R&R

July 20, 2011

This one-armed monkey sat just outside
of our room on the walkway's ledge. 
Right after taking this photo the monkey
charged me and I ran back to our room
for cover.

This week seems like another vacation.  Chris and I are staying in an ashram in Rishikesh (Yoga capital of the world).  The place runs kinda like a commune with motel style housing.  We wake up at 7:55, go to Yoga, they deliver breakfast to our room, meet with Dr. Morgan for half hour lecture, free till 5 when we meditate for 30 min.  Because Chris and I aren’t flexible, the Yoga instructor usually has us stretch our ankles, wrists, and other easy stretches then has us lay on our back and “meditate” for the rest of the practice.  I always end up falling asleep.  For breakfast we get two bananas, chipati bread, and a bowl of beans.  I’ve stopped eating the beans because they aren’t exactly breakfast food.

In our free time we usually go to “The Little Buda Café” for lunch.  It is on the top floor of a building and overlooks the Ganges.  The place is decked out in bamboo for the ultimate tourist experience and serves a mean mango milkshake.

Just drinking a coke, overlooking the Ganges, watching the orange people bathing in the "clean"
river.

At the beginning of the week we rented scooters because walking stinks and we’re really lazy (we wear helmets and drive slow).  There are no cars on the roads because it’s small market area roads, but there are lots of people.  The reason there are so many people is because for the next two weeks, there is a festival going on here and Hardwar were 100,000 Hindu’s are making a pilgrimage to the Ganges.  They all wear bright orange head to toe and walk around shouting chants in big groups.

Flashing the gang signs while driving scooters around Rishikesh.
This was the average size of the roads, with LOTS of people
staring and walking by.  Indians honk continuously, so when I drove
I let out my frustrations by honking A LOT! Hey...when in Rome.

Anyways, I have a funny story.  Yesterday we were at an Internet café working on secondaries and checking e-mails when it started to monsoon downpour.  We had an appointment for a massage we didn’t want to miss so we decided to try and ride scooters in the rain.  After buying 20 rupee (50 cents) ponchos made of garbage bags sewn together, we hopped on the mo-peds and were off.  It was the most fun mo-ped ride I’d ever taken.  The water in the streets was about 6-10 inches deep with even deeper puddles in spots.  As we crashed and swerved through the torrential rain, I couldn’t help but laugh.  The poncho kept me dry for probably the first 30 feet.  Chris was in front and speeding because he owns a mo-ped in the states.  He missed a turn and tried to hit the brakes which made him tip over.  Before I knew it he was on the ground with 8 orange people swarming him to help him up and pick up his scooter (even though the people here stare, they are the nicest, most helpful people ever).  He was probably on the ground for less than 2 seconds and wasn’t hurt at all.  However, the mo-ped wouldn’t turn on.  Finally after 10 minutes of trying to kick start it, the engine turned over.  We arrived late to our massage so we had to reschedule it for today.  The only reason we’re doing massages in the first place is the fact there 5 bucks for 45 minutes, and it will “help us understand naturopathic therapy better.” 

The oldest man in India, reading the
oldest book in India! bahahaha

This month’s program is proving to be much more structured with built in vacation time.  It’s nice.  Only 1.5 weeks left.