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Published: January 29th 2009
Rishikesh calls itself the Yoga Capital of the World. It could well be true. There is a whole lotta yoga going on there.
Like Varanasi, Rishikesh is located along the banks of the Ganges River, however that is about where the similarities end. Rishikesh is a quiet (well, as far as India goes), clean, laid-back place where nearly everyone left us alone! A welcome break after Rajasthan and another quick stop in crazy Delhi.
Rishikesh is located near where the clean-ish Ganges emerges from the Himalayan foothills. It is an ideal place to chill out, take a course, eat salad, do some yoga or meditation during a stay at an ashram.
Being holy town, Rishikesh is dry (no booze) and very vegetarian: no eggs or meat. Although we did discover that one part of town inexplicably had eggs (?) and so we made the walk up the river a few times for a protein treat.
Having been a popular spot for western tourists since the Beatles, Rishikesh is well set up food-wise. Homemade brown bread, hearty soups, buckwheat pancakes, and we thank all those Israelis for their legacy of "Israeli salads" (basically a cabbagy green salad complete
with a vinagrette).
It was quiet when we got to town as the crisper weather had already sent most of the beach-seeking packs of Israelis south to Goa for the winter. Perfect for us, cool nights and pleasantly warm sunny days.
There are three small neighbourhoods that primarily service the tourists, all located up-river from the uninspiring main town of Rishikesh. The streets, some of which have limited vehicle traffic, are lined with shops, restaurants, bookstores and entrances to ashrams.
We ended up staying at a place associated with an ashram that gave us access to two yoga and two meditation sessions per day.
Matt continued to be under the weather on and off, so did not take full advantage of the yoga and meditation. I, on the other hand, was lucky to spend several days practicing to be a human pretzel!
How do I begin to explain these sessions? Twice a day a skinny young Indian man would come into the yoga room, pray, chant and lead us into agony hour. The instructors appeared constantly disappointed in this sad mix of Indian, Asian and Western students that could only hold postures for a few
seconds (if at all), couldn't do proper handstand pushups, get our heads to our knees and certainly weren't trying hard enough!
We were told, "Relax it!" and "Feel the pressure." Feel the pressure alright! I figured if I kept that up for another couple of weeks, I would either be very strong or seriously injured. Anyone's guess which would have come first!
Finally towards the end of our stay, on the advise of other travellers, we got some double-duty antibiotics for Matt's reoccurring gut troubles. By the time we left town, he appeared to be making a comeback.
our monkey stories (matt)
monkeys. those cute, loveable, intriguing creatures. perhaps it's their human like qualities that captivate us. they have held my wonder and amusement, on many occasions, for hours on end as i am sure they have done for many of us. however, in travels, there will inevitably come a point where one will feel like: it's just another temple or ye haw, more ruins. this is where i was with monkeys.
the thing with monkeys is that they are not stationary objects of particular design or antiquity. they are fast moving ever changing little
rascals that do it all, at times, with what we identify as something that is akin to ourselves... perhaps it's the facial expressions or the little hands. never the less these qualities go a long way to pulling on one's strings, even when you make a promise to yourself like: "i will not take any more monkey pictures."
but as you can see i have done just that, this is not the first photo i have shown to all of you that may have left you with an incomplete picture on the reality of the monkey world. it is with this in mind i feel compelled to tell a few stories that happend to us while we were here in rishikesh so that when you encounter a monkey for the first time (for those of you in the know, just bear with me) you will know what to do.
the first step is this: forget those adorable pictures. i have been lying to you. the reality is that they are, most of the time, fast, tenacious, trecherous, greedy, audacious, violent and sometimes viscious to all those that are near and especially if you have something they want. in
short, NOT TO BE TRUSTED, sorry for yelling but i don't want anyone to get hurt.
this first story describes their agility and power more than anything else.
laura and i were looking out onto the ganges, with a sigh, having a quiet moment, happy to be seeing it in fresh air and in a relatively pristine condition. try to invision this: we are on the edge of a parking lot, near the railing looking down on the water flowing by a couple of stories below. there are parked cars on both sides of us and we are in the middle of three empty spaces. i have my arm around laura and out of the corner of my eye i see two monkeys running in our direction, they are moving very quickly.
