We're NOT Crazy After All! (Dec 6)

Brad is losing it - he's going into some serious CBC withdrawal! It was bad enough that they were on strike all summer but atleast we had the program repeats to listen to. Now we don't even have that! It's has reached the point where if I say something innocent and unrelated, just a random word like, say... roundup - Brad starts speaking in tongues, spewing CBC radio personality and program names. He is now at the point where he sits at night with the radio I bought to listen to the translation of the Dalai Lama trying to tune in the BBC!

We are visiting Rishikesh today. After breakfast we strolled out to the roadway and caught a shared rickshaw. Rishikesh is about 25 km from Haridwar and takes just under an hour to get to. In a shared rickshaw there is a great deal of starting and stopping as people load and unload along the way. At one point we had 11 passengers and the driver packed into seating for 7. Talk about cozy! Brad moved to sit on the floor so that two women with a baby could squeeze in.

The rickshaw driver dropped us near the main bus stand in downtown Rishikesh. Most ashrams (and Westerners) head directly across the river to the Swarg Ashram area. The driver told us it was 5 km away but it didn't look that far on the map (not that it's been totally reliable). We decided to walk.

We made a quick stop at an internet cafe and popped into a couple of guest houses to check out the area accommodations and pricing options. Before long we could see the footbridge ahead of us - that was no 5 km! The driver was likely not totally lying but not totally telling the truth either - it probably is 5 km by auto but by foot, it's much closer.

The bridge is a suspension type connecting the two communities across the Ganges. The river is quite low now but we can see evidence that, in spring, it gets very high. There are children on the bridge selling food to throw to the giant (and fat!) carp in the river. They are huge!

We stopped into one of the restaurants just across the bridge. They have a person out front dressed as a ChotiWalla. We're not sure what it's supposed to be but his whole head is shaved except for a pony tail sticking straight out the back of his head. His entire head and neck are painted pink and he sits on a raised platform ringing a bell suspended from the ceiling. He's quite odd looking really and we have no idea what the connection is to food.

We sat on the rooftop patio in order to watch the comings and goings below. It would have been better except that the flies were driving us crazy! We're not sure why Rishikesh would have so many more flies than anywhere else we'd been - maybe there's a big landfill or something too nearby. The food wasn't bad but we didn't lounge for long with all those flies!

Rishikesh is more well known for yoga than Haridwar (the Beatles came here after all) and there are lots of ashrams and teachers catering to Western students. With all this peace and love and yoga, you'd expect this place would be wonderful and tranquil. Maybe we expect too much? It seemed strange that the ashrams were pretty heavily fortified. The Ved Niketan had entrance traps and steel mesh covering everything. Maybe it's because there are so many Westerners? Or maybe it's because of all the chilan smoking Sadhus - but we figure the worst you'd get from them is a serious case of the munchies.

We also stopped at the local internet cafe/travel agent for awhile to enquire about the best way to get back to Dharamsala. We walked back across the bridge to book a room at the Yoga Niketan for tomorrow. As we were crossing the bridge, we saw a monkey walk up and try to grab a woman's purse right out of her hands! Cheeky! She must have had food in it or maybe he just didn't like the looks of her.

Back in a rickshaw, back to Haridwar and dinner. Sitting in the dining hall, we were joined by Grit and Sten from Munich. Grit was in PR and Sten in computer software. They had both quit their jobs, put their stuff in storage, put their cars with their friends and taken off for a year of travel. (Wow! We're not so crazy after all!)

They had just been in South Africa and Namibia -I guess, after talking to them, we're going to have to add those to our list of "must see". We had a great conversation about traveling and jobs versus careers and family and friends thoughts on our decisions. It could have gone longer but it was getting late - time for bed!