Our next stop was Rishikesh. This is a holy area at the Himalayas where the Ganga starts. It's sometimes called the yoga capital of the world, and since we were a yoga-centered team, we were really excited to go. To be more precise, we would be in the Laxman Jhula area, a tourist area famous for its bridge. Here's a video of the bridge.
It was a long drive there, so my friends finally cracked open the Hindi alphabet books we got in Delhi. We had a nice academic time looking at some vowels and copying them down many times. They picked my brain on some of the basics, which got me interested in Hindi again.
Entering Rishikesh was taking one step away from India and back towards the west. I'd say at least half the people there were western travelers, with their wide eyes and backpacks. Residents were...chilled out.
Hari dropped us off at our hotel in the evening and bowed out of our adventure. We said goodbye in the way that three enthusiastic yoginis with a mild crush on a quiet Indian man and a modest mathematician who appreciates a good driver would say goodbye.
The hotel that Wahoe arranged for us was a great price, to be sure, but there was pretty much nothing there except for beds and plumbing. For example, we had to buy TP from outside.
We had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. Actually all the restaurants in the area are vegetarian, and have roughly the same menu: Indian, Italian, Israeli.
The following night was the worst night of my year. Let me not go into details, but I think that when you feel nauseous, there is an obvious thing you should try doing. If you don't do it, and instead assuage the symptoms with medicines, very unpleasant things may happen. Now as soon as I did the "obvious thing" I was on the road to recovery, although the next day I stayed in bed mostly. I was also really chilly, and should have procured a heater the previous evening. Oh well. We had been warned about the cold, and this would not be the end of our troubles with heat.
Okay, so as I said, Rishikesh is really more of an "international" place than an Indian place, so begins to fall outside the purview of this blog. We took some yoga classes, went to restaurants, thought about going to a cult but it was too early, visited internet cafes... I guess we did a couple "Indian" things, though:
We took a rickshaw to Rishikesh proper and visited the Ganga. Here's my video coverage of the event.
It was nice and peaceful. Some kids asked for money and I juggled pebbles for them instead to their bemusement.
Some sharply dressed young men started a photoshoot. Courtney was in several. Since I had shaved that morning, they let me pose for a couple shots.
Back by the bridge, Hari came by for another delivery, and we realized that we needed more photos of him:
We were milling around another part of the Ganga in Laxman Jhula when some sadhus invited us in for hot milk. So we went into a little hovel with a cooking area and spiritual posters around, and sat with three "chilled out" men. Their names were Swapnamhoomi, Omkar Puri, and Bhola Baba. Swapnamhoomi was retired from a job in law, and was our host, being the most gregarious and fluent in English. They had blogs and e-mail addresses. Yes, everyone and their baba has a blog nowadays. Stacy asked about the Ganga. Omkar Puri told Swapnamhoomi the long story in another language, and then he repeated it to us. Bhola Baba sat with eyes glazed over, presumably enjoying being chilled out. There was smoke in the air...Stacy said it was a nice story, to which they insisted that it was a fact, and well she got called skeptical again. They invited us back the next day for pasta, but we didn't show up.
Another curiosity in Rishikesh was a shopowner who would declare, "Everything is possible! Fantastic! Bombastic!" everytime someone would walk by. He is well-known for this. On our last night, I tried to catch a video of him doing this. I didn't quite get the timing right, and so you can see him singing a song about being "Mr. Lover" and flirting with Courtney. Enjoy.
That's about it for Rishikesh. Next I'll tell you about our notorious train ride back to Delhi.
It was a long drive there, so my friends finally cracked open the Hindi alphabet books we got in Delhi. We had a nice academic time looking at some vowels and copying them down many times. They picked my brain on some of the basics, which got me interested in Hindi again.
Entering Rishikesh was taking one step away from India and back towards the west. I'd say at least half the people there were western travelers, with their wide eyes and backpacks. Residents were...chilled out.
Hari dropped us off at our hotel in the evening and bowed out of our adventure. We said goodbye in the way that three enthusiastic yoginis with a mild crush on a quiet Indian man and a modest mathematician who appreciates a good driver would say goodbye.
The hotel that Wahoe arranged for us was a great price, to be sure, but there was pretty much nothing there except for beds and plumbing. For example, we had to buy TP from outside.
We had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant. Actually all the restaurants in the area are vegetarian, and have roughly the same menu: Indian, Italian, Israeli.
The following night was the worst night of my year. Let me not go into details, but I think that when you feel nauseous, there is an obvious thing you should try doing. If you don't do it, and instead assuage the symptoms with medicines, very unpleasant things may happen. Now as soon as I did the "obvious thing" I was on the road to recovery, although the next day I stayed in bed mostly. I was also really chilly, and should have procured a heater the previous evening. Oh well. We had been warned about the cold, and this would not be the end of our troubles with heat.
Okay, so as I said, Rishikesh is really more of an "international" place than an Indian place, so begins to fall outside the purview of this blog. We took some yoga classes, went to restaurants, thought about going to a cult but it was too early, visited internet cafes... I guess we did a couple "Indian" things, though:
We took a rickshaw to Rishikesh proper and visited the Ganga. Here's my video coverage of the event.
It was nice and peaceful. Some kids asked for money and I juggled pebbles for them instead to their bemusement.
Some sharply dressed young men started a photoshoot. Courtney was in several. Since I had shaved that morning, they let me pose for a couple shots.
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| Make some noise for the Desi Boys! |
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| Mehar's cool too. |
Another curiosity in Rishikesh was a shopowner who would declare, "Everything is possible! Fantastic! Bombastic!" everytime someone would walk by. He is well-known for this. On our last night, I tried to catch a video of him doing this. I didn't quite get the timing right, and so you can see him singing a song about being "Mr. Lover" and flirting with Courtney. Enjoy.
That's about it for Rishikesh. Next I'll tell you about our notorious train ride back to Delhi.
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