The Ganges River, India (1)

This is a misleading title, I admit — because the Ganges is a very very long river, and we're only seeing a relatively small part of it. But anyhoo.

We flew from Jaipur to Kolkata, and we're now in West Bengal. From here, we boarded a ship in Kolkata and will travel up the river for seven days, stopping in various towns and villages. We'll be spending some time in Kolkata after our river trip, so more on Kolkata in a later post.

The Ganges Voyager II is a river ship on the Ganges River. Our tour group is 45 people, and the ship is full. (This one is a bit smaller than our usual 600 passenger ocean liners.) The only other river cruise we’ve done was on the Nile, many years ago, with the boys. This is our route map and ship for the next seven days.

The ship is lovely. There’s a lounge and bar, a dining room, a sundeck, a spa and gym.

And this is our cabin. We enjoyed sitting next to the river, doors open.

The chef talks to every guest to find out about tolerances and preferences, and the food is absolutely outstanding. If you don't like Indian food, there are other options. (In fact, the chef and Ken developed a special bond, and we had specially cooked Indian dishes every evening.) One afternoon we had an Indian cooking lesson, where we learned the correct way to make a tomato-chickpea masala and chai tea. I'm not a fan of milk in tea, but the chickpea dish was excellent and I will be trying it at home.

Staff are very attentive and friendly. There are about 45 staff on the boat, and they were all marvellous. We found the service level throughout India excellent.

Enough ship talk for now. We're in the state of West Bengal, on the east coast of India. But where's East Bengal? Ha, good question. The great state of Bengal was partitioned twice: first by Britain in 1905 (a failure, and it was hastily reunited), then again in 1947 after Indian independence. West Bengal remained in India, but East Bengal became a state of Pakistan called East Pakistan ... far away from Pakistan itself, but there you are. In 1971, following a civil war, East Pakistan became its own independent country called Bangladesh. This is why the map of India has that strange Bangladesh-shaped gap in it — 'Bangladesh' used to be part of Bengal, in India.

We're close to the Bangladesh border, and mobile roaming is restricted. India and its troublesome neighbours once again.

We had a jolly interesting shipboard lecture on the Ganges. The Ganges River begins in the southern Himalayas, near India’s border with Tibet. It originates from a melting glacier in the Himalayas, and will only stop flowing when the glacier is completely melted. Climate change is a concern for India ... 40% of India's population, 500 million people, depend on this river.

The Ganges flows across the northern plains for 2525 km. (I won a shipboard trivia quiz by remembering that number.) Along the way, it's joined by two other big rivers: the Yamuna and the Brahmaputra.

Every point of confluence with the Ganga is a site of pilgrimage for Hindus. The confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna is the location of the biggest Hindu festival — and the largest festival in the world — called Kumbh Mela. Our guide showed us some photos: in 2025, 7 million people attended each day over 45 days. (The total of 660 million seems a bit implausible, but there it is.) It's held every 12 years (and a half Kumbh Mela every 6 years), and people come from all over the world.

The Ganges — called the Padma River once it enters Bangladesh — empties into the Bay of Bengal, in the largest delta in the world. As it approaches the delta (and the Bangladesh border), the Ganges splits into a number of arms. We're on the Lower Ganges, on a bit called the Hooghly River. But that's a British, not an Indian name. To Indians, this is the Ganga.

The Ganges is a sacred river to Hindus for all of its length. Nothing is more significant for a Hindu than a dip in the river to wash away sin. Scattering people's ashes in the river is also important (more on this when we get to Varanasi).

Elephant grass, an Asian grass similar to pampas grass, grows along the river banks. Our journey is very quiet, with only the occasional puttering of a fisherman's outboard motor. Most fishermen row their boats with oars.

We had no rain on our journey but early mornings were quite hazy. This is Ken's photo, that looks like an Impressionist painting. A timeless scene ...

We disembarked at least once every day for some local exploring. The first stop on our cruise was Kalna, a small riverside town. Getting off the ship is carefully orchestrated: we leave some ‘house shoes’ at the ship’s entrance so that when we return, we can take off our grubby shoes and the staff can clean them. Don't you love the bamboo handrail held by the crew?

We’re welcomed on shore by a posse of dogs and goats, and a fleet of totos, the local name for tuktuks. There's lots of water, obviously, because we're very close to the river.

It’s hot and humid, about 31 degrees, but not as hot and humid as Darwin. However, we have been asked to cover our bodies as we’re going to a temple that has a dress code. So we’re all sweltering in long pants and shirts.

The Rajbari temple complex has the highest number and most unique mixture of temples in this region. Before we head into the temple complex, I’ll summarise our guide Partha’s introduction to Hinduism. All errors mine, obvs.

The Hindu faith has three main gods: Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the preserver and protector; and Shiva, the destroyer. Temples are dedicated to Vishnu or Shiva, but not to Brahma (because he is already in each of us, his creation). Vishnu has many incarnations, the most well-known being Krishna and Buddha.

