GUWAHATI, INDIA — Asking for God’s blessings prior to a journey is an age-old tradition in India.

Since time immemorial, kings, merchants, traders and explorers have made it a point to visit a temple, mosque or shrine — depending on their faith — to pray for a safe voyage.

Keeping this in mind, we visit the Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati before boarding the MV Mahabaahu for a week-long cruise along the Brahmaputra River.

The river, a fabled, 2,900km-long waterway, is considered one of the holiest on the Indian subcontinent. The river starts its journey from a glacier in the Himalayas in Tibet, and flows through north-east India — mostly through the valleys of Assam — before emptying out into the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh.