As an addendum to last nights ceremony on the Ganges, it was called the Ganga Aarti.
I have arisen at 4am and I have scrambled onto an old wooden boat and watched the sun rising over the Ganges. I have certainly done things once again that I would never otherwise have done and that I will certainly never do again in my life, but the experience is visceral.
We again walked down to the river, this time in a different part. The first thing you notice is that there are piles of what looks like rubbish and little bonfires still smouldering everywhere. When you take a second look you realise it is last night’s bodies/ ashes. Some even slightly recognisable. Amongst all this the dogs scavenge and even the odd cow stiffs around. A little further up men are vigorously pounding at the washing. We scramble down to the waters edge and then have to get on a boat…I won’t go into that again, suffice to say it ain’t easy!!
The boat puttered along the river with the sun rising, many people submerging themselves into the mirky, polluted water, others doing very energetic yoga exercises, others meditating, praying…a hive of activity along the banks. The holiest of holies was smouldering away with all the bodies burned from the night before. Wood piled along the banks for the burning of the bodies. We were given gruesome details of some of the rituals that I won’t go into.
The boat docked again after a few hours and then it was take a leap of faith and jump off into the mud…but there were plenty of people to offer assistance. Up the bloody steps of the Ghat but I have a much younger buddy now, Linda, who happily helps when I need her.
We then returned to the hotel for breakfast and to catch out breath (and enough time to buy a shirt in the hotel shop). Then we set off again, going to the Bharat Mata Mandir (Mother India) Temple, dedicated not to a god but to India as it once was/ should be, which includes Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Nepal etc. The floor is covered with a relief map of India carved out of marble.
From there we drove around the Hindu University and to go to another temple but it was closed for the lunch hour and I must admit that there wasn’t too much regret about that. We went to what the guide (Hassan) described as the best sweet shop in India. He bought some sweets for us to try. Then back for lunch and out again now for another little adventure. Most people are saying how tired they are after the 4am wake up call but I’m reasonably chipper. A sneaky little G&T at lunchtime helped.
This afternoon we set off again in the bus and went to Sarnath, which, you’ll be very pleased to know, is where the Lord Buddha delivered his first sermon and started Buddhism. There were ruins and a Stupa (just like Sri Lanka) dating back to 3rd C BC. We then went to an Archeological Museum which had a whole lot of interesting ancient sculptures. The bloody kerfuffle getting into a museum is hard to believe. It takes ages as we have to get lockers for bags, hand in mobile phones etc…honestly not sure if it was worth it. Then we went to a Sri Lankan Temple covered in paintings by some Japanese artist. Some of the group were really, really flagging at this point and were mumbling about not going to this temple. It was 5pm and we’d been on the go since 4am. A vote was taken and we went!!
I have to say at this point that apart from the difficulty I have with big steps both on land and at sea, I am holding up really well. Better than lots of people a lot younger. I keep up and can honestly say that I cope with all the walking really well.
Then last stop for the day was a stop at a silk weaving factory. This really didn’t interest me at all but I have to say that the work was magnificent and there were some really lovely things and I have to confess I succumbed to a little shopping.
Back to the hotel for dinner. It was one groupies 60th birthday so we had a cake like good little groupies. Then a couple of my NBFs and I had a few G&Ts which put us in a good mood for bed…a bed that is long overdue.
Tomorrow we don’t have to have our cases downstairs until 10am for a flight to Khajuraho where we stay 1 night and visit a whole lot of World Heritage Site Temples.
So until tomorrow…with lots of love XXXXXX