I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love! Rishikesh is a little slice of heaven, everything I wanted and more! I've been walking around with a permanent wide grin for two days... people must think I'm a little loca ; ) I'm excited to annouce that I'll be calling this home for the next month, in order to take a 4-week yoga certification course at Trika Agama in Swarg Ashram. (Thank you Marco and JessD for the great reference! Guess who my first teacher was this morning? Angela! She gave me a big hug when I told her the two of you sent me there : ) She is wonderful, emmanating inner and outer beauty.) I will be doing 4 hours of yoga every day for 4 weeks (Sundays off). From 8-10 we learn the new asana of the day, theory and practice. 10-4 is free, then 4-6 we do sun salutations, followed by a lecture from 6-7. Absolute bliss! Today is the first warm and sunny day since I've arrived :) Long sleeves and pants still required, but only one layer of them! If I had to describe my clothing style for the last few days, it would be: mormon in the north pole with a touch of Mountain Equipment Coop! Vogue would be appalled! (Thanks JessW for making me check the weather before I left, and thanks Chrystal for being a great assistant shopper to gear me up at the last minute!) You should have seen the bundle of clothes, hat, shawl, I was wrapped in this morning, walking to yoga at 7:30! Just a couple days in this little community, and already I'm beginning to know the locals, who waved and called good morning as I walked to yoga, down the road, over the hanging bridge, and up the hill.
Ok... now that I've shared my excitement, time to backtrack to continue the story from previous post... So the German (can't remember his name) and I managed to find the bus station, and after asking a few people and being pointed in different directions, found the bus that was heading to Rishikesh. Ancient, rickety bus. Piled our luggage, packed in as many people as possible, and off we went, our pink turbaned driver speeding along like a maniac. When I was walking down the streets of Delhi, my feet were often inches from quickly rolling wheels, but now our bus was centimeter - centimeters! - from oncoming traffic. And I chose the wrong side to sit on! I started the journey with my arm resting partly out of the open window, but soon realized I should keep it well inside if I wished to keep it intact! Again, a few prayers for survival were made, and listened to. The good part of this ride: caught my first glimpse of the emerald green waters of the Ganga river. The German and I met a Brazilian guy on the bus, also heading to Rishikesh, so when we got to the bus terminus (half hour ride), the three of us negotiated the price for an auto-rickshaw ride to the yoga part of town. About 15 minutes later, the driver stopped at the top of the hill and said the vehicles could go no further. He told us to walk about 5 minutes down the road and cross the hanging bridge when we got to it. We reluctantly got out (it was raining and our bags weighed a ton), and walked 20 minutes to the bridge. There were vehicles the whole way. Thanks Mr. Driver. It was a steep hil down, and we figured he didn't want to waste gas coming back up it. Crossed the bridge into yoga land, and walked another half hour towards our hostels. Not sure where we were headed, we stopped for a short break, put our bags down, and got shelter from the persisting rain. A long-white-haired foreign man, who had obviously become a local, was standing nearby, so we asked him where the hostel was that were looking for. In an Australian accent, he told us we still had a ways to go. A little discouraged, we continued chatting with him. He has been living here for 11 years! And I can now understand why! His niece, about my age, was with him, visiting from Perth for a few months. They were heading in the direction of our hostel, so we all set out together, luckily being guided through a shortcut by a resident :) We finally got to our hostel a half hour later, but were not thrilled with it, so kept looking. We stopped for another break, this time sitting down for tea and food. As we ate, another long-white-bearded resident foreigner asked if we were here to do yoga. We said yes and chatted with him for a bit. He is from California and has his own ashram there, for which he gave me the card and told me to stop by if ever I was down there. He also recommended a good place to stay, since we were still homeless, and that's where we headed. By the time we finished eating, the rain had let up, and we happily walked to Om Kara Guesthouse, got our rooms, then went for another masala chai tea before settling in after an exhausting walk (made worse by my blistered heels... little canvas shoes not good for long, rainy, backpack walk). Fell asleep quickly that night, but still not adjusted to new time. Have yet to sleep through the