Waking up to Gangetic Dolphins swimming outside our boat. Our visit today to a very busy bustling town in Bihar called Munger or Munghyr.Beautiful clock tower gate. A walk around the bazaar was not a walk in the park. It’s a miracle I survived… pomegranate, apples from the north, fried delights.

From the letters of Honoria Lawrence 1838

“Reached Monghyr, a city once famous in oriental story…with a fort having thick mud walls, faced with bricks and a deep wide ditch. The brick facings are fast going to decay and the peepal is rooting itself in the turrets.”

We also visited a British cemetery, rather neglected. Elegant gravestones and some good looking goats keeping the grass down.

From there to a hill top viewing. Decaying houses, butterflies everywhere and small horses.

The Sita Kund Temple was our last stop. Very hot water bubbling out of the earth accompanied by a story of Sita, wife of Vishnu who is a bit of a female hero. Her husband questioned her loyalty. She withstood the test he laid for her but was not amused by his lack of confidence in her and disappeared into a ball of fire. She is still bubbling mad about it! Hence the hot water in short !

An afternoon visit to a venerated sight dedicated to Lord Shiva involved climbing uneven wet and slippery steps to admire some age old statues built in the granite at Sultanganj. Sadly the carvings were marked, caged and hidden with ugly interventions on the initial mound. Inspite of this some striking representations.

Everywhere hordes of young men. We have a young woman as part of our group and she gets movie star attention now aided by Google translate.

Last night we were honoured. Tonight it’s the chillies that take centre stage on the plate.