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Published: October 1st 2006
We arrived in Rishikesh, really not knowing what to expect.... The lonley planet says its very 'new age' and we immediately spotted some adverts for 'rebirthing therapy' and 'finding yourself'! Getting slightly sceptical we really werent sure if we'd find anything vaguely normal - but on the plus side the Ganges (pronunced Ganja out here!) was stunning and the mountains seemed like a tropical paradise - compete with monkeys and all.
Wondering around we stumbled on a sign for a yoga school that looked vaguely normal and didn't mention anything about all the spiritual stuff so we decided to give it a go that evening...
So we rocked up and got stuck in.... I had no idea what was going on for the first 10 mins as we just lay on the floor resting without actually having done anything yet! Soph later reassured me that this was the way it was done... (she is a seasoned beginner / pro compared to me!) After 2 hours of getting into random poses, with the advanced guys basically managing to stick there legs on there head whilst balanced on one arm, whilst bending the other arm in ways I never knew you could, we finished up and i fell asleep in the final relaxation session (the train ride was taking its toll!). We then decided to go for the full 10 session course with this guy called (his spiritual name!) Govinda.... Who soph seemed to develop quite a thing for!
Unfortunately however 5 sessions into the course - I was down! The salad in the restaurant looked so good - and it was actually a concious decision to 'risk it'! What an error - without going into detail it was not a great 48 hours - Soph also came down with something two days later and we still dont know what it was - but she managed to finish the course first! On the up side though our skiing muscles are now fitting fit due to all the squatting!
We left rishkesh - way more flexible (and stiff) both having loved the yoga (we both finished our ten sessions in the end), and now carying yoga mats with us! We now qualify as 'new age!' We are now off to Varanasi.... Apparently the scam capital of india - we'll let you know.....
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barbara
non-member comment
hi
So enjoying hearing all the news... well most of it... not that I have anything against poo... sorry to hear you are suffering... following you on the map so keep the place names coming... love to both mum/barbara