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  A
pilgrimage to Haridwar
is very important to every Hindu. We arrived there and went
directly to Harki Pauri, the biggest bathing spot. It has steps leading to
the river (ghat) at Haridwar. People come here to immerse themselves
in the sacred water of the Ganges River. We arrived just in time to
catch the prayer ceremony with oil lamps known as Aarti.
We walked over a small bridge past people selling flower arrangements made
of banana leaves, rose petals and candles. We passed a boy heating
up his coal powered iron. He's even using plastic bags for
fuel. We saw the clock tower and the statue of Shiva
a Hindu g-d. We walked up to the river's edge and stood on the side
of the river with the clock tower.
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  We
saw men immersing themselves in the water in the cool evening air.
The prayer music began over the loudspeakers, and the oil lamps
were lit across the river. This lasted for about ten minutes and the
ceremony ended. Some started splashing water from the nearby Ganges
River on the people.
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  Others
were lighting their flower arrangements, motioning with their hands to
bring the heat from the flames to themselves, and casting the arrangement
adrift in the river to be carried by the current downstream. Peddlers tried
to sell paint to put on our foreheads and postcards. I found a video
online that shows the ceremony. Click at the top
of the page under Ganga Arati. Just after we arrived home, the New
York Times had a small article about the pollution in the Ganges River.
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  Hugh
found a motor store. We saw carpenters making wooden
doors.
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The
next day we began with a walk down the road outside the hotel.
It's a country road with a few small food stalls. We saw a man washing dishes in a pot on the ground
outside of his stall which was labeled "restaurant".
Children dressed in uniform going to school walked past us. Back
at the hotel, we participated in a yoga
class with stretching exercises. After breakfast, we headed towards
our first site of the day but stopped off in a small town in search of
a drug store. All the stores have no store fronts. Cows, scooters,
people, bicycles, carts selling wares and cars and buses and trucks all
made their way through this little town.. One of the carts sold
Adidas and Reebok woolen hats, probably counterfeit.