Tuesday : fine

We were up and ready for our row boat no problems this morning. The streets were much quieter, but people still weren't afraid to use their horns.

We shared the boat this morning with four other people, unlike last night where we had it all to ourselves. At the start, the boat was a power boat, so our guide was quiet because we wouldn't of been able to here him over the motor. But then on the return the motor was turned off and we used the current to bring us back.

A lot more people bathing and praying today, using all the ghats. Even people doing their laundry and yoga. No cremations today, lucky we went for a row last night to see what goes on. We were told that they don't cremate people who have leprosy, chicken pox, have been bitten by a snake, are pregnant or are under ten years of age. Or if you are too poor to afford the ceremony and the timber. You simply get wrapped up and thrown into the river, and weighted down with a large rock. Mafia style, we saw no floating bodies in the daylight today, we did see a lot off people swimming far out off shore though. They believe so highly of this river, that it can cure cancer and other diseases, purifies your soul, that it even cleans itself and has no bacteria. That last one is very hard to believe, studies have proven otherwise too. There is no way I would take a dip, especially close to shore, there are 116 towns on the Ganges and not one of them protects the Ganges from their raw sewage, Kim saw our guide get a mouth full of water, hopefully he doesn't get sick. He probably does it everyday though.

After our drift down the Ganges we pulled a shore, and had a walk about the old town. Where 90% of homes are old temples, some are sinking into the river too. We then went into the crematorium, and I was positive we shouldn't of been there. We were so close to the piles of ash, that were being swept up, so close we could smell some funny smells, and feel the heat still. They had a fire there too that never goes out, and is said to have been started by the god Shiva. Bodies wrapped up and laying on the steps of the ghats, and probably a son of one of the bodies getting his head shaved. The sons of the deceased get their heads shaved, we had a guide that wanted to show us everything.

Next we walked through the Galis (small lanes & alleys) dodging pilgrims, scooters and soft rocks. We made our way to a temple which had a tower made of 24 carrot gold and weighs 920kgs. The security there was tight, we had to leave our possessions outside in the guides friends shop. There is a Muslim temple next door and the Hindu temple has had it's fair share if attacks. It seems to be all ok between the Hindus and Muslims out on the streets, but I reckon things happen behind close doors most Def. Once inside the complex there were people giving offerings of money, drinks and flowers to the gods, got to see a lot of pink lotus flowers being sold.

After that we had to collect our things from the shop, and again as predictable as always they tried to sell us things. Why does every guide have to do this, try and force us to buy things, by taking us to a shop. They all do so well, and then they cross the line and become a taxi driver. He had offered us tea, but when it became obvious that we were never going to buy anything the tea never came.

We continued our walk through and out of the narrow maze, glad we went in with someone who knew where they were going, and made it back to the tuk tuk and got taken to our hotel.

We were glad we chose to do both the night and morning Ganga tours, They definitely had different things going on.

Back at the hotel, we had breakfast. It was just a basic breakfast, no buffet here. Then went upstairs and found the wifi working, we made a call to Trina and trent, and checked the emails.Then went into the room to read up on our next move, and watch movies. We planned to speak to Grant about him possibly making a visit to the UK to see us, but when we went out to make the call the wifi didn't work. Strange things happen here with the wifi. The call will have to wait till another time.

We went down to have some dinner then back to the room to keep on relaxing.