Rishikesh

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Well I am in Rishikesh, laxmanjhula to be exact and this place is pretty nice! Touristy yes, but thats kind of nice when your travelling by yourself. Just as the Beatles came here to do yoga I have also given it a go! Fun fun, but not so great for my dodgy shoulder... My first lesson was pretty intense, beautiful view over the turquiose Ganges from the rooftop of my Ashram, with the sun setting towards the end of the class. Nice. The 'intense' part is because my ashram is a retreat for yogaholics that are training to be teachers- so they are all considerably better than me!! I was once again the class comedian falling over! This position was rivalled however by the local monkeys who was making us laugh with their antics quite alot. The funniest bit was when the yoga teacher went from his serene 'Ommmmm' meditation position to getting up and running after the monkeys wielding a large stick! Good times...

I met a guy here who is co-incidentally from crowland (right near my home town for those who dont know)! Crazy, basically my next door neighbour in the scheme of things. We went for a swim together in the Ganges- it was absolutely FREEZING! Good fun though! Got used to it after a bit... Although I daren't swim properly because a/ I'm a crap swimmer and b/ there is quite visibly strong currents there. Nice beaches though, particularily for a river.

Also tried my hand at white-water rafting here. Good fun! I really enjoyed it, despite being the only girl amongst a bunch of rowdy Delhi lads that were having a lads weekend! They were good to chat to though they were rubbish at rafting- half the time they were paddling forward instead of backpaddling or they just stopped to chat when we were supposed to be paddling hard! It was reminicent of when the teachers used to group me with the lads in drama class in the faint hope I could get them to focus enough to produce something...

In Rishikesh I have found a good bookshop too- with reasonable prices instead of some of the through-the-roof prices you get in some tourist areas (In Hampi I got quoted a price above the british retail price for a battered second-hand copy of something!). So have spent alot of my time sitting in pretty little places with great views over the Ganges reading. Am totally absorbed in Rudyard Kipling's KIM right now, can't believe I never read it before. Nice lazy days...

But thats all over later- I get the train to Delhi tonight, (in luxury - an AC class!) and then have just 2 days there before coming home! It will be strange to come back, and I expect quite cold :-s maybe not, lets see. So just one more entry to come for this country I guess!

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