We got off our boat in the Ganges in mid-evening yesterday, but we were right back out on the Ganges River before sunrise this morning. We traveled the same route to get there as the night before, but there were very few people up this morning and the streets were empty. The river banks and ghats were also much less crowded this morning. Many, but not all, of the ghats had activities under way at them. It was also much quieter than last night. Still, some ghats had bells and music and chanting with priests doing a welcoming the sun ceremony. We saw plenty of bathers (see first photo), including both individuals and groups. Small numbers of people were swimming and a few looked to be swimming across the whole river which is quite wide in Varanasi. One common and very loud activity along the river was clothes washing which you can see in the second photo. Our guide said these guys don’t use soap, they just beat the clothes on flat rocks which is really loud. We saw yoga being done (see third photo) in small and large groups.

People were meditating singly and in small groups. Chanters were out in good numbers which included boats full of chanters with “OM” being the most popular chant. Hawkers were everywhere including in boats selling flowers, candles, incense, and souvenirs. We saw lots of monkeys and dogs running all about as well as some cows and goats. Many people were feeding the fish and seagulls, both from shore and from boats. I believe that the thinking there was that people thought they might be a fish or seagull in their next life and figured that they would need food. There was definitely more than a hundred boats in the river which included both locals and tourists. The Ganges was again full of floating flower candles. Added to all this was the sun rising on the east side of the Ganges. There is no development on the eastern side of the Ganges, so we had an unobstructed view to watch the rising sun.

The next photo is a boat full of women who were chanting – “OM”. They were very friendly and smiled and waved at us when we passed them. Another great item that Vicky caught in this photo was the pink tower on the right side of the photo. Both the night before and today, our local guide said that we could only take photos up to the pink tower. The cremation ghat was just the other side of the pink tower and we were not allowed to take photos right in front of the cremation ghat. The night before, our local guide had told us that, but it was dark so the tower looked dark. In the daylight, we could see that it was in fact pink. We could also read the writing on the tower and discovered that this is the water intake pipe structure for the water company in Varanasi. I couldn’t believe that the water company’s intake valve was right next to the cremation ghat. We asked about that and our local guide laughed. Our regular guide kept offering us the “opportunity” to bathe in the Ganges. Hindus believe that bathing in the Ganges remits all their sins. Hindus all try to bathe in the Ganges at least once in their lives. At this point, our local guide just kept on laughing as our main guide kept trying to get us to take a bath in the Ganges. Our local guide finally said that yes, this is the water intake valve for all the water in Varanasi, so when we took our shower in our hotel room this morning, we had in fact bathed in the Ganges.

In the next photo, you can see Vicky in our boat on the Ganges while several boats around us were feeding the sea gulls and other birds.

The last photo was the same ghat where we watched the Aarti Ceremony the night before. It was on the left side of the photo. We came down both last night and this morning and got into a boat in the area right about in the center of this photo.