Mother Ganges

I've got to tell you about the Indian people and the River Ganges. People believe so intently that Mother Ganges cleanses not only their bodies but also their souls. We witnessed hundreds and hundreds of people washing their clothes and themselves in it. Our guide Pintoo Pandy ( we nicknamed him Andy) took us along the river on our first night in Varanasi, he kindly offered to moor up the boat and get us some chai (tea) we thought this was a nice touch, and guessed he'd paid with our money for 4 including the boatman. On the last evening we took a boat in the opposite direction, just below the burning area (all day cremations) we saw a man washing out a very large kettle in the river, and then filling it up. We watched in horror as he walked to a tea stand!,

Pintoo (Brahmin Hindu)

We watched people cleaning their teeth and generally abluting; when we told Tim Shackly (our doctor) we were going for a dip he said "oh good, that'll be two patients off my list"

The Burning Place

We were surprised the different races and creeds, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists & Jews all live in relative harmony at the moment and all believe in the benefits of Ma Ganges. 

It all seems to defy logic, the river is quite heavily polluted, a lady told me there was a buffalo floating; there are lots of fish in there, the fishermen do ok from it, but it can't possibly be safe to drink, and oh my Lord I hope we didn't. 

When we were witnessing a cremation, something I really didn't want to see but Pintoo insisted, a family member of the deceased threw a leg bone ino the river and Richard was heard to sing, "and that's not connected to the thigh bone"!,,sorry :)