hello all.. greetings from rishikesh's "high bank" - backpacker's hangout extraordinaire (means lots of westerners and places that cater to them.. esp lots of israelis which is the theme here in india).
first of all i spoke too soon about the bus. (at least it won't.. whatever i said). i think i'm finished with buses .. i hope .. this one was rather pleasant for the first two hours of what they said was a 6 1/2 hour trip. my backpack was on the floor in front of one seat and i sat next to it and had two seats to myself. but of course that wasn't to last and i ended up squished - knees uncomfortably together - between my pack and some not nice indian professional guy with his fancy cellphone (that seems to be the sign of status here - how many cell phones do you have and how nice are they).. then four hours later he got off and was replaced by a 22 year old engineering student travelling with his parents who lives in the area.. and he was pleasant to talk to. wants to come to America.. live the American dream. many of the students do..
anyhow, finally made it to rishikesh eventually.. bout ten o clock.. grabbed a rickshaw that prob. overcharged me but it didn't matter cuz i didn't feel like haggling. landed here in high bank and the hotel i wanted (from the lonely planet) was full for the night.. so an Israeli girl named Tamar (prounounced Tamal cuz of the rolled "l" thing) and i searched and found another place slightly cheaper but bedbugs or spiders or something keep biting me.. so tomorrow i think i'll try this place again (i'm using their internet right now). So Tamar and i wandered around - she knocked on my door about 8.30 i think to wake me up.. maybe 9.30 i forget.. we sat on the bank of the Ganga river, dipped my feet in, washed my face in holy water (here it's clean - it's just come out of the mountains and not many ppl bathed in/used as toilet/trash/cemetary yet). walked around and found the man from Denmark - Bosu - who i met in Dharamsala and he told me to come here.. small world his girlfriend just arrived yesterday and sat next to Tamar on the train. that's India for you.. so he recommended a school for me to try for yoga.. and another school to go to on the 30th to see a "saint". kriya yoga's teacher who's in america right now apparently.. so we'll see about all that.
meanwhile did a little yoga (my first ever yoga class ;op) from one of the hotels here last night and met a swiss girl and south african guy who met here in rishikesh as well.. we were the only four taking the class so it was easy.. afterwards we went to the chabad house (jewish people set up little mini-communities everywhere apparently and so dean and tamar both speak hebrew / are jewish) so we went there for shabbat dinner and experienced that interestingness.. in the heart of india.. free dinner tho so who can complain? then tamar left and the three of us remaining went after a noise - there was music playing somewhere and we chased it.. turns out it was the remains of a wedding reception dinner thrown by the owner of some swanky hotel resort for his son.. and we caught the last dozen drunken indians on their way out..
and that about wraps up my first day in rishikesh.. we stayed up late last night listening to music and hanging out and i woke up very late today.. so today i think will be a day of semi-relaxation before i go to the first lecture tomorrow for the triya yoga and decide if i want to do a month or a week or who knows.. anywot.. lunchtime.. cheers.
