Ma Ganges...

January 24th

Got up really late this morning, and then we went out to have lunch at our “regular” spot, and then we hiked down to the Ganges and played in and around the river. It was really lovely. I really love the river – I can see why it is a holy river – it felt so peaceful around the banks.
We were in a pretty secluded area – hardly anyone else around – I saw one person sleeping across the river in a sort of camp, his clothes drying on the tree nearby. We met one person on the path while we were walking down, and a man in an orange or yellow sweater showed up on the rocks at one point, but that was it. Oh yeah, and a raft full of people floated by, too.

I got another makeover today, too, at the restaurant. I got my hair braided, eye makeup, and brighter lipstick, this time, plus the lipstick in a line on my forehead – married women wear bright red pigment just below their hair on their forehead. Got my nails done, too…
Mike brought his Ipod player along, so we got to have a break from the “Wrong number” song for a little bit – but they did play it every chance they got. We all put our feet in the water – it was COLD!

I went down to the river feeling like I wanted to bring something back with me, and when I got there, all I wanted was to give things to the river. I brought back nothing, except photographs and memories (but I guess that counts as something).

We stopped for tea at our restaurant before going back to the hotel.
(Hukam and Lata photo collage from the 24th - clockwise-ish from large center photo: On rock in the Ganges; Dancing on rocks at the Ganges; Washing feet in the holy river; Lata making designs in the sand; Giving money to the river; Lata climbing up cliffsides; Finding walking sticks; Dancing on the sand; Dancing on rocks. They wanted many photos - Hukam would tell me "Take! Take!" when he wanted me to take their photo, or thought I should be taking a photo of something... )