We continued on upstream and saw many devotees bathing
and cleansing in the water, as part of their morning rituals. The men went
into the Ganges waters 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 wood in
the open.
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.
