Day 6 (Awesome day in Richikesh)

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Had an absolutely brilliant day today, definitely the best since i got to India.

Started early, intending to meet the others for yoga at 8.30am. I arrived a few minutes late and went in to find the instructor and 3 people (only one of which i knew) lying on the floor with bricks on their stomachs. I joined in, got myself a brick (it was made of weighted plastic) and laid on the floor for a few minutes. Now i always thought yoga was supposed to be a relaxing experience, but im not so sure. Invigorating maybe, a good start to the morning yes but i seemed to miss the relaxation part, though i seemed to be the only one.

The instructor seemed to know what he was doing and was very supportive, as we were going through the moves he was going around correcting technique, which unfortunately for me meant i was actually made to stretch, which wasn't all to comfortable. These streaking sections were followed by 'relaxing' sections, where i was asked to lie on the floor fully aware that in about a minute my body was going to be contorted into some new and adorably named position. I'm sure with practice it all becomes a bit easier, but an hour into an hour and a half session i was feeling some serious muscle burn. Despite this when i let the session (which only cost 100 rupees (about 1.60)) i was feeling pretty good. I have a weird feeling in my back and shoulders that i'm pretty sure was a lack of pain and tension caused by carrying my pack. After this i joined Rajad for breakfast, feeling pretty good about myself. It was the earliest i had got up and i felt productive. And the rest of the day just got better.

After eating and chatting for about an hour with Rajah, Steve and the girls a few of us (me, stee and Raj) decided to go to one of the waterfalls just outside town. The Canadian girl (i really cant remember her name very well) tagged along too. We knew from the LP guide that the waterfalls were 2km outside town and a further 1.5km of uphill walking. It wasn't too hot so we decided to walk it. Half way there we came upon a section of road that had literally fallen away, the landslide had reduced the size of the road by half and there were a few police men there to warn and direct traffic to avoid the massive hole. Raj spoke to one of the officers and apparently it had just happened and no one had been hurt. We carried on walking, getting hotter and hotter as we walked until we reached the entrance to the falls. Here we paid our 30 Rupee entrance fee and started the climb up to the falls.

It took us about an hour to reach to get to the falls, walking a rough path covered by the occasional landslide with sections that we had to practically climb, surrounded on all sides by forest with the river on our right. Half way up we found a road with three Indian men on it, I asked them if the road lead down to the entrance and they said yes, when i told them the way we had come they said 'no no, big problem that way'. No kidding. By this point we were all drenched is sweat, clinging to our water bottles and quite out of breath. Thankfully the next section had some steps leading up. We came to the first waterfall where a small group of Indians seemed to be having a party, somehow they had managed to find beers and a bottle of whiskey (Richikesh is in a dry state) and a few were swimming in the pool beneath the waterfall. The man from the road told us that the main waterfall was further up so we carried on climbing the steps. Halfway to the main waterfall i saw a small path leading towards the river and decided to investigate. I'm so glad i did.

At the end of the short path was a small waterfall with to pools beneath it. None was about and we decided that whatever the main waterfall looked like this one must be better. Me and Steve decided to get in, i got down to my boxers and Steve (who had somehow managed to forget to put underwear on that morning) emptied his pockets and we both went into the first pool. The other two held back, unsure about whether they wanted to get in. The first pool was not deep, it came to about our thighs and had a thick layer of mud on the bottom. Unsure about whether we had made the right choice in getting in we waded through the first pool and into the second, which was at the base of the waterfall. This one was perfect, shoulder depth cool water with a solid stone bed. The other two were convinced and so they jumped in.

The place was beautiful. it was surrounded on all sides by forest/ In the trees above us there were monkeys swinging about and the only sound from anything besides us was the waterfall and the sounds of the birds and other animals in the forest.

We had gotten pretty sweaty and gross on the way up and the water was nice and cool. We spent about an hour in the pool, at one point steve and i decided to climb the waterfall and slide back down into the pool below. It really was lovely but after about an hour we decided to get out, get dressed and continue up to the main waterfall at the top.

We weren't disappointed with our choice of pool, the one at the top was bigger but the banks had been made out of concrete and there was a metal shack by the side of the bank for people to change in, these made the place feel a lot less natural and secluded.

Seeing that the very top of the waterfall was only about 50 meters up Rajad suggested we head to the top. Although tired by now and getting sweaty gain we agreed that we had come too far to not go to the top so we set off. However, after only a minute climbing up the steps we found two Indian boys carrying bags and boxes. they told us that the path didn't lead to the top but to a small village about a kilometer away. They also offered us chips from the boxes they were carrying and one even said he could cook us noodles on a small stove if we wanted. We said no but thank you and decided to head back down to the entrance. Just before we started heading down Ilona (the Canadian girl, i remembered her name :-) who seems to have some way of attracting scorpions (she found one in her room a few days ago) caught a glimpse of one a few inches from my foot. After a quick look we hurried off down the steps. This time we used the right path and arrived back at the entrance to the waterfalls in about an hour.

Back at the hotel i intended to jump in the shower but once in my room i ended up laying down for a second and passed out in less than a minute.

The need for food woak me so i went downstairs where i found the others were about to order (perfect timing). I was hungry and decided to treat myself and went for a chicken sizzler, a dish of chicken, potatoes and veg with a mushroom sauce that is placed into a really hot dish before serving, this makes it spit, steam and well, sizzle in general for a minute before you can get close enough to eat it. I finished the night off with banana and chocolate pancakes and said goodnight.

It was a truly awesome day.

P.S. Found out that the trip to the valley of Flowers isnt 5000 rupees (da da da da daaaaa) but 600 each way in a shared jeep plus food and accommodation costs, so it should be much less than 5000 :-)

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