Seven Months In Asia ( Gorakhpur- Dehra Dun- Rishikesh- Haridwar )

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Gorakhpur

If there is one message i would shout to the world at the top of my voice, it would be to avoid this hellhole at all costs. it took us about 3 hours to change american dollars at a bank, and they would not take pounds? or visa??... then we -by the grace of god- managed to secure berths on the train THAT evening to dehra dun, so we had one whole afternoon to kill in hell. thankfully we managed to somehow end up in some air conditioned hotel and basically sat there the entire afternoon, eating food and drinking sodas, until about 2 hours before our train left..

then the funniest thing happened.. a waiter came over to us stealthily and with a serious face and asked "do you want the booze?". all of us looked at each other, knowing what a shit day this had been and said YES. he walked off and came back later to bring us into a empty, half built building across the courtyard, up some damp steps (by this time we were expecting a gang rape or knife point robbery), past a long dark hallway, and into a room with a table, four chairs and a red dull lightbulb shedding a depressing, cold shade across the pale walls. we sat down, shut up, ordered beers and gin, he disappeared, we still expecting to get killed at any second, one hour passed, he returned, we payed, he poured, we drank, we laughed, we left, we boarded and the rest was left to the train tracks to figure out.. cause all of us had fallen into the sleep of heavy-headed wanderers.........blisssssssss

Dehra Dun & Rishikesh

Dehra Dun announced its presence, we awoke, ran out the train, met a policeman, asked him where the best food in dehra dun was, he said moti mahal, we caught a rickshaw, sure enough it was delicious, found a bank, a visa machine, had a quick talk about whether to go to shimla or rishikesh (had heard of rishikesh and seemed interesting), thank goodness rishikesh won, found out where the buses go from, caught a late bus and settled in to be surprised. obviously none of us had a lonelyplanet, or any other guide book, and so we were damn lucky to meet a german on the bus who told us, go to the swiss cottage, its a good place. the bus stopped, it was late, dark, we were clueless, the german disappeared, we tried to see if there were any hotels nearby, then remembered swiss cottage and asked a rickshaw driver, he knew it, we jumped onboard, he sped off..... for eternity... and then up a hill... we were wondering what the heck was going on (not realising that laxman jullah is outside rishikesh town), and finally arriving at the new bhandari swiss cottage, booked two double rooms on the second floor with a huge balcony and excellent restaurant, ate some food, coaxed the owner to share some whisky and fell into deep undisturbed sleep.



Morning hit me like a brick, opening the door to actually see what a paradise we had landed in.. the mountains stretching off into the distance, the green valley, the clean ganges with the two tension bridges hung across.. this truly was wonderful.. we ate huge breakfasts, spent long days walking by the river, crossing at laxman jullah and back over at ram jullah, saw some ashrams, met some sadhus (ended up confusing them more than anything), hung on the back of speeding jeeps on the way to the three waterfalls, ended up swimming in two of them, lazed around in the hotel for hours, read books, ate excellent food, made friends with the waiters, were completely ignored by the isrealis, and ended up staying 4 days longer than the two days we planned.. what a place.. it wasn't so much that it was the most beautiful place in the world.. it was the atmosphere. the aura.. it just compelled you to de-stress and take life easy.. just what we wanted...thank you rishikesh.



Rishikesh Streams of Consciousness

so far the north of india has been crossed, 22
hour
bus rides to kathmandu and back, annapurna range
seen
early morning from the roof of the hotel in
pokhara,
back to india, long train rides, fun and
boredom..
until rishikesh appeared after a long ride in a
crowded bus, and for some reason... i dont want
to
leave.

this place, famous for beatles and their guru in
the
60's is now just a quiet beautiful place to be
and
rest. the ganges flows clean here as opposed to
varanasi where it resembles tea more than water,
the
landscapes here are mountains and rivers, thick
vegetation and waterfalls. unbelievable. and so
few
tourists, just a few scattered here and there on
rooftops learning yoga or meditating.

yesterday we hung on the back of a jeep on narrow
mountain roads, seeing the ganges cut through
mountains,. until we stopped at the foot of a
path...
which led through immense nature to a waterfall.
the
walk took a long while, past the brook flowing
down
from the mouth of the falls, through thickly
wooded
forest, vines and caves... until we found the
falls..
hidden past small paths which you almost crawled
down
since the rocks were so slippery, us being the
only
people there and no tourist signs to help. we
made it
to the falls.. a 30 meter height coming from
where the
sun shone down on us in this small opening in the
woods. we stood looking up at the sun and water
mixing, and then we took our pants off and stood
under
this immense water.. i think i sat in the pool
for
half and hour just laughing at how amazing this
was,
and that nobody else was here.. it was just such
a
special moment. rishikesh is beyond words.

anyway, we are still here... four nights later
after
having planned to stay one. i dont know when we
will
leave.. we talk about tomorrow. but tomorrow
never
comes. if i am still here a year from now,
someone fly
over here and rescue me.. but be warned.. you
will
probably pull up a seat and enjoy the view too
much to
leave !!



Hariwar

When it was time to leave rishikesh, tears and sadness, we caught a bus to haridwar where i had been about 8 years ago. i hated it then and my feelings had not changed at all. we visited the large temple on the hill, which was filthy and not hinduism's most attractive selling point, we ate the worst dhal ever in india (now thats a statement), were pestered to death and ended up thankful at catching that nights train to jodhpur. unfortunately neil had to leave, since he was on his way back to delhi, so we parted ways and we caught the train which was reported to arrive at 6:30 in the morning in jodhpur... yeah right...

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