The world capital of Yoga
Trip Start
Oct 06, 2010
1
56
Trip End
Ongoing
Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India
Thursday, June 2, 2011
We made it our way to a place called Hardiwar as Rishikesh itself doesn't have a train station. In Hardiwar we split from our Indian travel companion and we took a rickshaw to Rishikesh. The road condition was extremely bad and it was already night time so we took one more hour before reaching our final destination. Once in Rishikesh we had some trouble with the rickshaw driver that did not want to drop us in the agreed guest house, so we had to make an over stop at the police station where the police started to badly jell at him in Hindi…Completely unaware of what was going on, we managed in the end to get a discount on the agreed price..Though we still had to cross one of the two main Rishikesh’s bridges and walk quite a while with our bags before getting to our guest house..
Anyway once we got there we literally crashed, exhausted as usual!
The following day, recharged with fresh energies, we went to explore the town. Rishikesh styles itself as the World Capital of Yoga, and indeed I believe this is true! Ashrams, any Yoga style school and meditation courses are really spread all over town. My first impression of Rishikesh is of a very new age place: people are very relaxed, the atmosphere is very spiritual and calm. The town is spread between the main Jhula (suspension bridges), that cross the river and are pedestrians only (ok…cows and monkeys cross the bridges as well..). We were staying in the Indian tourist part of town, Ram Jhula, a good and more quite alternative to the busier and more western Lakshman Jhula. Somehow Rishikesh remind me a little about Varanasi: We spend some time wondering in the narrow streets of the city centre, which we shared with the omnipresent holy cows and sadhus (Hindu spiritual guides), we wondered around the always crowded ghats by the Holy Gange river and we soaked again the spiritual atmosphere..
On the second day, Silver and I decided to spend a day apart from each other. I wanted to go by myself to a beach called ironically Goa beach, a small stretch of sand by the Ganga, and a reunion pojnt for foreigners. With my swimming suit and sunscreen onm I started to walk for about an hour under the hot sun. As I kept on walking I haven’t seen no beach at all..so I kept on walking and walking till I met some other people that were basically lost like me, and told me that if I would have kept on walking for a few km, I would have find some waterfalls! And so I did it! The walk was quite uphill and scenic as I went through a forest. After about forty minutes I got to a small path that lead me to two very small but also very refreshing waterfalls. I had a wonderful afternoon there, not because of the waterfalls themselves, which were nothing special, but because of the people I met! A group of young students on holiday approached me and we started to talk and talk till it got almost dark..then they invited me for a chay and some instant noodle soup in a street food stall close to the waterfalls. It has been really my pleasure to meet them! On my way back to the city I met another group of guys that kept me company along the way. We had such a nice time that we decided to meet again later all together and with Silver to have dinner.
It was very interesting to get to know Sathyam, a 20 years old Indian student, very mature for his age and very much in love with his Russian girlfriend that he never met!!! He approchead me asking: Maybe you can help me? I said: If I can I would do anything for you! He asked me to arrange a VISA to go to Russia and meet the young girlfriend he is talking at the phone with for already 4 years!!! I said I would have loved to know the details of the story..and that’s how we met and spend the rest couple of days together! Unfortunately, not being Russian myself there is not much I can do to help him to get the VISA, but he said he feels more confident after talking to me as I am wise :P! ahaha Sathyam, miss you!!!
The following day I was determined to get to the beach which I haven’t found on the previous day! Sathyam showed me where the beach was so that I could get with Silver for a swim.. As we got there, we were not the only foreigners as expected. We both bathed into the river and we found it quite refreshing as the water was freezing!!! And of course it has been a spiritual experience as well as all our sins had been washed away by the holy waters…ahaha! We spent the rest couple of hours playing with the sand, making castles and sand balls. Really nice and simple day!
Our days in Rishikesh passed by quite quickly, having a nice company and getting more and more spiritual by participating to the local ganga aarti, Ari Krishna ceremonies b the river..
In a few words..we simply loved Rishikesh.. But in Rishikesh we also had to take a very difficult decision as temperatures were getting higher and higher day by day. We thought about going to Kashmir region and spend some more time in the northern mountains, but we didn’t think it would have been a good idea as transportation is particularly dangerous over there, as the roads are falling apart and there are no train connections. So after wandering a couple of days our final decision was to leave India L
The trains to get to Delhi were fully booked so still having nightmare of the last bus ride, we decided to spend a little more money and take a private taxi. The taxi cost only 50 euro and the ride was of about 250 km (nine hours by road!!!) Anyway we made it on time to go to the Air Arabia ticket office and to the airport, destination Sharjah, a city close to Abu Dhabi, in the Emirates.
So…Sadly I can say that my adventure in Asia it is overL I would really have loved to spend about one more month in India but seriously high temperatures and the monsoon season starting very soon, made me change my plans..
I want to thank all my Indian friends for the great time spent together and the great places you showed me. Many thanks..! I am looking forward to come back to India, as I really loved this special country.
