We piled onto our row boat again and headed down toward the southern end of the Ganges, the main cremation site. The fires were nearly out and the workers from the lowest caste were dousing the sites with water from the river. Others were setting up fresh pyres for the waiting bodies lined up along the steps. 

We continued down the river and saw many devotees bathing, cleansing, in the water, as part of their morning rituals. The men went in wearing a diaper-like cloth, called a dadi, while the women seemed to go in fully dressed in their saris.

Further down, there were many men and women doing laundry and some were working for the hotels as the sheets were laid out along the steps to dry. |One man had quite a rhythm with each piece of clothing -- two light swing slaps followed by one heavy beat. These were then thrown onto a large catch-all cloth on the bank to be laid out to dry. 

Towards the end of our run, we saw a temple specifically used by Indians from the south of India. Some were performing their morning rituals while others were climbing up the long set of steps to the temple. We got off at the end of the run where there was an electric crematorium, for use during the monsoon season when it is impossible to burn.

We walked back to where our tuk-tuks were parked. Parry took us to a little restaurant for breakfast. It usually wasn't open for business until 10 am, but bringing in 15 customers was hard to resist. They did a skillet breakfast, pancakes, etc. Bill had a very nice cheese omelet and Sue-On had a skillet with grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, and hash browns. It was then back to the hotel and at 10, Sue-On went with a group via tuk-tuk to the silk village to see how the silk fabric is woven. The group was met by a little old man who apologized for his broken English, but he was actually pretty good.

There are many different "homes/buildings" where the work was done. The first place showed a man sitting on the floor, working with a hammer and hole punch, almost like the old computer programming cards. These helped the weavers control the colour threads on the loom. They had to know the patterns and multi-task. 

The noise was horrendous and as always there was garbage and cow pies everywhere, even in front of the main "showroom." It was interesting to see the whole process, then we were shown lots of beautiful silk bedspreads, shawls, etc., in various grades of silk. The best was taffeta and one beautiful one was very tempting but it was had to justify spending +$300 USD PLUS 850 rupees for shipping and handling.

Back at the hotel some of our crew went to a Bollywood movie (a drama). We opted to stay in the room and sleep! It was another great day, and we are winding down to the end of the first Northern leg of our India Encompassed trip.