Mayapur And Chandannagar, India,

 As we anchored for the night at Mayapur, you could look to the shore and see the huge temple of the Krishna Consciousness Movement. This is said to be the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya in 1486 and he is considered to be a reincarnation of Lord Krishna.

The massive new temple which was scheduled to be completed in 2016 has been delayed. Once it is completed though it will be about the size of the Vatican with a 700,000 square foot temple that is 340 feet high which will be the tallest Hindu temple in the world.

In the morning, the Sampan took the groups to the shore for a tour of the complex. I wimped out. It was very hot and I was still recovering from the heat of the day before as well as all the steps up and down to the lounge from our room on deck 2. There is no elevator on the boat. When it was said there would be lots of steps, I opted out.

The ever-trepid husband of mine readied himself and left just after breakfast. A breeze was blowing across the sun deck and since it was still early, the temperature was not too bad. I grabbed my book, my phone and my computer with the hope that there would be a connection with the internet. The internet has been intermittent. When it works, it works well and I’ve been able to get my blog scheduled enough in advance to post when I don’t have the connection. In the meantime, I use Word to write the post and then copy and paste when the internet is up. By the way, when I woke in the morning my tattoo was much darker as promised.

Back to the temple. While I sat on the sundeck, I could hear the Hare Krishna chant and at one point there was even some English as if there was a sermon of sorts. It was hard to make out but Bob confirmed that it was what happened. They were in a temple next to the large one, stepping around prone bodies that were worshipping. I’m surprised that they let the tour group into their service of worship.

By the time the groups returned the temperature had heated up nicely to unbearable and the returning tour groups looked a bit wrung out. I was glad I’d chosen to sit this one out.

As soon as all were back onboard, we weighed anchor and moved farther down river to a place called Chandannagar, a town that, it was said, had a lot of French influence. In 1673 the French had obtained permission to establish a trading post there. Later, after the settlement was established by the French, it would become a significant part of the war between the French and the British for possession of south India.

Meanwhile we played trivia, testing our acquired knowledge of India. Then we had a disembarkation talk because there were those who would leave us the next day. We were happy to learn that we could stay onboard until the mid afternoon when a group of us who were flying Emirates to Dubai would all leave together. Breakfast, lunch and a little down time before we all faced some long travel hours.

The date was October 31. Halloween at home but here it was Diwali. Lots of lights adorned the buildings in vertical strings of bright blue, green, red and white hanging over the facades. There were several archways of lighted decoration that became more prevalent as the sun set.

Cherry bombs or large firecrackers were set off periodically. As we entered the courtyard of the Sacred Heart Church, it almost sounded like we were under attack as the celebrants were nearby setting them off.

The Sacred Heart Church dates back to 1875 and is “an authentic expression of French architectural style in India” according to the sign outside. It was kind of nice to see a church for a change.

The sun had set but no one had turned down the humidity. We were all sweltering by the time we reached the museum of the Chandannagar College. I immediately noticed the typewriter that was very similar to the one I have at home but not in as good a condition. The other familiar item I saw was a large loom, not too different from the one I had in college for my textile classes. I smiled as I remembered trying to get the shuttle back and forth as I worked the peddles to lift the warp or weft.

For some unexplained reason with all the heat of the night, Uniworld had opted to serve hot coffee and tea as we came out of the museum. I took a tea graciously but then ended up giving it back when I couldn’t even get it cool enough to drink.

Sachi led us precariously across the street as motorcycles and a few small cars stopped impatiently for us to cross. He led us down a side street to see some of the street food that was being prepared. Unfortunately by that time I think most of us just wanted to get back to the GVII and the AC.

As we waited for the Sampan, several guests decided to wade into the Ganges in order to say they’d put their feet in. They joined several locals who were bathing in the river or just doing an immersion or just trying to beat the heat. I was almost tempted.

Back onboard, we showered quickly and went to the sundeck (moondeck after sunset?) for another dance troupe that was to perform folk dances as we sailed on to Kolkata. While we watched the fascinating dancers, the chefs stood in a corner over a grill and cooked kabobs of chicken and pineapple. We were very hungry and probably ate more than we should have but they were so very good.

The evening was very special between the lights on the buildings we passed and on our boat, the candles, the dancers, the food and the fireworks that we saw on both sides of the river, framing our view. Quite a memory to keep.