Bathing in the Ganga

Namaste.

I have so much to tell.

First though, I need to award India points, redeemable for good karma.

+++++++India Points+++++++++++++++++
+To Jaime Lynne for her towel that keeps me dry for about 2 minutes after my bucket shower until the humidity hits again.
+To Liz for telling me how to use the calculator to bargain.
+To me for bringing neosporin to tend to the cut on my foot that is constantly coming into contact with cow shit mud puddles and water from the Ganga (Ganges).
+To Arlen telling me not to overprepare
+ To me for bringing the umbrella even after I thought the rains here were over. They are definately not over.

Hi all, I took a steamingly hot and crowded train from Delhi to Hardiwar in Uttaranchal and spent the night in the Prem Nagal (sp?) ashram. After 15 minutes of paranoia about bedbugs (what you might expect at $1/night and with a few suspicious spots on the wall near the bed), I fell into a deep sleep. I woke up with no bites! Wow! Then I used my first Indian toilet and bucket shower. And FYI, at the sake of too much information, it wasn't bad at all.

I then walked to Rishikesh, 24 km up the mountain. The taxi and bus drivers thought we were crazy walking because most people take some kind of car. But it was a pilgrimage. We walked through a national park in which there are wild elephants. All we saw was monkeys though. Rishikesh is a very holy city on the Ganga where the Beatles came back in the dark ages. I love it, it's purely vegetarian and in the neighborhood where I am staying there are very few tourists.

Rishikesh has ghats (steps) down to the river where people come to bathe in the river. Yesterday early morning around 6 a.m. there were hundreds of sadhus (holy men) bathing before other Indian tourists on pilgrimage came. Up the road and into the mountains from here are many temples. Well there are a lot of temples in town too.

I really like where I am staying. It's not an ashram but very close as there are some people staying here long term and there is a sadhu who lives there. He is Japanese and sits all day wearing a cloth diaper. Last night we had a music session with a great tabla player. Today at sunrise on the roof of my guest house, I had a yoga lesson. It was nice but it got pretty acrobatic. After yoga I washed my salwar kameez (Punjab suit) that I purchased in Delhi. It's a beautiful dark indigo blue and also bright turquoise blue with white dots. It took me over 10 times to rinse it out to get most of the dyes out of it. And then my hands turned blue. Then I hung it up on the rooftop and watched all the other women in the big houses nearby hanging up their saris and salwar kameeze. It was a fantastic view to look out at the Himalayans and see dots and dots of bright saris on the horizon. Around here the main pursuits seem to be doing laundry, praying, and going to temples. The owner of my guest house said, "When in east, live eastern way. When in west, live western way." So far, so good.

Funny thing about the sadhu at my guest house. He is a fake baba, not like those that dwell in the mountains east of Laksmanjula. (Or this is what I have gathered.) But I don't care because I think he's hilarious. I asked him about making bonsai from Indian trees but he told me he has renouned the ways of Japan. His story is that he left Japan at 14 and has travled to Angkor Wat and other places to pray and do whatever it is that sadhus do. He is also not interested in sushi any longer. Chopsticks? No! Must eat with hands! A Japanese woman is the manager of the place and I have no idea what her story is. More on that laterz.

Today, bathing in Ganga (ok, just my feet). Also maybe a temple north east of town. And? More chai.

Tomorrow? I have no idea.