Hinduism believes in reincarnation: we are in this body, but we have been reborn many times. Our guide KK told us that poor people and low caste people don’t rise in revolt because as Hindus, they believe their current status is due to their being punished for evil-doing in their past lives. Social control by religious faith? Well, all religions do the same, don’t they. Except Hinduism is not a religion, says Partha: it's a way of life, a way of thinking.

There are four or five temple groups in this complex, dating from the 1700s to the early 1800s. This first temple complex is dedicated to Shiva, signified by the trident on top of the temple roofs. (A temple dedicated to Vishnu has a wheel.) The Naba Kailash temples contain two concentric circles of 108 temples. The inner circle is made up of 34 white temples symbolising pure thought; the outer circle contains 74 temples symbolising the everyday world.

Each of these temples has a statue of a male phallus, called a linga. This icon is called the Shivalinga, and I’m sure if you’ve travelled in Asia you will have seen many representations of the Shivalinga for sale to tourists. In the outer circle, black and white lingas alternate; in the inner circle, all the lingas are white.

But where are the people, the worshippers? Partha explained that these temples are managed by the Archaeological Survey of India, an organisation formed to protect India’s heritage buildings. Because they have such historical value, they are no longer used as functional temples. He also told us that (a) Indians don’t value their ancient heritage very highly – it’s handy to grab a few bricks from an ancient temple if you need them to build your house and (b) when a temple of any denomination is 100 years old, it becomes the property of the state, so that it can be maintained and protected.

After coming from Northern India  – Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh – where the temples and monuments are built from red sandstone and white marble, what’s really noticeable is that these temples are built from terracotta. In this part of India, the soil is alluvial and there’s very little rock. Being terracotta/clay, it will eventually break down and go back to the river. This reflects the eternal cycle of the world, where everything is connected with the river.

Spot the leaning temple below.

Other temples within the complex are even older. I loved the terracotta panels showing life in the region: dancing girls, parades, tiger hunts (with spears, which seems more honourable than with guns) and scenes from religious epics.

West Bengal is the biggest producer and consumer of fish. Fish are caught in the river, but far more are farmed in ponds near the river. It's also a rice-growing area; in fact, the areas near the Ganges produce rice for most of India and Bangladesh. So it's no surprise that the main diet of Bengalis is fish and rice.

We’re back on the totos and off to the village fish market. I saw lots of half-alive fish in shallow trays of water. The fish sellers cut the fish with a sickle-shaped knife; it looks like most shoppers buy a portion of a fish that is hacked off.

Vegetable, spices and confectionery are all sold too. It’s a real village market. Cats lurk in the alleys; people are friendly and smiling and seem very welcoming, even though we’re not buying anything at all.

Driving through the village in our toto, we saw plenty of street dogs (well fed but mangy, poor things) and itinerant goats, but relatively few street cows. According to Partha, even though the people are Hindu, slaughtering cows is permitted in Bengal.

Crossing the streets of Kalna was a bit of a challenge. Partha says it’s easier to cross the Indian Ocean than Indian streets. (He’s full of these nuggets of wisdom.) Bengal is more secular than North India and it’s more cosmopolitan because of its colonial history. Before the British, there were the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French, so this part of India — like Shanghai in China and Penang in Malaysia, both of which we love — has a history of multicultural influences.

Back on the ship, it's time for sunset yoga. The yoga teacher Vicki leads two yoga sessions every day: I like the sunset chair yoga, despite the mosquitoes ... we have clouds of bug spray hanging off us all. I'm a bit puzzled why we have a Canadian yoga teacher when we are in India, but she's very nice. One day she gave a lecture on yoga. As a complete novice, I learned:

• The name yoga comes from yoke, means to harness the mind and the body.

• Humans use mantras to control the human body and all its potential, as well as fasting, meditation and praying.

• Contentment is one of eight limbs of yoga. In India, whatever you are born into you accept/are content with.

• I have been saying the word guru wrong all these years: it appears that the emphasis is on the second syllable, so ‘ga-roo’.

• The goal of yoga is weightlessness in meditation. (Levitation?)

What this all actually means, I’m not sure. I enjoyed this yoga interlude on Mother Ganga but I'll stick to Tai Chi when I get home.

I haven't forgotten the food. I have been keen to try some of the street food, like this paratha and the sweets in the Kalna stall below, but the guides won't allow me to do so. They say that there's no guarantee that treated, clean water has been used in the cooking. Well, I guess they're right to be cautious. After almost two weeks, we've had no stomach problems at all.

Back on the ship, the chef prepares a local snack specialty every lunch time. This one's made from popped rice mixed with a number of finely chopped savoury ingredients. It's delicious. I liked the jackfruit kofta too. And I am still loving the Indian desserts.

Sunset over the water.

Next: The Ganges River (2)

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