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Dawn on the Ganga We only would have one morning in Varanasi (Benares), the holiest city in India. Day suggested we take a early morning boat trip on the Mother Ganga, to watch the sun rise over the ghats, the steps that lead down from the city to the water. |
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Our boatman acted as tour guide on the easy downstream leg of the trip. He was tickled when Day could converse in rudimentary Hindi. The upstream pull took him twice as long, and left him puffing. He stopped briefly for a bit of the chew that many Indian men indulge in, a mixture of tobacco, betel (a mild narcotic) and quicklime, so we're told. |
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Every devout Hindu hopes to make a pilgrimage to Varanasi at least once in their life, to bathe in the holy Ganga. We tourists were properly respectful and quiet, unlike the locals, who shouted, laughed, hawked products and generally carried on with life. |
The dhobi-wallahs --washermen-- at work. They will each wash and air-dry several hundred pieces of clothing in a day |
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