Andrea Massari, our Operations Director has joined the Ganges cruise for a month and will give regular updates of the cruises here on his blog so keep watching this space to get the most up to date information on the Ganges.
November 13th
From Samaria to Patna (105km)
We left the ship at 6.45am and our coach was waiting for us just 10 minute walk from the ship to take us on our excursion to Nalanda and Bodhgaya. Whilst walking to the coach we encountered all the wonderful people that we seen last night at the festival taking their morning bath in the river.
We reached Nalanda after two and a half hours on the coach. The journey was thrilled by an encounter with another bus that almost caused an accident. I was sitting in the front seat and all of a sudden we were shocked to see another bus just 3cm from our window and on the other side there was just 10cm gap to the edge of the road. It was even more amusing when we ended up being escorted for some kilometers by a jeep with armed Bihar special police force. In order to give way to our bus one of them was using a stick to stop any vehicle coming up including innocent people riding bicycles that to avoid being hit by the stick had to put their heads down. This scene is difficult to describe and would have been better had I taken a movie of it. We could not stop laughing for about 30 minutes. It was incredible!
Nalanda is a fascinating archeological site but in my opinon they should probably supply passengers with a 3D reconstruction to better understand it especially when they are related to a culture/history like the Indian one which is unknown by most of our passengers. It is not grand like Angkor for example where you do not need a background of Khmer history to appreciate it.
We spent about two and a half hours here in all including a coffee (pee) stop in a local tourist bar just outside the main gate. There were lots of vendors selling some of the most useless souvenirs but I still ended up buying something! I bought a glazing ball full of water with Garesha that when shaked is surrounded by thousands of confetti. Very kitsch indeed, but I like it!
A passenger bought the busts of BOSE, Gandhi and other heroes of India made of rubber back in Calcutta and I envied him when I saw them. I have made a promise to myself that I am going to get some when I get back to Calcutta.
It was back to the coach then after a very quick stop for lunch in the government of Bihar tourist restaurant. Food was terrible as well as the restaurant but it is difficult to find fine dining in the Bihar state! We left the restaurant at 1.30pm and arrived in Bodhgaya at 3pm.
The holiest place for the Buddhist is worth visiting but 90 minutes is not enough time to appreciate the full spiritual energy that this place transmits. Everyone was touched in some way by the energy.
There were Myanmar, Thai and Korean monks praying by the Banyan Tree where Buddha attained the enlightment. Next to them there were fifty or so Tibetan monks chanting prayers and playing traditional instruments such as the drums. So all in all I felt that the time spent here was not enough (at least not for me!). So that is something we will have to look into and see about making this trip into an overnight one.
We left at 5pm and after a few near accidents on the way back, we finally arrived safely back to the new Patna river terminal at 9pm. I had dinner and am ready to sleep now! Tomorrow we have a six-hour coach journey from Patna to Varanasi to look forward to.
The highlight of my day has been the thrill of driving in an Indian trafficked national road on a big bus (although I think for the next cruise we need to use smaller buses) and of course BODHGAYA! See some of the pictures from today below. The first one is of everyone bathing in the Ganges this morning and it was taken by one of our passengers and the others I took at Bodhgaya.
We will disembark tomorrow so that is my blog for now. I have posted all the pictures that I have taken along the way on Pandaw's picasa webpage, which you can see by clicking the link below:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pandawcruises
Keep watching this space for updates on future cruises!
November 12th
Sailed from Munger to Samaria (65km)
We reached the school by rickshaw ar 7.45am. We were invited to attend a short presentation of the school and a short session of Yoga in the original place where the founder of the school used to practice yoga.
The passengers were all in some way or another interested. Some of them seemed transformed to different people in this place. It is amazing how this place can transmit such a kind of energy. It is fascinating to see this happen. I think I will go back there one day to attend a course there!
We casted off from Munger at 9.45am and we sailed the rest of the day. We seen a beautiful black eagle on route. The landscape was similar to yesterday. On board we have a computerised Astrologer, which kept passengers entertained. We have the Astrologer on board with the compliments of the Bihar State Ministry of Tourism.
We arrived in Samaria at 6pm. As we were arriving, we saw that there was a festival going on so we decided to go ashore and visit the fairground. It was AMAZING! We met Baba, preachers, vendors trading all sorts of things and a lot of colourful people all over the place. The festival lasts 45 days! Passengers were delighted with the festival and they commented to me that it really is 'Incredible India' and they also commented that they wanted to see more of this rather than temples!
Today was a great one. Highlights of the day would have to be the Yoga School presentation, the amazing fair, and then to top it all we had a dance and cultural show on the sundeck tonight that was sponsored by the director of tourism in Bihar which was so much fun. Here are some photos of the yoga school for you all.
November 11th
Sailed from Bateshar Sthan to Munger (103km)
We casted off at 4.20am and we have been sailing the entire day. We seen lots of dolphins along the way though! There have been lectures on board all day to entertain passengers. One lecture was about dolphins and endangered birds by two guest naturalists and the other lecture, which I found more interesting, was a lecture on Hinduism by Sumit.
We also had some vendors of Bihar products on the boat this morning whom arrived by boat. They set up a Bazaar on the sundeck and it looked like an Indian souvenir market! Some passengers bought some items too.
We arrived at Munger at 6pm. Tomorrow morning we are going to the School of Yoga at 6.45am.
November 8th
This afternoon we reached the most scenic of the river so far. There were plenty of birds to see such as cormorant, black ducks and other kinds that I cannot remember the names of! We spotted four dolphins too!
We arrived at Raj Mahal at about 3.40pm as scheduled. The ruins were quite interesting and Sumit was able to tell us everything there is to know about them!
We are having to spend the night here as the captain tells me that night navigation is not possible as although the river is very wide, the channels are very narrow, sometimes only 12 meters, which makes sailing in the dark a difficulty.
The passengers seem relaxed this evening and are enjoying themselves so far. No one has complained about the food (well, at least not to us). So it seems all is well for now. Here are some pictures of the Ganges river.
November 6th
We are sailing smooth at an average speed of 8.5 km/h. Passengers disembarked at a place called Kalna this afternoon for an excursion and it was enjoyed by everyone.
The food on board seems OK so far. The breakfast is average. I think the quality of the jam could be improved so I will look into that for the next cruise. Lunch was quite good. The food was good but the service could be improved. These are all just small operational things though and not as serious as I was expecting!
November 5th
I have joined the Ganges for GG003 which is our 3rd voyage on the Ganges. Passengers arrived in Calcutta on Monday and have been staying at the Oberoi Grand Hotel whilst Sumit (our tour guide) has been giving them guided tours of they city and I have been on board the Bengal Pandaw helping prepare the ship for this voyage. We were supposed to transer the passengers to the ship this morning for an afternoon sailing but there were a few problems with the ship's engine so all the passengers were delayed in boarding the ship until late afternoon.
We finally got the problem fixed and started sailing late tonight. I am really looking forward to cruising down the mighty Ganges!
