Varanasi Christmas

Checking into the very obvious guide book favourite was the right move for Christmas, lots of travellers have come together here and on Christmas Eve about ten of us had a party and created a Varanassi Christmas ritual. We built a focal point using a set of Russian dolls painted as Santa, and anyting sparkly we could find, in the middle of this we placed a little wooden candle stand that said "merry christmas" in German, which Sara's aunty had given her to bring out for Christmas. Our ritual was to each light the four birthday candles in the stand, blow them out quickly and make a wish. The wish I made that was nobody would get sick though our celebrations; apart from the effects of the 8% Kingfisher beer, everyone I have seen today has been alright, wonderfully the South African guy in the room nextdoor who has been ill for two days is also better and smiling again!

Christmas day has been a really relaxed affair, I wondered the Ghats with Julian from Essex who has been cycling around the world for over a year. It was really relaxing to just wander the full length of the Ghats, stand in awe, take photos and chat in lazy English knowing you would still be understood! We are staying at the North end of the city and at the southern end we stopped for Pizza under a Christmas tree, I went all out and had extra cheese, it was delicious although the beer last night followed by the pizza today has bloated me to excess and its a bit uncomfortable! In fact that could also be because I have eaten 3 times today and we are probably going to eat again later once a few of us have been to the train station to get our onward journeys arranged. Varanassi has served up probably my most enjoyable day in India so far, so a fitting Christmas day far far away.

I feel Happy!