A Boat ride on the Ganga

Then later that evening we booked to take a boat trip on the Ganga to watch the ceremonies of the burning of the dead plus some Harry Krishna chanting, at this time you see lots of boats on the river, we were just praying that the boats were built well enough that there was no chance of it sinking and us getting submerged into this stinky river.  We get mozied up and covered up and off we go, as we were headed down the stairs i saw the lady wiping the marble steps and before I knew it, boom, off I went down, and hard, I landed right on my spine and to save myself I reached my right arm out to grab the railing and wrenched it, i ended up in a heap at the bottom of the stairs and burst into tears, I could hear Trev saying oh my god are you ok, the cleaning lady by this time had run to get the manager and then came back to rub my back, she felt so bad.  I couldn’t decide what i had done, i knew i landed on my spine but my arm socket hurt the most and i grazed my left hand, I finally stopped crying and started laughing cause I could see Trev was freaking out, he had visions of having to fly me home with a broken back, after all marble stairs are not very forgiving.  I got up and walked down the rest of the stairs and the manager  insisted I lie down for a bit before heading off on the boat trip, god I felt sick, I got a huge egg appear on my spine and was just hoping all my body parts were just bruised but still intact.

Well although a bit shaky, off we went for the boat ride, it was amazingly relaxing actually, being rowed down the river, a lovely warm breeze blowing and all these tiny lights floating around which are offerings from the people from the shore plus it was dark so the river didn’t look so bad.  Lots of people on the shore and on the water in boats, chanting from the Krishna bunch and all these tiny candles floating very lovely, until that is the “rain” of bugs appeared and we had to cover our mouths, Trev got a great night shot of the bugs there were millions of them.  

All in all, Varanasi is a must see on a visit to India but prepare yourself for a cultural shock.

Me after my mighty fall looking a little pale!