Spirit of India

Last night the sunset boat ride - this morning the sunrise one *yawn*!! However it was beautiful. The mist was completely down over the river at the beginning but as the sun rose we could see more and more. The activity is tremendous. Lots of people bathing in the holy river (although its so polluted I can't think of anything I'd rather do less!!) and washer men already at work on the clothes.

Apparently washing your clothes in the holy water does good things for your spirit too.

After the boat ride, we wandered by foot back up through the ghats to the market place to have a look at the saris.

We spent the afternoon at another Bollywood movie - this time Jodhaa Akbar telling the love story of a Muslim moghul and his Hindi bride - and all the obstacles this created. Good movie - and despite not understanding a word, its amazing how much of the story we correctly deduced from the actions.

Another bus this morning, to Varanasi. This time its a 'deluxe' bus which I guess only means there are no passengers standing in the aisles. Everyone has a seat - although they are narrow and rather uncomfortable for the nearly 4 hour journey!! But hey it gets us there in one piece so no complaints :-)

We went this afternoon to visit a silk factory in the Muslim quarter of the city and of course purchase a few items as mementos of the trip. The city is famous for its silk production - they have 12000 factories here and employee thousands more workers in the industry.

Later in the day we jumped into rickshaws and made our way through crowded streets to the Assi Ghat. A ghat is a series of steps leading down to the Ganga River where predominantly pilgrims bathe. There are something like 108 ghats in Varanasi along this river - we will see only 30 - 40 on the boat rides we have in the next couple of days.

Tonight's is a sunset trip and we light candles and set them on the water to make a floating river of little lights as we head up the river. We also watch a prayer ceremony which involves much incense, bells, drums and co-ordinated movement between the seven 'priests' performing the ceremony.

Another long trip across the country side to Allahabad. Quite a big city - and Karen thinks it might be home to some of the international cricket - so obviously a main city in India!

We visited the home of the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru and looked through the associated museum related to his life. We took the rickshaws down to the river on the way home. Allahabad is the confluence of two rivers - Ganga and Yamuna. The mystical river Sarasvati is also said to merge here - the confluence of these three is said ot enhance the purifying power of these sacred rivers and so makes this an ideal place to wash away a lifetimes sins - maybe i should dive in :-)

Early start this morning as we get a boat ride on the river before we leave. Best time is early in the morning, and we see a kingfisher, an owl and an eagle - as well as scores of other more common birds. Beautiful and calm and can barely hear the traffic from the bridge across the river a few km's downstream!!

Long ride across country to Chitrakoot. The land is greener now that we are further south and more grass and trees lining the roadside - but there are still people and villages everywhere!

We visited a museum dedicated to the myth/legend of Rama and Sita - Rama is one of the incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu so has a strong place in Hindu religion. I'll explain the story another day - its a long one - but the translations of it were written in Hindi and English so quite easy to follow most of it along.

Chitrakoot is the site of of many pilgrimages to the river so we had a quick boat ride down it to see if anything was going on - prayer rituals etc. but a quiet day here so we'll wait for Varanasi to see the pilgrims in action.

Wasn't quite sure why we were moving hotels today as Ken River is only 45mins up the road and would have been easily accessible on a day trip - but thats till we got to the lodge. Set back from the roadside, our accommodation tonight is by the cleanest most beautiful river setting that I've seen in India. If it was warmer, you could definitely tempt me with a dip in the water.

The lodge was rebuilt three years ago after flooding and they have separate adobe (mud) cabins with roof top balcony for each of us.

After a spot of lunch, we're off for a ride through the Panna Tiger Reserve - in the hope again of seeing tigers and leopards. However, unlike our last safari a few weeks ago, it seems that the guides aren't really looking for big animals - but are more intent on showing us the birds (and there are heaps of unusual ones) and deer. Turns out later that there aren't actually any tigers in this tiger park - which also explains why there aren't as many jeeps chasing each other around the roads as at Ranthambhore. However, its a nice afternoon spent outdoors in the sun and still very interesting.