned up in a huge camper van that they had obvioulsy driven over from Holland, but I never got a chance to chat to them. At the train station, I had a long wait for the train. There was an ace announcement though.. 'The 22.20 Howrah train is running .... indefinately .... late, and will arrive ... later ' A reasonably entertaining wait, watching the odd rat put in a celebrity appearance, and of course the cows leaving huge dollops of poo all over the platform. Got talking to another Christian religious sort, who gave me a pamphlet, which was just as well, because I was running low on toilet paper. Wed 21/01/04 Another long journey, and the Indian railway system kept to their unwritten policy of ignoring the timetable. Caught a bicycle rickshaw in Satna to the bus stand, and then got on an extrememely crowded bus to Khajorho. A jeep ride into the town, and straight into a nice and cheap hotel room, where I decided to have a chill out day. Thursday 22/01/04 After a good breakfast, I went to see the western group of temples, which I have to say were pretty impressive. Just why they were all built in this one, out of the way place is a mystery. My answer to it is that it was a builders display for people from other towns to come and choose the temple they wanted to build in their home towns! A lot of them had erotic sculptures lining the walls. Again, a group of random Indians asked to take my photo, and I got an equally bemused tourist to take a photo of them with me as well. I spent the evening playing chess with a couple of locals and drinking chai.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   I spent the next couple of days chilling out, and taking various trains to get to Amritsar, which you can read in the next section.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          To continue reading this travelogue Click here Or Click here for the home page ____________________________________________________________________________________________________