Well left India behind and now in Bangkok, which is as far opposite to India as possibly can be. Though I have be told many times that Bangkok is most definately not Thailand. It is a city that could almost be anywhere in America with sky scrapper buildings, shopping malls with the latest, trendiest shops and where the newest gadets to be found. I am in reverse culture shock after spending so long in the quiet Rishikesh where the largest shop was probably a 2 metre square box and the tallest building a full 3 floors high! And I arrived not [View Full Entry]

---

---

I moved from the ashram down to the Swarg Ashram district of Rishikesh where I continued by Yoga, mediation and Reiki practices having found a great teacher doing classes at one the hotels in the area. Other than yoga and having started to acquainted with my musical side dfuring my stay ashram I decided have a go at learning the Tabla (an Indian Drum) and the Sitar (Indian Guitar like thing). As the most tuneless person in the world and lacking any sense of rhythm I can only assume I suffered a moment of madness in agreeing to a lesson but [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just come back from spending 10 days in an ashram and the was fantastic. The place is set in the foothills of the mountains and with the Holy Ganges on the doorstep it make for beautiful walks which we did daily as part of the course at Phool Chatti. The walks were part of a thing called walking meditation and done in silence which really makes you very aware of your surroundings which so often we miss the world around us because we are so wrapped up in talking to each other. The days were pretty intensive with 4 hours of [View Full Entry]

---

---

I have now left the delights of Delhi behind and I am now in the lovely, beautiful and peaceful location of Rishikesh in North India, near the foothills of my beloved Himalayas once again and the location for Yoga, Ashrams (The Beatles were here in the 60's). To get to Rishikesh, Judy and I overnighted in Haridwar, a less touristy town close to Rishikesh and a pilgrimage site in its own right. Haridwar is regarded as one of the seven holiest places to Hindus. "According to Hindu mythology, Haridwar is one among the four sites where drops of the elixir of [View Full Entry]

---

---

So after Agra, we went on to Delhi; very different than the rest of India! A big city with very nice areas (and other not so nice), rich people, good roads & infrastucture, modern stuff, fast foods, etc. I even had lunch at TGI Friday's! So slightly revised my opinion of India at this point. As a group we arrived in Delhi for the last day of Diwali, ideal time for insomniacs and adrenline junkies to visit the city. The sky was alight with with fireworks almost until dawn, the bangs left our ears ringing and most of us had a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well after spending so long time in Orcha we unfortunately only had a very short time in Agra to see the not to be missed Taj Mahal, which we nearly didn't get to see after a crazy train experience. We were to have a 6:00am train departure to Agra. Except that our train was delayed... more than 5 hours! So, the tour leader decided to catch a different train going to Agra (another train that was also delayed, maybe from the night before). However, we did not have confirmed seats, so it was a bit tricky to find out in which [View Full Entry]

---

---

Orcha is a small town between Jhansi and Khajuraho and has some marvelous palaces and temples. Although this is a one-street village, some how with the tour we had to spend two nights here and though lovely little town it did feel a bit of an overkill to spend two days though the accommodation we had to stay in was fit for a king with its own grounds including small temple and a large swimming pool and a room with bathroom large than my living room back in England!! We arrived in Orcha after experiencing our first Indian train journey - [View Full Entry]

---

---

The name, Varanasi, possible arrived because the city lies where the Varuna River and the Assi River in its north and south, respectively, flow into the river Ganga. 'The culture of Varanasi is closely associated with the river Ganges and the river's religious importance. The city has been a cultural and religious center in northern India for several thousand years. People often refer to Varanasi as "the city of temples", "the holy city of India", "the religious capital of India", "the city of lights". The latter name I can definately understand when I consider the number of candles we [View Full Entry]

---

---

What better way to chillout and relax than slowly drifting on a boat down a river with nothing else to do other than eat, sleep, read a book or two and watch the world drift by and that is exactly what we did on our second day in India with a 1 day gentle sail down the Ganges and camping on her shores to watch sunset and sunrise. Sailing down the Ganges is very tranquil and sedate compared to loud chaos of the town itself and I gladly exchanged the hooting of horns and the constant chatter of the streets for [View Full Entry]

---

---

Just a short blog with a few images from my border crossing into Mother India as our tour leader Chandra refers to her. We set off early and crossed the border at Sunauli at 6am and bleary eyed we passed under the Nepal arch at the border and into the land between before crossing into India. Hello India! We then had a 5 hour drive to Varanasi which was a killer and though the roads are of better quality than Nepal the driving quality did not improve on this side. Playing ipods at top volume failed to drowned out the irritating [View Full Entry]

---

---