Namaste, this is our last journal entry for our time in India! We have now been in India for eight months and have 5 more weeks left until we head for Turkey, Egypt & Israel. We can’t believe how fast the time is flying especially since all we’re doing is eating, breathing and sleeping yoga (loving every minute of it too). We’re healthy and strong and very much enjoy living a non-western lifestyle.
We’ve been in Rishikesh now for nine weeks and we love it as much as we did when we were here five years ago. It’s beautiful, green, full of animals, mountain air, crispy cold Ganga River, crazy all sorts of people and colourful ashrams. It’s a spiritual, vegetarian and a non-alcoholic town but rest assure some restaurants have alcohol and serve it to you in a teapot *wink *wink.
Evening walks are lovely as our path is illuminated by cool little glow bugs flying around. When we do grocery shopping it’s always vital to carry a rock or two to defend yourself against those hungry monkeys that chase you.
This time round we didn’t rent a house but we found a comfortable large room with a bathroom and balcony to live in. Watching monkeys go through our garbage bins is rather entertaining except when they open your door and come inside and freak you out. I (Ben) was bitten by one on a previous trip so squealed like a girl when it came in until Silvana came to the rescue.
On March the 11th we celebrated Holi, well we stayed indoors and watched everyone else celebrate. Basically groups of children and young men run around the streets throwing coloured powder and water balloons at each other. It’s common for young men to get drunk however and target westerners, especially women who get a free groping for their trouble as we watched many times.
We just finished a 10 day Yoga intensive which means we had classes twice a day instead of one and a few Anatomy lectures. It was very intense but so many great points and ideas we revealed to us. Practicing Yoga for these few months like this has been a wonderful experience. Practicing everyday allows you to really get to know your body and to begin to examine the poses deeper. I think if we keep it up for the rest of our lives we may just gain some insight into what Yoga actually is, or maybe we will have to come back for another go.
After the intensive we needed a few days off so we went to Delhi to change our plane ticket. We are now going to Israel for 10 days to hang out with some people we’ve been doing Yoga with and of course our new mate Ido that we’ve been doing yoga with for the past six months since Goa. While in Delhi we also squeezed in a trip the Taj Mahal. It really is such a beautiful building although the town it’s in (Agra) is definitely near the top of the list of the grossest towns in India.
Unfortunately I’ve (Ben) injured my right bicep tendon and has been told no Yoga for 2 – 4 weeks where the arm is involved..... That means pretty much everything. We don’t know what we are going to do as it’s not possible for me to carry my backpack around either so we will probably stay here and I will just do my own private practice while Silvana continues with daily classes. The injury is a bit of a mystery, I woke up on our return from Delhi and my arm was in pain and didn’t work. I didn’t fall, twist or do anything to it. That’s what you get for taking 4 days off yoga to go to Delhi and the Taj.
We have some plans to visit Daramasala and DheraDun in the next few weeks so that should be fun. We leave India via Mumbai (Bombay), we have a friend who lives there that will be taking us around.......never been and heard is a very unique place!
Ok...... this may be our last entry for India so bye bye for now and take care.
Lots of love Silvana and Ben xox
