3rd feb - varanasi

Got up before dawn tody (for real) and took an early morning boat ride along the Ganges which apparently is a must-do. wasn't massively impressed (things where i have to get up while its dark have to be REALLY good) and was kind of overshadowed by the massive row den had (he's my money man) with the boat dude. They seem to try and do this thing where you arrange a price for 2 of you and then afterwards they try nd say it was for only 1. v annoying. so den refused to pay him any more at which point the man (stupidly i thought) shoved den back the money. so no our problem, took the money and went back to our hotel. aha but the saga doesn't end there, apparently the boat dude then regretted this impulsive attempt at a guilt trip and hung round our hotel...as did his rower and someone who i think was his wife! so den had another fight with him. we happened to e moving hotels that day anyways siince our one was full and we couldn't gt an extra night. approached on our way out an indian guy with good english who wanted to know what had happened (honestly it really did go on and on) he seemed to think the boat dude was a bit of a nut job and we went about our merry way. a piss off though and leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth, even though you do nothing wrong. think just all of that stuff and the touts and beggars etc etc leaves you feeling a bit negative. in light of this we stopped by at a market (btw new hotel VERY nice and no hint of militarianism) and got sonme peas in their pods and sat down along the ghats and ate them. some little kids came up trying their usual thing so gave them a pea pod each and they all seemed very happy with this...and the goats and THEIR kids munhced up the pods VERY happily as well. had a chat with a 15 y/o guy with very good english. he did think i was far too old to not be married and have children. tho i spose 25 sounds old to any 15 year old, women in varanasi tend to be married at 17...men at 22. though there seemed to be no problem with den being almost 30 and not married! in most places i have been referring to den as my husband tho (NOT IN A BUNNY BOILER WAY!!) and you tend to get more respect and less questions. funnily enough den wasn't too sure about this at first :P but is seeing the merits in it now. moved ourselves and our peas to some higher steps and watched some young guys play cricket. if you hit it into the water, you're out! and then you have to grovel at one of the bathers to go and get it for you.