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Published: October 28th 2010
Rishakesh October 18, 2010
My newest travel companion and I are leaving Haridwar. We have organized a car to drive us to Rishakesh in the afternoon after we finish seeing some last minute sites in Haridwar. We pick a hotel from Lonely Planet, but when we get there, the view is awesome, but the bathrooms, not so awesome. We look at another hotel which is actually comparable for about 800 rps more. So we decide to suffer with a sucky hotel bathroom in exchange for a fabulous location and wonderful waterfront views of the Ganges River!! Looking back on it, I know I would not have enjoyed Rishakesh as much if we had been at one of the fancier hotels located across the footbridge and farther away from the Lakshma Juhl bridge. Sometimes suffering with less than optimal conditions is a good compromise if the location is really nice.
When we come back to Hotel Aargawaal, one of the rooms that was available is now occupied by Richard, a young Brit of Indian descent as well. We all hit it off and decide to get together for drinks later. Heena and I walk the streets looking at the nice
shops, and checking out the freaky tourists. It is a bit like Woodstock lite with all the hippie-wanna-be’s, but it is a really nice, relaxed vibe and perfect after the chaotic and crazy India I’ve been experiencing for the past 3 and ½ weeks. We eat at the Ganga Beach house and have these unbelievable fruit shakes, then fruit lassis (yogurt drinks). Again, the view is right on the Ganges River looking out at the Lakshma Juhl Bridge, couldn’t ask for a better place to sit and chill out for a little while.
Later we walk forever trying to find an ATM. I knew I should have demanded our driver stop at an ATM before dropping us off. Here is a tip when traveling to India, if you are getting low on money, do NOT delay in finding the nearest ATM…you never know when if you will be able to find one (that accepts your card).
As we are walking around trying to find the nearest ATM, and the light is quickly fading, a priestly looking man approaches me and says hello. He looks to be trying to sell something, or maybe wants to “bless me” which is
always accompanied by demands for money. So I avoid him and just keep walking, and Heena and I hear him say, “Oooh, I don’t like youuuu.” That becomes my favorite phrase!!! After walking about 40 minutes Heena and I decide it’s getting too dark and the road doesn’t seem to be leading anywhere quickly, so we turn back and walk to our hotel.
The next day, we walk around and meet up with Tonya who gives us some good pointers on some good yoga places. I go to the Shri something or other near our hotel and the bit of yoga stretching feels soooo wonderful. I know I should be doing more stretching while I’m traveling but it’s hard when sharing rooms and finding little privacy. I take four classes in the next 2 days, one in the morning and evening.
We walk to the other bridge, the Ram Juhl Bridge where we stop and dip our feet in the holy Ganges River. We continue to the shops nearby, finally find the ATM we were looking for the night before, and make our way to the Maharaj Marakesh’s ashram where the Beatles famously found their spiritual guru only
to be disillusioned and write the song, Sexy Sadie describing how they fell for his con.
On the way back, we stop for lunch and walk up the hill back to our hotel. I stop to take pictures of some women with huge parcels of reeds and leaves carried on their heads. It’s so incredible how they carry such heavy loads like that. I don’t notice they are yelling at me, and as they approach one of them hits me with the stick she is carrying, apparently angry that I’m taking their picture. The other one starts chasing me with her stick until I run around the side of a nearby car. I do not feel too badly posting their pictures, since I did not capture their faces, but I probably would not have taken it if I knew they were so upset about it. It is actually preferable to ask permission to take photos of people. But it is not uncommon, especially women, to refuse having their pictures taken for privacy or modesty reasons, I suppose, or maybe simply because they feel exploited yet again.
Finally, tired and hot, we stop at the white water rafting outfit
(De-A-sent) to arrange for a rafting trip. We are told there are no other groups we could join, but they will still arrange the trip and have two other guides join us to fill out the boat. Later I go to yoga, after which I get my second massage of the trip, and it is wonderful and just 500 rps. For that price, I can forgive that she answered her phone during the massage!! This is India, and the “customer service” standards apparently do not address personal calls during massages!!
The third day of Rishakesh, we whitewater raft and it is so much fun. Richard’s back is bothering him so he begs out but is going to be dropped off on the way so he can walk to a waterfall. But as we climb the mountain to get to the start of our run, I prod him one more time…the views of the river are amazing and it’s hard to resist the glistening water below. So he pretty quickly changes his mind. It’s been awhile since I’ve rafted but I figure the Class 3 rapids would be somewhat sedate. Anything but. They were quite good and our guide expertly
drove us into the heart of each rapid for the greatest thrill. What a blast. And we quickly bonded with all our team.
