Rishikesh

Ahh, finally this has become a holiday! After battling with India for the last few weeks - the dirt, poverty, overcrowding, pollution, our illnesses etc - we managed to find a place that is just paradise. Part of the joy of being in Rishikesh is because of this contrast against what we'd had to endure before, but definitely this place can be considered paradise in it's own right.

Every day we say we'll leave tomorrow, and then every morning at breakfast we look at each other and say, "Just one more day...". It's a highly spiritual little town nestled in a valley between Himalayan forested foothills with the Ganges River flowing through the middle. It's also the yoga capital of India (which I assume means also the yoga capital of the world) although I've tried a few classes since I've been here and so far found it all to be a bit sub-standard. Then again I think I've become a yoga snob because nothing compares to my beloved North Sydney Yoga...

Anyway we're staying in a beautiful little guesthouse on a hill high about the river with incredible views down the valley. Here's one portion of what we see from the deck chairs outside our room


It's a funny little complex of guesthouses and restaurants staffed by a collection of softly spoken Tibetan, Nepali and Hindi waiters. It's a little oasis in the forest with sensational western food and we've been unashamedly chowing down on the incredible pastas they make - it's been a long time since we've had anything approaching decent Italian food. Funny thing is that this place is Little Israel, for most of our stay Rae Sarah and I have been the only non-Israelis up here. The place is completely dominated by huge groups of dreadlocked, hippy-clothes-wearing guys and girls chattering away in Hebrew and constantly smoking joints, pipes, bongs and a few contraptions I've never seen the likes of before. They're all really nice and so happy to be enjoying some freedom after their three years of compulsory military service (freedom apparently meaning a continuous lungful of hash) but the effect is a little overwhelming.

So to get back to India we trek down to the river and the little religious settlements on the other side. The river is clean and cold after just dropping from the mountains and there's a gorgeous white sand beach to swim at. If you dare


The hills are majestic and covered in thick tropical forest which is a huge thing when we've been travellng through intense urban environments and have been completely starved of clean air and beautiful nature. Well, unless you count the street-safari of trash-eating cows, goats, dogs and monkeys in the streets. Then again there's plenty of those guys here too:




The setting really is spectacular

as is the forest


Then there's just such a celebration of life going on down by the river



In the evening there's the puja, a Hindu riverside ceremony which embarrassingly I can't seem to find anybody to explain to me, but it's spectacular to watch in the dying rays of the sun as people mass on the banks of the Ganges singing, chanting, ceremonially waving around flaming torches and setting into the river small flower arrangements cupped in a lotus leaf with a flame in the centre to float off downstream




Our bodies are feeling recharged after all the good food, natural beauty and fascinating cultural life going on all around us and suddenly we're all loving India and even fondly reminiscing about the days in Calcutta and Varanasi which at the time felt like hell on earth. But today it's time to move on. Well that's the plan so far.