River cruise on the Ganges melds Indian culture and comfort
This voyage takes passengers along some little known reaches of India’s beloved river.
Indus river dolphins are elusive creatures. Powder-pink in skin tone and with notably longer snouts than their sociable ocean-going relatives, they’re among the many delightful sights you can experience while journeying along Mother Ganga, as Indians fondly term this, their most sacred body of water. The dolphins are notoriously shy, so when a flash of pink breaches the mossy-toned Ganges and then another, before the mammals plunge once more to the river’s opaque depths, we count ourselves highly fortunate.
It’s only the second morning of our Ganges voyage and we add this to sightings of an iridescent kingfisher, a couple of jackals snoozing on a sandbank and countless bathers performing ritual prayers on the bottom steps of rural ghats. Over the course of a week’s sailing, my senses are lulled by the soporific rhythms of chanting, the rustle of palm leaves and scent of crushed jasmine, then the football-rattle croak of griffon vultures circling overhead.
This is my first trip back to India since the welcome reinstatement of the e-visa. Now, travelling with Uniworld on Ganges Voyager II, an elegant colonial-style riverboat that normally accommodates 56. I’m among 33 guests from Australia, the US and Britain, and 90 per cent of the assembled are India newbies. Following an overnight at Kolkata’s gorgeously plush Oberoi Grand, I’ve joined for just the week-long river journey. The other guests began the journey with a five-day escorted trip through Rajasthan.
For those with understandable misgivings about travelling independently in India, this luxury land-and-sail package promises many reassuring certainties: guided tours throughout, and impeccable hygiene standards at Oberoi hotels en route. As we begin our voyage, those high standards are maintained, with shoes sanitised after excursions and meals always taken on board.
As Brie from Colorado tells me one morning: “This trip sounded ideal for us because how otherwise do you crack the nut that is India? We’d been put off by the thought of crowds, the poverty, getting sick … and I’m a germophobe, so India always felt such a big deal. Here, there’s constantly someone to metaphorically hold our hands.”
Our sailing from West Bengal’s capital takes us about 130km north before turning around to zigzag in on idyllic villages and towns you’d arguably never visit on a land-only journey, and it is these off-the-beaten-track places that become highlights.
River cruising on the Ganges is still a relatively niche offering, and what this stretch lacks in terms of grand monuments is more than offset by encountering a very human side of India. A sari-clad mother delivers a welcoming smile, and children call out: “Hey, auntie, how are you?” from the riverbanks, before backflipping into the water like sleek seal pups. We become a source of great interest, and there’s the inevitable request to link arms with young Bengalis and pose for selfies.
As the Ganges suffers low water levels during the best months for visiting (November through to March), we are voyaging along three of its lower tributaries: the Hooghly, Bhagirathi and Jalangi – offshoots that to the Indian mindset are considered the same as Mother Ganga.
We see abandoned temples, richly carved with sinuous Hindu gods and goddesses and at small towns such as Matiari, famous for its metalworkers, dilapidated colonial mansions, where monkeys groom each other at the summit of crumbling columns.
The town is known as the rice bowl of Bengal, and surrounding the bazaar are the smart, brightly painted homes of its rice merchants
All excursions are included, and at our first stop, Kalna, a small town 98km from Kolkata, a fleet of electric rickshaws awaits our arrival. Within minutes we are jinking over potholes, past open-air roadside barbers and footpath stalls selling vegetables. Our goal is the Shiva temple complex, arranged around two concentric circles. Swifts zip across the milk-blue sky as we gaze on 108 squat “mandirs”, their bulbous terracotta steeples resembling so many well-baked loaves. Each tiny temple conceals a white marble “linga”, the symbol of the god.
“Shiva was the destroyer god,” explains our guide, Partha Gosh. “Imagine him a bit like a communist,” he adds, to ensuing laughter, “but different in that he believed strongly in rebuilding.”
In contrast to the extraordinary serenity of Kalna’s temple complex is its bazaar. The town is known as the rice bowl of Bengal, and surrounding the bazaar are the smart, brightly painted homes of its rice merchants, but Kalna’s produce is not limited to grain. As witnessed at other stops, the Ganges’ fertile banks yield tomatoes and cauliflowers, tiny hot chillies and jackfruit as well as fat columns of sugar beet. At the seafood market, crayfish and dogfish twitch in aluminium pans and vendors sit cross-legged before razor-sharp mounted machetes, with which they gut freshwater carp and other fish.
