Hello again from Rishikesh

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Well we are still in Rishikesh. The place is so friendly and laid back we cant really be bothered to move on. Its cooling down a bit now and the climate is quite pleasant. We had a few days of unseasonable rain last week and at one time the Ganges was looking pretty high and fierce. However the last few days have seen the sun re-emerge and the river is now looking much more peaceful. The town is curently hosting a religous festival and there is a ceremony on the river bank at sunset every evening. Its very colourful and the whole atmosphere is very calming. Also, the Ganges looks great as the sun sets.

We are staying on the opposite side of the river to the main town. Its much more peaceful here. The place is full of holy men sporting flowing orange robes which adds to the vibrant colour of the town. (However, not everone sporting the orange robes can be classified as holy. There is a little group near our hotel who, every time we pass, politely enquire whether we would like something to smoke).

We went on a hike a few days ago. It was a 28km round walk to the Neehlkant Temple, also known as Shiva's Temple. The walk doesnt sound that far, but its uphill all the way and pretty steep at that. It was a nice walk through the forest. Our guide happily informed us that there were many wild animals in the forest - Elephants, Lions and Cobras. 'Do you see many of these' we enquired. He told us that you only saw these animals at night, which naturaly made us feel a lot better. While we didnt see any Elephants, we did see plenty of Elephant dung around the numerous tea stalls lining the walk (yes tea stalls - it wasnt exactly a walk in the wilderness!). We immediately recognised it as Elephant dung because we had seen the paintings by Chris Ofili in the Tate Modern. Its suprising how a passing acquaintance with modern art can be of use in the most unlikley of places.

The temple itself was very decorative. We made our offerings to Shiva (this involved placing flowers, water and food in the shrine, which was crawling with large wasps - attracted by all the flowers left there - so Dee was a bit reluctant to go near it) and walked back, taking in some great views of the mountains and the ganges valley.

We were the victims of a 'smash and grab' robbery at the weekend. For lunch we went to a little rooftop cafe overlooking the river. As the waiter bought the food to the table, so a monkey suddenly appeared from nowhere, jumped on Dee's Thali and stole away with one of her popadoms. The town is full of monkeys. A couple sneaked into the yoga class one morning (We think just to have a laugh at us).

We have been attending Yoga classes for about 10 days now. Slowly getting more flexible. However, its not easy. We keep thinking of the yellow pages advert a few years ago where to impress a woman a guy who is a complete novice phones up and books himself into an intermediate yoga class with the words "a bunch of women standing around and chanting 'Om' - how difficult can it be'. Well we can tell him - its bloody difficult! (We are quite good at the Om chanting though). We are the worst in the class by some margin - or at least we were until a new guy (even older than us) joined the class a couple of days ago ha- now whos the novice!

We are going to stay here for the rest of October as we are really enjoying the place and we are getting to know quite a few people locally. Our next move will be to Agra then on to Jaipur and Pushkar for the November camel fair.

Cant believe the news from home. Chelsea have now gone four premiership games without a win, while even Man City are second in the table. What is happening! We will just have to become Indian cricket supporters. Rishikesh was very excited at India becoming world 20/20 champions last week - the fireworks were going off well into the night.

Thats about it for now - be in touch in another couple of weeks.

Take care everybody - Dee and David

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Comments

[Clint]

Hi Dave and Dee, its great hearing from you (email) and reading your blog is very exciting! So glad youre both ok and enjoying your adventure. Rishikesh sounds very peaceful and beautiful and its probably why it was a "mecca" in the 60"s. Will you go to Bangladesh do you think? (A friend says that if you do you can stop by/stay at his house) I laughed bout Dee being scared of.....wasps!! Elephants, Tigers etc etc but watch out for them damn wasps!! Ha Ha Take care xxx

[Colette]

Enough of the comments about Man City. Thought yoga and meditation was supposed to make you full of peace and tranquillity...