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Published: October 20th 2017
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This morning I start the day with a yoga session on the green deck looking out onto the mountains as the sun rises, the only thing disturbing the peacefulness is the relentless honking of the horns on the road below, which starts at first light. ‘Blow your horn’ is written in big letters on the back of all trucks and buses so I guess everyone is just following orders.
For breakfast I don’t eat so much this morning as I am starting to fill up! I have a 'vada pav' which is Mumbai street food and is a fried potato mixture in a little bun, its absolutely delicious and the nearest thing to British food, I am able describe it as a spicy chip butty. Shenton decides to go for porridge but the bowl he has chosen makes it looks like he is having a prison breakfast!
Today we are starting the day with a “big swing” we are not entirely sure what this is but we head down to reception to find out. We count the stairs today and its 166 from our cottage down to reception, as we get there we are told
that the big swing is actually back up the top by our cottage so we head back up 166 steps. At least we are burning off the calories.
When we get to the top we are put into harnesses and the first activity is climbing up a log ladder, this sounds easy but the logs are very far apart. Shenton goes first and makes light work of it, hauling himself up each rung. I watch him and think there is no way I will be able to do that. As he absails down the woman instructor says he is like superman as he was so fast getting up there and coming down, more like monkey man I think!
My turn, and after an unsteady start I find that if I use my legs more I can actually get up easier than I thought. Shenton is impressed that I actually manage to get to the top. Next activity is the big swing, this time you climb a ladder and they attach you to two ropes one of which they pull on to hoist you up, not very daintily, to the top and once you are
there and the lines are taut they tell you to release the cord. A drop of the stomach then precedes flying through the air, pretty cool. Shenton makes the lady laugh by pretending she is hurting him when she is holding his legs as she is trying to get him down
We spend the day relaxing by the pool and chilling out and then later in the afternoon we head out for a hike in the woods. the forest presents a quiet solitude , this peacefulness continues as we head up into the mountains, its just the mosquitos that then decide that distraction through buzzing around me is the best tactic to feast upon me, though the small vampiric nuisance isn't enough to dampen my spirit. We pass by a waterfall and visit a small “village” which consists of around 20 people living very simply, off the land. The romanticised idea of living this simply with nature is idyllic the reality would be??
I want to point out that even though I am writing this blog Shenton is also writing it with me, he said that he is my ghost writer or was that a goat
rider, (maybe I need my ears cleaning) after all he was in Portugal for 18 months on his own.
Back at the hotel we are thinking of more food and we are sitting outside the restaurant waiting for the go ahead to start our next feast when a line of around 20 people suddenly appear from nowhere, 20 that is, bearing in mind that is more than the total of all other guests that we have seen here so far. They walk very purposefully up the stairs to the restaurant . They enter and sit down, Shenton hears that they are German and he then says but wait the food isn’t for another hour. At this point the serviettes are taken by our new German chums and placed on the back of the chairs at the best tables. You have to admire their efficiency I suppose. All is good as we have also been left 2 beers by our new Indian friends from Bombay, they left Atali today. The beers taste real nice as we haven’t had a drink for a few days plus wait for it, they are German beers!
Our trip to
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Chilling with a cup of tea Rishikesh is almost over and it has been truly relaxing and amazing time, back to Delhi tomorrow to rejoin the mayhem.
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