Because of the Shiva festival I decided to do a short side trip to Sarnath. All the temples in Varanasi are lit up like xmas trees and have a marshall stack out the front with **** hindi music blasting out. Most also have a Buba out the front to collect the donations. The auto I took was like a mobile boom box. The driver insisted on playing **** hindi music at full volume right near my head. To be fair he stopped and changed to equally **** 'western' music when we were half way there. Quick lesson in Buddhism. Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal, near where I went swimming with elephants a few weeks ago. He gained enlightenment at Bodhgaya, gave his first teachings at Sarnath and died somewhere else. (cant remember where) End of lesson. All four places are considered to be sacred. Sarnath is just like any other sacred site in India. You have to pay an entrance fee after you have negotiated the guides, food sellers, offering sellers and trinket sellers. There are a lot of temples built by other countries in the style of their country so they are OK to look at, all being different. The ruins of the old town have been excavated and one of the stupa's is said to have been 100mtr tall when it was built. On the way back some young boys stopped the auto and stuck their head in demanding a donation of 5000rp for the monkey temple. I told them to shove it and the donation came down to 50rp. I told them to f...off and the price came down to 5rp. They got nothing. I saw the monkey temple yesterday and was not going to pay today. On the way back we went through a few police road blocks by going down some dodgy back alleys. Because of Shiva festival a lot of roads are blocked off to traffic. Eventually we got caught and the cop stood in front of auto so we couldnt go any further so I had to walk. I must be putting the weight back on cos I keep buying food. When Im walking along I see all this food and it is soooo cheap I just keep buying it. Garam samosa mmmm. Walked down the ghats and saw a funny sight. A sadhu, usual sadhu, dressed in undies, covered in ash, wearing millions of beads, top knot on head and stupid designs painted on forehead was sitting down having ciggie break. When I got closer I noticed we was talking to someone on his mobile phone. I thought sadhu meant holy man but it seems it is something different here. The Germans and Japanese seem to love taking pictures of these "holy men" and they love having their picture taken.......for baksheesh.......a donation. Believe me they complain if the donation is not big enough. I think they are on to something. Seems to me to be a prety easy job. Im on the overnight train to Agra tonight, stay 1 night then late train to Delhi. Just uploaded pics for the last 2 entries and will try for Kirtipur.