Oh the Things I've Seen!



Sunset on the Ganga River.



Slowly, slowly we are making our way up the Ganges river. Every day has been different. And oh, the things I have seen! There is almost no way to see this part of India by way of land. It's extremely difficult to get to these spots via terra firma. Here are a few of the sights I've seen and things I've experienced along the Mother Ganga:

*   Hot pink goats in the villages. They're painted bright pink and in various patterns so they are easily identifiable.

*    Seventy species of birds. Among my favorites are the Black Ibis with its long curved beak and the golden colored Brahminy ducks.
* Entering the Ganga via a lock from a smaller feeder river. Until this boat began sailing last year, the lock had been closed for 40 years.

The decorated feet of a young village girl.

*     Cremations, Hindu celebrations of life and death. I saw four simultaneous cremations with a fifth body being transported atop a bus. 

*    Sitting on the stupa of a ninth century Buddhist University and watched the sun set on the Ganga. I longed to spend the night in that peaceful place among the ruins.

*    I watched a big black water snake swimming toward the boat.

*    Limestone statues of the goddess Tara. The carving was exquisite.

A couple of goats kidding around.

*    A ferry boat crossing the Ganga jammed with passengers and a horse.

   *     The most magnificent and glorious sunset  on the Ganga. It was my first after we entered the main river. The reflection of the sun on the water was the color of pure gold, the sun itself was a deep bright orange and the sky was lit with pink. I understood the essence of the word Glorious.

* Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of open-billed storks roosting in trees on an island with a century-old temple

*     A woman balancing a green gourd the size of a watermelon on her head. 

*     A village festival where there were dozens of water buffalo, their horns painted a deep red.

*     A child of less than three staring at me with a combination of horror, confusion, and fear. It was clear he thought I was an interloping alien.

*    Twelfth century terra cotta temples with carvings of daily and heavenly life.

*     Riding in old fashioned horse-drawn tongas.

*    A palace in Murshidabad built by one of the last Nawabs filled with art treasures from the early 19th century.

*    Baby goats butting heads.

*    Sending candles and marigolds downstream on the Ganges for Diwali. I watched the lights float into what seemed eternity.

More to come...