Bengali cuisine frequently incorporates mustard oil and lentils, and each meal on board features a regional dish cooked by talented chef Mainak. Lunchtimes mix Western staples – soups, pasta, salads and club sandwiches – with exquisitely spiced dishes spanning barramundi in mustard oil dressing, to white bottle gourd tempered with cumin and ginger.
There is always afternoon tea and a four-course dinner, and for spice-averse cruisers, plenty of easily digestible comfort food. One afternoon, we join the chef and learn how to make fresh garam masala and delicious chana dal. Another afternoon, he teaches us how to use spices correctly.
Something I particularly appreciate about our voyage is that downtime is considered an important part of the experience. For some, that means a sundeck snooze, admittedly interrupted by a friendly call to observe fishermen in coracles flinging their nets wide, or a herd of buffalo enjoying their daily bath. Sometimes, there’s even a solemn funeral pyre. For others, there are excellent Balinese or Ayurvedic massages to be had in the boat’s small spa. It’s a treat I indulge in a couple of times, finding huge relief from persistent hip pain. Yoga sessions are conducted on the sundeck twice a day. We also have lectures about our next port of call and, occasionally, first-rate traditional dance displays from the Kolkata ballet corps. One morning we gamely join a session of sari-tying and turban-making.
Ganges Voyager II is a beautiful riverboat. Think: polished teak floors and staircases, comfortable loungers on the sundeck, a well-stocked library and fabulous staterooms. My Viceroy Suite, offset by picture windows and a French balcony, comes decorated with painted Indian motifs, an Empire-style daybed and a comfortable four-poster. Days unfold in a gentle rhythm of excursions and sundeck gazing, the former always full of interest.
At Mayapur, we visit the headquarters of the Hari Krishna Consciousness Movement, whose thriving residential community comprises many international followers. From the riverbanks we gaze in awe at their latest building project: an enormous temple resembling a cross between a Faberge egg and the White House, topped by what will become the largest dome in the world.
Later, we sail past the site of the Battle of Plassey, where Robert Clive of the British East India Company defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies in 1757, subsequently establishing British rule over the whole of India. Its capital then was Murshidabad, which Clive described as “more glittering to me than that of London”. Here, we find a town packed with Indian tourists, and like us, they have come to visit Hazarduari Palace, a sprawling Italianate pile built by Duncan Macleod for the ruling Nawab, a man whose paranoia inspired him to incorporate a facade of 900 fake doors, with only 100 actually functioning, so as to confuse intruders. Today, it’s a museum full of bad art and dusty artefacts, though there is a chandelier given to the Nawab by Queen Victoria, hung over his throne by a precarious hook.
A guard welcomes us: “You’re our first Westerners in three years,” he says.
The highlight, however, is our afternoon in Baranagar, a tiny village of just 2000. Lush banana plants mix with vegetable patches. A woman cooks lunch outside her home, using dried patties of cow dung for fuel. Others roll bidi cigarettes, using tobacco from the village’s main cash crop. Children trail us, smiling and practising their English, and later we are introduced to Kalyan Mandal, a young villager who spent time in Australia.
“I’ve set up a school here,” he tells us. “I want all the children to learn English. They don’t have to pay, but if they have money, they can pay 100 rupees (about 50c) a month.”
At the end of the village stands an 18th-century temple complex, covered with miniature terracotta sculptures – among the best in India – depicting daily village life alongside tales from Hindu mythology.
The location, precariously close to the river, is a galling reminder of the Ganges’ power to flood these plains. Erosion is an enormous problem, and the offloading of sandbags from broad barges at village stops has become a regular sighting on this cruise.
Our journey is almost over but one night, with the boat moored off Chandannagar, we head to the sundeck to witness dozens of tiny candles nestled in baskets made from lotus leaves floating on the river. Mesmerised, we watch them scud over the dark waters. One after the other, meandering into the darkness, they follow the slow bob of the tide.
“These are ritual offerings for Mother Ganga,” we are told. Silence pervades. Words are unnecessary, for this extraordinary river has yet again worked her inimitable magic.
Louise Roddon was a guest of Uniworld Boutique River Cruises.
IN THE KNOW
The Uniworld Boutique River Cruises 13-day Golden Triangle and the Sacred Ganges itinerary costs from $8399 a person, twin-share, including all meals, accommodation (five nights in Oberoi hotels and seven onboard), wine, beer and soft drinks, gratuities, guided excursions and internal flights.
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