initially, perhaps it is that they are still far away, i have a feeling of seeing these magestic creatures moving so gracefully, as if i were at home watching a docco in slow motion in complete safety. i whisper to laura: "oh look at this" as if it were a butterfly landing on a flower and not a 60 pound easily 4' tall pair of
monkeys running at us at nearly full speed.
the first monkey, in one fluid motion, jumps up onto the roof of one car from 8' away, with the sound of thunder as it literally crushes the roof in. laura turns at the sound and screams as she faces a large airborne monkey apparently hurtling for our heads. but it just clears us (really i could have reached out and grabbed it), as it jumps across the span of the three car spaces (15'+) landing on and crushing a van roof, bounces across a couple more roofs and then again in one jump leaps up to the second story of the car park. the second monkey does the same thing, only closer, perhaps thinking that we did not already need to go and get changed, bloody cheeky monkey.
as the dust settles and we look at each other, astonished, i see this poor fellow who was sleeping (now ruedly awoken) in the car that produced the first two claps of thunder. if only i had a picture of his face to help convince you of what we just witnessed. just wait until he sees his roof, yep, crushed.
the next day we were walking into town, in order to do so we have to cross a foot bridge that often has a troop of monkeys on the other end. they are a smaller variety, but little trolls none the less. we stroll off the bridge, stop a moment to see a small one run up to a young woman and rip out of her hands, with fangs bared, a pack of mentos (mints).
we look at him laughing to ourselves about all the nutty things we have witnessed monkeys do since we have been in monkey land. well apparently this little goodfella doesn't care for a good chuckle on his account. he seems to take acception. we start to walk away and he runs at laura grabs onto her ankle and begins to claw at her.
what the -! immediately i send my foot after it, as i was behind her, before it can sink it's teeth in (a successful bite means off to the local hospital for a series agonizing anti-rabies injections), it spins off between us and up a waist high wall. positioning my self between the attacker and attackee it turns on me with teeth bared, making this terrible hissing sound, and hunches up like it's about to leap onto my face like that creature from the "alien" movies. incredulously, (and to my defence) i hold up my hands to protect myself from the impending launch.
yeah, so there i was, with my fists raised, standing of with a 2', 30 pound monkey. like "rocky" part 8, rumble in rishikesh. this is the most minty fresh assault i've ever seen let alone been apart of. the trouble with monkeys is you can't maintain your dignity, if you don't raise your hands you just might get a face full.
not believing this picture, and coming to my senses i back away from the monkey and look around for whoever else may be witnessing this. no one except a blind begger was there at that moment. strangely he had a smile on his face that made me have a double take on his eyes, doesn't look like they work, hmmm, whats he smiling at?...perhaps you don't need eyes to perceive absurdity.
bear with me this next one is good.
it takes place at one of our favourate resturants, with a nice rooftop view of the ganges. in the back of my mind i had noticed that everytime we come here, there is this man sitting on the roof smoking. always sitting and smoking, with a long stick. you may ask yourself: why is he always doing this? but in this part of the world guys just sitting around smoking is not unusual, and, hey big stick, always need a big stick for something, so out of mind it goes.
well one day we arrive and the smoking guy is not there. well wouldn't you know; no guy with long stick = monkeys. as it is a rooftop restaurant it is connected with many other rooftops, this is the realm of...you guessed it, monkeys. so there we were enjoying a nice meal when we start to realize that there is not one but many monkeys all around us. the whole family, how nice. so the usual dining experiance always involves shooing off a few monkeys doesn't it?
as we are trying to have a bite and pausing frequently to chase away some of the more brazen fellows, the big papa, top monkey, shows up. without hesitation he jumps onto the tin roof and crashes his way over to the post and down he comes. right onto our table. he is not small or fearful in anyway. this presents two problems: first, laura is hungry, and nothing comes between laura and lunch time; second, as you may have guessed, laura by now is done with monkey shennanigans. done as done can be. it scrambles onto the table and grabs all of laura's chapaties (flat bread), steps back to the railing and has the nerve to start digging into them right there.
well my little friend, perhaps no one has told you about laura and her food. there's going to be trouble. she fires out a straight left that lands with authority, smack in the side. i mean she really smoked this ball of fur and fangs. it was as shocked as i was. but still he did not run, only until she lines him up for another does he bolt. needless to say i looked at her proudly and reminded myself never to be caught sneeking any peas off her plate.
so there you have it. monkeys: consider yourself warned.
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lisa
non-member comment
go laura
great monkey tail...oops, i meant tale