G means great adventure
Eight-day river cruise along the Ganges shows real charm of India
We called it “high-five village.” Even as I write this, I’m still unsure of where exactly we were. On the surface, it was just a small hamlet on the banks of India’s Ganges River, filled with brick homes clad with patties made of dirt and cow dung that would later be used as fuel for cooking and heat.
But among this, Toronto-based G Adventures (gadventures. com) managed to show us the real charm of India. Dozens of local villagers came out to greet the 17 of us who had decided to sail down the Ganges aboard the 24-guest riverboat known as Varuna for a week as part of G Adventures’ new river cruise tours on India’s Ganges.
The sun was setting as we made our way back to the small “country boat” that would take us back to the Varuna after a day of adventures ashore. Its rays passed through the haze of smog and pollution that never really seems to lift from India’s horizon, which had the unintended effect of making sunsets and sunrises even more beautiful than you would imagine.
It was under this setting, with the entire village and the Ganges tinted in a strange ambercoloured hue, that the local village kids, teenagers and adults ran along the streets with us. They said hello. They practised their (admittedly impeccable) English. They snapped selfies with us, the pasty-white people from far away, dressed in our illfitting, moisture-wicking clothing. And they high-fived us every step of the way.
It’s such a simple thing, and it happened on the second full day of our journey with G Adventures. But even as we disembarked the Varuna and boarded the coach to the airport, someone near the front turned around and said, “How about high-five village?”
One of three river cruise tours that G Adventures offers on the Ganges, my journey began in Kolkata, which you may know better as Calcutta. Every stereotype you’ve ever heard about India is confirmed in Kolkata: it’s big, traffic is a crushing nightmare, and the smell of pollution, spices and sewage permeates everything.
It’s also exhilarating. This eightday Ganges River Adventure gave me the courage (under the watchful eye of G Adventures’s local CEO, meaning chief experience officer) to do things I would have never done on my own — like take a train in India. After an overnight stay at the HHI Kolkata, our small group boarded a six-hour, airconditioned local train bound for the town of Farakka, where we’d embark the Varuna not far from the Farakka Barrage; a massive dam works project completed in 1975.
From there, we’d spend the next week sailing down the Ganges and its tributaries to Kolkata, where our journey would end not far from Howrah Station where we caught our train one week before.
With just 12 cabins and a capacity for 24, the Varuna is the ideal vessel for Ganges exploration. On the outside, she’s got a look that only a mother could love, with a boxy superstructure slammed on top of a barge-style hull. But look closer: On the inside, her cabins, lounge and dining room are panelled in beautiful woods, and her decking and railings are all made of exquisite teak. Lighting is soft and cosy, and my stateroom — simply named Cabin 3 — was perfectly laid out for a week, with two beds, full air conditioning, complimentary bottled water, a Western-style bathroom, and a nice sitting area adjacent to the picture window that could be fully opened.
On board, the all-Indian crew were gracious and knowledgeable. Food was primarily Indian dishes, toned down on the spice scale for North American and European tastes.
The real charm of this river cruise, though, could be found in the villages and towns we visited along the way. Not all of them were like “high-five village,” but every single one added up to make this journey one of the best I’ve ever taken.
For a river cruise that is frequently advertised below $2,000 per person, that’s high praise indeed.
Happy cruising.