Covering Old Ground

I

Another day in Rishikesh. This really is an interesting town with so much to see. The people here are fascinating ... Not just the Indians but the non-Indian tourists as well. They are often yoga types as this place is known as the Yoga Capital of the World and people from everywhere seem to come for it . You can usually tell them by their hair and clothes and I also got a good whiff of marihuana at one point.

We went for a drive along one of Tarun's famous back roads ... always interesting and always beautiful. 

Thanks to him I'm seeing some pretty special places that I'm really enjoying.... this drive followed the Ganges but at a height so we looked down on it. He tells me that there are a lot of Israelis in this area so I guess that was why we ended up having falafels and humus for lunch . 

An afternoon walk led us to the Beatles old Ashram... very derelict now but obviously beautiful in it's day. I was very happy not to go inside when Tarun told me there were snakes in it. 

We sat outside for a while watching the monkeys playing but that didn't last long either as people came with food and the monkeys went berserk, leaping around everywhere with no regard for anyone . We left after a couple threw themselves against me. I wasn't hurt but it did make me realise that they could actually be quite dangerous. Tarun thought they were after my bag thinking perhaps it had food in it.

Then my last night on a hotel as today it was back to Delhi via the village for the third time. I always seem to end up there at interesting times as today the people who harvested the rice the last time we were there arrived to take there cut of it. They cleaned it by hand waving a sack back and forth to blow the lighter debris away. Many hands make light work.... It was soon packed in bags as a result of some pretty good team work.

When an Indian describes the traffic as crazy you can rest assured that it's really bad. Our trip back to Delhi was beyond imagination. It seems that there was some Muslim event on and  I think everyone of them was on the road this afternoon. Most of the vehicles were overloaded according to our standards and I can never get used to seeing people travelling on a bus or truck roof. The drive took 4 to 5 hours and in that time we saw two truck accidents, which was considerably less than I would have expected given the conditions. When I get home I think I'll buy a TShirt saying 'I survived the roads of India (thanks to Tarun).' 

We are now safely back in Delhi at Tarun's house. I have three full days in Delhi then it's back home.