Wash Away Sin..... (Dec 3)

Sleeping on the top bunk, for whatever reason, I got more sleep than on our last train ride. I woke at 3:30 am (1/2 hour before my alarm... of course). I seem to have picked up another intestinal bug. Dammit!! (Oops... pardon my language).
Ah well, this too shall pass.. atleast I'm not hiking.

We pulled into our station an hour late so it was just after 5 am. I figured that was just fine. We were staying at the Moyal Ashram and if we were earlier, I had doubts that anyone would be up. We exited the station and it felt like something was wrong. We left completely unharassed. It was weird.

We walked to the rickshaw stand (they didn't come to us) and did the usual negotiating. The roads here are much smoother... like glass compared to Gaya... but it is freezing! (You can see your breath). You have to understand, it was quite warm in Gaya but we've gone north again and it's now cold. The wind was whipping my hair around, my face was freezing, my eyes were tearing - luckily we're Canadian (and I'd pulled on my fleecy pullover that I'd picked up in Dharamsala).

The ashram is just on the edge of town, 4 - 5 km from the train station. We pulled up to a barrier that lead down a driveway. I walked up to the gate to make sure that someone was about. There were three night watchmen(?) sitting outside in lawn chairs who invited us in.

The reception wasn't open but they went to wake someone and cleared a chair for me to sit on. They didn't speak any English really but they were friendly. After a few minutes, a young man appeared (I'm pretty sure we got him out of bed). We filled out all the paperwork (India seems to run on paperwork) and he found us a room. It was not made up and there were no towels but we have to wait for the staff to start and they don't get in until 7 am. We also discovered that the water was not turned on in the room. We laid down on the bed and napped for awhile while we waited for the place to get rolling. We think he put us in this room simply because it was the only room available. Brad went down to the reception desk around 9 and they told us we couldn't move rooms until someone else checked out. Popular place!

The ashram is built, mainly, from white marble and has a beautiful yoga and meditation hall. I'm starting to think that India has more than it's share of white marble! The rooms are very nice and, since its an ashram, it's pretty inexpensive. It even includes breakfast and dinner in the dining hall.

While we waited to move rooms, we decided to go and get breakfast. Pretty simple food - parantha, curd, potato curry and chai - as much as you care to eat. There were three French people sitting at a table near us butI couldn't hear enough to figure out if they were from France or Quebec.

A young couple came in, Brad met the young woman in the doorway. She was from Richmond Hill but hadn't been home in two years. She's been travelling. She and her companion had just come from two months of volunteer work in Mumbai and like us, hadn't seen very many Canadians in her travels (although there was one other Canadian where she was volunteering.)

After breakfast we moved rooms, got settled and decided to stroll into town. It was a pretty long walk. We stopped at the first internet cafe we saw. He let us use it quickly to check on our email - the power was out and he didn't want to strain his generator. I guess all the power was off today - something about work being done to computerize the system. We did just quick email to make sure there wasn't anything urgent and continued our trek into the main part of town.

Haridwar isn't as big a tourist spot for Westerners so most of the signs are in Hindi and people don't speak as much English. There are a really large number of monkeys here compared to other cities we've been in. In fact, I think I may have seen more monkeys than cows - just climbing around on the buildings, etc. A bit of an 'urban jungle' I guess. I would liken them to the North American raccoon - don't leave anything out you don't want eaten. At one point we were strolling through the very lively market place and, when I looked up, a family of monkeys had opened someone's window and the only thing keeping them from trashing the place was the bars on the inside.

The market has an endless maze of shops but, like many tourist areas, they all look the same after awhile. After lunch we headed over to the Ganges. Brad took off his boots and stuck his feet in. This is the point where the Ganges "officially" exits the Himalayas. It is very cold and runs very fast. There are chains for the pilgrims to hold so they don't get washed away while taking their ceremonial plunge at the ghats. The area could be quite relaxing...except that you have to find a spot away from the beggars. The beggars here who are missing legs or who have had polio move around on small platforms with wheels. (Others we've seen just crawl on whatever they have left.) The first time one approached me, I thought it was a skateboard coming up behind me!

The Har-Ki-Pari ghat marks the spot where the river leaves the moutains and this is where the pilgrims come to bathe. Non Hindus did not used to be allowed on the ghat but they have opened it up and simply request a donation. The problem is that there seem to be quite a large number of "official" people with name badges and donation books all swarming you for donations as soon as you get near the ghat. They all claim to be official. Our first encounter with them actually drove us away from the very thing we'd come to see. We left the ghat and strolled further into town.

We were standing in a gentleman's clothing shop - I was waiting for Brad who was buying himself a shirt. I was just absentmindedly looking around at the stacks of fabric and rugs sitting up on pallets when I saw a small furry run by. I'm pretty sure it was a rat but it looked more like a giant mouse. It was kind of cute really (I'm a sucker for small furrys... what can I say).

After we'd had enough wandering around, we headed back to the ashram. I was tired and didn't feel like eating so Brad headed down to the dining hall without me while I rested. While he was there he met B.K.Pal. They talked about India and yoga. He told Brad about the school where he and his wife trained in yoga - the Bihar school. His wife has a P.G.Diploma in Yoga Science and is a Yoga Therapist (along with her BHSc, MA and BEd!) He was telling Brad about yoga nidra (yogic sleep) and recommended the school and some books to check out.

Speaking of sleep.......