Washing in the Ganges

Day 8 of our India trip.

We left the hotel early this morning to go back down to the ghats (the steps down to the Ganges).  It was quite a different atmosphere from the previous evening - much quieter, but there were still holy men performing their rituals. 

As we took a boat out on the river, we could see the many faithful washing themselves in the holy water.  There were also people doing their laundry on the river bank - scrubbing the clothes and bedding with the Ganges water, and then beating the washing on the rocks.  It is quite harsh treatment - I can't see the items being laundered surviving many such washes. It would also put me off staying in guest houses near the river:  our guide said that the cheaper guest houses can't afford washing machines, and so give their laundry to these people to wash in the Ganges water:  I'm really not sure I want to sleep between sheets washed in that water!

We spent much of the afternoon relaxing beside the pool in the hotel.  Our guide discovered that our train back to New Delhi was running late (just like our previous train from Agra), so we delayed our departure from the hotel until much later.  By chance, this also gave us the opportunity to enjoy a couple of noisy wedding processions arriving at the hotel, with somewhat tuneless brass bands and pyrotechnics which defied all normal health and safety rules.

A late departure to the station.  (More of this tomorrow!).

An interesting, clean new look to the Blipfoto site. To see the picture full screen, click on the arrow symbol under the bottom right of the picture (or click here to open in a new tab).

Back blipped after my return to the UK as I had limited editing facilities with me and intermittent access to wifi.