42 days (and curried breakfasts) in India

Sunday

I'm glad it's Sunday, which is a rest day,aside from rising for 6.30am to clean the yoga hall. My first curried breakfast was served this morning which I was unable to finish nevermind touch, due to a delicate tummy and overactive bowels !! I feel okay. I've taken some immodium and had a second breakfast outside the ashram so I've eaten something at least. It makes me wonder if there is a bug of some kind going around as everyday, at least one person or another has been feeling dodgey or not the best. With the amount of exercise we're doing also, all the toxins and yuck are being expelled from the body which is good but it has it's side effects too. 

Plan for today is to take it easy and enjoy. Joe, I haven't quite got round to loading images and using Skype yet. Not sure if the internet place I'm in at the moment would be the best for this anyway. Hope everyone is well. x

Yoga Niketan Ashram

I have literally lost track of time which is really good in many ways but as I recall, I arrived at the ashram on Friday morning around 10am. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, one of the workers at the hotel carried my suitcase and rucksack most of the way there - it's quite a walk and quite a few of my things will have to be posted back home before I leave. Carrying weight here is arduous.

The ashram is good. Situated on a hill overlooking Swargashram, it is usually a peaceful place but not this month with the 2 million extra revellers in town !!! I still can't quite catch the name of the deity being celebrated but it's a major celebration with people travelling from all over India and even Nepal to walk around yelling "Bolla bolla bolla" at all hours of the morning.

My accommodation is basic but okay. We're in blocks of 3 floors and I'm on the top floor with a genki Japanese female from Tokyo and a wealthy Chinese lass from Shanghai. There must be about 20 odd people staying at the ashram from various arts and parts. Nobody seems to have liked Delhi.

Food is "sattvic" i.e. it is simple, unvaried, strictly vegetarian or vegan and unspiced. Yellow tends to be the most common colour so I was quite excited to have tomatoes yesterday evening. Water is cold and filtered so it saves me from purifying a litre everyday. There is hot water in the bathroom and a fan which runs at about 100 miles an hour. 

The blocks are barricaded on each floor with metal mesh - monkey protection. I'm relaxing a little more at the thought of the monkeys but we appear to have a red-faced variety which is cheeky and quite aggressive. I was unable to go to the library for about 15 minutes yesterday as one had found it's way up to my floor and proceeded to push and sit at the gate!!

More importantly though the yoga is rather strenous but excellent. We have it easy in the West. The yoga hall is lovely, spacious and carpeted but the teachers don't believe in having the fans running here....so it becomes extremely hot and humid. However, by the time you are a third of the way through your practice your body is much more flexible. We have two lessons a day, one at 6.30 am and a second at 5pm, for roughly one hour. The teachers are young , extremely flexible and rather handsome.

Getting to Reeshikesh

I lay late on my second day here despite the fact that India awakens at 5.30am prompt. I only managed a small breakfast of cereal bar, my tea and banana. To be honest, with the heat I didn't feel like having that much. I had help leaving the hotel with the manager waving down a rickshaw to take me to the "bus station". On arrival there, some young fella pointed to a riotously painted bus as the one to Rishikesh and on asking the driver if he was going, he told me no. So I waited in the shade and next thing several people are yelling "Rishikesh, Rishikesh" and pointing at Beatle influenced bus. Myself, two Japanese females and a few Indians managed to get on. And these buses are not the most modern of things. We trundled out of Haridwar and stopped....to be told that it wasn't going to Rishikesh. So off we get and thankfully a young Indian chap stayed with myself and the two Japanese females and we took an auto rickshaw all the way to Rishikesh. Mad !

Rishikesh is bigger than I thought - the maps in the guidebook are deceitful. As the Japanese girls had similiar plans to myself we travelled by rickshaw and by foot to a good hotel, quite near to the Maharishi ashram where the Beatles lived in 1968. It was absolutely exhausting, but I changed, washed and explored the town a little having my first meal in a place called Chottiwala. I have decided on a strict ashram on the other side of the Ganges from Swarg Ashram where I am today and will head there tomorrow. I was too tired this morning.

