Blogs from Uttarakhand, India, Asia - page 62

We just stumbled back into town after 12 hours on the lowest class bus in India. The Himalayas are young and sedimentary so landslides are frequent and road work is never finished. Our bus bounced over huge fallen rocks, inches from the 1000 foot crumbling edge with no guard rail. Overflowing with people we screech brakes around thin corners with full size busses squeezing between us and the mountain. On the other side a mile down is a river. Nothing between us and death. Most women are puking, Melissa falls asleep to the bouncing, and I stay sane by imaging myself jumping through the tiny window and grabbing a small tree when we inevitably drive off the cliff. My nerves are tight and my stomach turns the whole way. The bus slows only for fresh landslides ... read more

Well we finally made it to Rishikesh in the north and it is fabulous. We have a balcony overlooking the Ganga and can even see our Ashram too. It's mad to think that we are actually at the Himalayas. The guy who met us at the railway station, Baba, turned out to be so nice and helpful, he collected us the first morning to bring us to the ashram, then brought Irene on a mad motorcycle ride to get a cricket bat for her brother. We got a message to return his call the first morning, so I phoned the mobile number but it turned out to be Mr. Siu - the man who had helped us find our correct carraige after we had literally just thrown ourselves on the train. He was just phoning to ... read more

So we leave Jasalmer at 10am on Friday, after driving for the whole day and having a bit of a long detour through Bikaner - due to Magnus, the Norgewian dude wanting to get food and Bengali being a thick fucker - we end up having to stay in this FILTHY roadside motel place....as Bengali won't drive at night, he even refuses to use his full lights - they have to be on dim the whole time. Bearing in mind that this is the country where they drive like maniacs and the rest of the population refuse to dim their lights even with oncoming traffic it's not a great idea! But the motel place was gross, we literally got in, slept and set off at like 8 the next morn tp avoid being there any ... read more

A little behind on my travel blogs, but do not worry, now that I'm traveling by myself I'll have plenty of time to catch up! Going back three weeks ago . . . We were still in India, still in Rishikesh, seems like a lifetime ago on a different planet. Rachel, Jordana and I had planned to go on a four day Himalayan trek to climb a mountain peak which reached a little more than 4,000 meters (the highest mountain peak in Lake Tahoe is at Heavenly, and is ONLY 3068 meters tall!). We had our guide Mokesh to lead us through beautiful mountains, remote villages and deep valleys. Despite cold weather, hail and rain, we reached our peak on the fourth day! It was exhilarating. Here are my pictures from that event, enjoy! Next Destination: ... read more

So I'm in Rishikesh and have come to work on a small Electricity project at the Swami Rama Sadhaka Gram. It is a Yoga School and not denominated with any one religion. I need to get that out because whenever someone thinks of Rishikesh, the first image that comes into your mind is Hinduism. While Rishikesh is a Hindu pilgrimage centre this ashram is a school of Yoga and doesn't limit itself to any one religion. It carries books on all faiths in its library and bookstore and its teachings are universal. Its hard to walk on the streets of Calgary and miss the numerous Yoga schools. Its become a big business lately. This ashram is pretty new (only 2 years old) and I've come here to help out. The best way to show you this ... read more