Finally, after spending a few hours relaxing at the Ganga Beach Café again, having more fruit drinks (sooo good), I head over for another yoga class and drag Richard along since he has been complaining about his back for a few days. But the Shri-something-or-other yoga center is closed, so we find a new yoga class, with Prakash, at the Himalayan Yoga Center. He is wonderful and takes the time to correct my form, so I know he knows what he is doing. His style is very similar to my own classes at home (except he probably could fold himself into a pretzel, I don’t think my instructor could do that). I meet Heena for dinner later, and we both are sorry to be heading separate ways since we have become such good travel buddies and fast friends. But she is on her way to a meditation retreat (1 week of silence). This is just the beginning of her 4 month stay in India. She is a bit anxious about being in India alone and traveling
for the next four months. But I know she will be fine. It is actually pretty easy to meet other solo travelers so she will not likely have to travel much on her own if she doesn’t want to. Then she will spend another week at an ashram - sounds very relaxing and I’m a little jealous after having enjoyed the relaxing week and several yoga classes.
Heena and I head for our busses in the morning and say good-bye. I will miss traveling with her. In addition to being a great travel companion, her Hindi gave me a great insight into India. When I bought some deoderant and worried that the glass container would break, the shopkeeper told Heena, “Don’t worry this is good quality, it was not made in India.” When an Indian man calls her “sister”, he is indicating he is not coming on to her, but is treating her like his own sister - makes it SO much easier to figure out relationships, no? And everytime Heena went to the shops, the shopkeepers would ask, “you are staying with the ‘white girl’?” revealing just how much our movements were noticed. Heena explained that the Indians
are notorious gossipers. I just loved that I became known as “the white girl”…
I board a bus to Haridwar and a guy also boards and sits right next to me…with the bus nearly entirely empty. I suspect he is just a curious guy and wants to sit next to the “white girl” but I don’t like it and, as I point to all the empty seats, I ask him to change seats, which he seems to do without taking any offense.
I have to change busses in Haridwar - as I’m searching for the bus to Delhi, my nose is assaulted by an unbelievable stench of urine. I turn around and notice an outdoor urinal with several men relieving themselves…a truly “public restroom”. It is actually a shockingly common sight to see men stop their bike or motorcycle for a wee on the side of the road (not very far from the road, mind you). But they have taken this to a new level and actually installed urinals outdoors to make it that much easier for the men to publicly relieve themselves.
I look for the A/C “Volvo” busses, everyone suggests since they are more like
our US style luxury coaches. But the so called “tourist” bus doesn’t leave until 5:00 and I don’t want to wait another 3 hours. So I hear a guy yell “Delhi, Delhi Delhi, Delhi”, like he is rustling cattle, and I jump onboard, actually more like tentatively look at the bus before slowly stepping on, as if I were being sent to the gallows. My bulky backpack makes it difficult to maneuver in the tiny aisles so they relegate me to the front of the bus where I am essentially on show for all the Indians.
I see people smiling and whispering among themselves, and I smile and wave. As usual, they seem thrilled that I’m responding to them. The Indian man next to me tells me he is also taking the bus for the first time, since he just totaled his car in an accident. This is “real India” he tells me. As if he jinxed the bus, the bus breaks down four hours into the trip (with two hours still left). I have to laugh, and actually take a little pleasure out of the fact that I am experience such quitessential India, and part of me absolutely
loves this!!! There I am, with my bulky backpack and India purse waiting in the middle of the busy road (there are no highways as far as I’ve ever seen) waiting along with the rest of the bus for the next bus to Delhi, dust flying as the cars slowly pass us by on this overcrowded, busy road with traffic backed up because of our broken bus. After only about 20 or 30 minutes, the third Delhi bus stops and lets us on. This time I get a spot in the far back of the bus where I try to sleep a little.
I finally get into Delhi at 10:00 pm and spend another 15 minutes walking around Delhi ISBT before I finally find my driver who was sent by the volunteer group to pick me up. I get back to the house at 12:00, where the laid back, chilled-out vibe of Rishakesh is a million miles away.
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Cate
non-member comment
Looking good!
Hey Michele, Wow, it is great to read about your adventures.... love the pix too! Can't wait to see you! When are you coming back home? I'm leaving on November 19th to visit Susan for a week. Got in touch with my old friend Kim who works at Disney so looking forward to seeing her while I'm there. Bathroom is finished, looks great, and working on getting the house back into shape. They had to empty the front hall and move things around in the living room, along with all the dust everywhere; I've just been cleaning everything! Blah, blah, blah....busy, busy, busy.....:) Anywhoooo... Having sibs and friends for "Christmas in Belmont" on December 12th. Hope you are back and can come! In the meantime, looking forward to more "Adventures in India with Michele". When do you go to Nepal??? Cate