Ganga Views

A collection of photos from my former Ganga-side room...
You can click on any photo to see a larger version.

I love this boat. My friends Liz & Barry used a photo of this boat for their engagement party - "Sailing off on new journey together" or something like that. The sail seems to be patched together from about 20 pieces of fabric.

Wide-angle with the same sailboat.

View of Varanasi on a clear day.

Pilgrims bathing in Ganga and washing their saris.

For most of February there was a flock of seagulls on the river - something I've never seen before. They were in the habit of picking one boat to flap around, and dogging that boat all the way down the river. My friend Mai said it was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. My theory is that a few of them would come to the boat looking for food, then others would see the small gathering and go to join it. Once it reached critical mass that unlucky group of pilgrims was condemned to a view of a cloud of seagulls for the whole boat-ride.

Some sadhus came to Varanasi after the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad and set up these tents on this island.

The same "island" two weeks later, after the pre-Holi rainstorm. They packed up their tents the day before, in strong winds.

Giving the bicycle a holy wash. "Now how do I get the Hero Honda down here...?"

A herd of water-buffalo swimming up the river. I saw them swimming near Dasaswamedh Ghat all the way to their usual bathing spot in front of my house on Narad Ghat, so they came at least 500m. They obviously knew where they were headed too.

Varanasi by night. Sorry about the blur. Note the cluster of candles floating on the river.

The Ramayana boat-procession on Ram Navmi. This is an annual event, with actors on each boat presenting a scene from the Ramayana. Sorry my camera's not good enough to show any close-ups.

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