I am being really careful about food and water and cleaning my hands. Lunch was lovely today at the Madras Cafe, again recommended by Rough Guide.

It is warm and misty and the rain is stunningly fantastic. Namaste x

Heathrow to Delhi to Risikesh

I have actually forgotten which day it is. This is day three but slowly but surely, I'm getting to grips with India. There is a lot to get to grips with.

My journey and flight to Heathrow was absolutely fine with no problems and no terrorists. To be honest the flight wasn't long enough because by the time we had landed I felt ready for bed. That, accompanied with the heat and humidity made Day 1 a long one.

Following Julia Reynold's advice (a teacher from Nodehill), I took a prepaid booked taxi from the airport to New Delhi train station. Delhi is not what I expected for a capital city of such a huge country. The outskirts of the city around the airport itself are still in the very early stages of development; it seems common to have either half-finished and half-ruined buildings everywhere filled with rubbish and children playing cricket on tiny strips of land nearby.

Anyway, on my arrival at the train station I was duped big time and despite what the Rough Guide says, I took an auto rickshaw to an agency 5 minutes away, to apparently buy a ticket. They couldn't do that of course but offered a taxi service at an extortionate price. So, in the heat and at 7.30 am I walked away, followed by another tout and fortunately found a kind rickshaw, back to the hellish station. And promptly, as the guidebooks advise, went to the Tourist office upstairs, and bought said train ticket to Haridwar before 8.50am ! I stayed in the air-conditioned office until my train arrived at 3.25pm by which time it was obscenely warm. I couldn't face lugging my case around in the heat - travel is efficient but hard work here.

I met three lovely French chaps from Nice on the train. They were only spending three weeks here but had managed a very good tour of northern India and were heading to Dehra Dun which is much further north than myself. It was really good to have a chat in French. The chap next to me was lovely and didn't rate the food much but had lots of advice and lovely photos. One of his friends was having a very hard time with the whole thing. I already know that you either like/love this place or hate it; I don't reckon there is an in-between feeling.

My first night in India was at Haridwar, 24km from Rishikesh. There is a train link between the two but it is easier by road. With my morning experience in Delhi, I successfully ignored the touts and made my way to a hotel of my choice right by the station. Further to this, there is a major festival taking place in Rishikesh, so people(men mostly), dressed in vivid orange are worshipping or celebrating everywhere; the towns and stations are packed.

I had a good first night in an air-conditioned room with a much needed shower and a cup of tea made with my travel kettle !

It's been a long week.......

I have just managed to create my first link on the blog, so hopefully, I'm going to be very impressed with myself this summer. I think that uploading images will be fun and I'm sure I won't 'get it right' first time.However, I seem to have expanded my ICT skills greatly in this one week alone. Travel is good.

Joe has helped me to upload the Skype software onto my USB and laptop so it's crazy but do-able - cheap telephone calls from abroad.

All the hotels I have emailed in Delhi have replied. Perhaps it's no wonder as the Weatherpixie is still standing in heavy rain and the temperature has risen to 30 degrees C today. As always, I'm undecided on which hotel to stay in. I don't think there will be much difficulty finding somewhere to stay so it's all about avoiding the touts and getting to my destination safely and in one piece. Roll on Monday. 

Indian dance

The big departure

This much anticipated departure to India will commence next Monday 21st July 2008. I will be arriving early on Tuesday 22nd July 2008 into a monsoon swept Delhi. Although I have plans for the six weeks I am there I should anticipate that the weather, the general everyday experiences and the infamous Delhi belly will all probably have the chance to influence my travels and timetable along the way !!

My first post:

 

Welcome to my first blog !

The aim of this blog is to keep you informed as I travel across India this summer. Hopefully this will be of personal interest to my friends and family and of some educational use to colleagues.

I would not be able to do this without the help of my Head of the French department at school, Joe Dale.