night, always waking up around 3am and unable to fall back asleep. Still sleeping with scarf, socks, hoodie, leggings, eye-mask, earplugs, sleeping bag, blanket. I'm sure I'll miss it terribly a couple months from now when the heat will be unbearable. The nice thing about waking up here in the middle of the night is that I hear bells and chanting rather than the Delhi honking and yelling. After many wake ups that night, I finally awoke to the sun coming up over the mountains, and walked onto my balcony to take it all in. Ran a few errands throughout the day, enjoying my backpackless stroll through town :) It rained on and off all day, and by evening the unpaved streets were a mess. The bottom of my skirt and my flip-flop-clad feet were splashed with mud and cow-dung. Lovely. Stopped for dinner, then went to Agama for yoga info, and back to my room for a foot rinse. And another attempt at a full night's sleep. Unsuccessful. Woke at three, convinced it was time to get up for yoga, discouraged when I looked at the clock. Slept on and off till 4, then got up, went to the bathroom, wrote in my journal, and tried to sleep until yoga time. No luck. Lay in bed awake until 6:30, then listened to lively music on my ipod till get-up time at 7. Figured I needed a little pep since I had hardly slept. I now have an alarm clock, so I can't blame my internal clock for the wake-ups. Maybe it has to do with the beds... wood plank covered in a 2-inch thick, hard, futon-like mattress, and huge, hard useless pillows again. Someday soon I will sleep. If not, I may become very strange.
Met some great people at my yoga class this morning, about 8 of us in the class, more or less my age, from Canada, US, and Europe. Went into my first little bookstore after class, to get info on Chakras, which our teacher referred to a lot. Bookstore was heaven, and I walked out with more than a Chakra book... and I'll surely be back for more! My free afternoons all month will be filled with strolls around town and yoga reading, reading, reading :)
Since I haven't posted any pics yet, here are a few websites for visuals:
My first hostel in Paharganj (Delhi) (about $9): http://www.hotelrakinternational.com/ Looks great in the photos, but it's the surrounding streets and neighbourhood that left a lot to be desired.
My first guesthouse in Rishikesh (the Californian's suggestion, about $7): http://www.omkarananda-ashram.org/gita_sadan.htm
My yoga school : http://trika.agamayoga.com/
Moving to a new guesthouse tomorrow, to be closer to my yoga school.
PS. Cindy - As I walk around town, I constantly hear familiar music coming from the shops, thanks to your CD library you so kindly shared with me :)
PPS. Claude - J'ai reussi a traverser les douannes avec ton sac de "dope" sans me faire mettre en prison :) Est-ce que j'en met dans la riviere du Gange ou seulement les oceans?
(Translation: Grand-maman's ashes that she wanted to have spread in oceans around the world. Yes, I got through customs with a large ziploc bag filled with grey powder, which my uncle thought it would be amusing to label as "dope". And I felt no need to rename it. A little risky in retrospect.)
Time for my 4 o'clock yoga session, excited to see what's next!
Ok... now that I've shared my excitement, time to backtrack to continue the story from previous post... So the German (can't remember his name) and I managed to find the bus station, and after asking a few people and being pointed in different directions, found the bus that was heading to Rishikesh. Ancient, rickety bus. Piled our luggage, packed in as many people as possible, and off we went, our pink turbaned driver speeding along like a maniac. When I was walking down the streets of Delhi, my feet were often inches from quickly rolling wheels, but now our bus was centimeter - centimeters! - from oncoming traffic. And I chose the wrong side to sit on! I started the journey with my arm resting partly out of the open window, but soon realized I should keep it well inside if I wished to keep it intact! Again, a few prayers for survival were made, and listened to. The good part of this ride: caught my first glimpse of the emerald green waters of the Ganga river. The German and I met a Brazilian guy on the bus, also heading to Rishikesh, so when we got to the bus terminus (half hour ride), the three of us negotiated the price for an auto-rickshaw ride to the yoga part of town. About 15 minutes later, the driver stopped at the top of the hill and said the vehicles could go no further. He told us to walk about 5 minutes down the road and cross the hanging bridge when we got to it. We reluctantly got out (it was raining and our bags weighed a ton), and walked 20 minutes to the bridge. There were vehicles the whole way. Thanks Mr. Driver. It was a steep hil down, and we figured he didn't want to waste gas coming back up it. Crossed the bridge into yoga land, and walked another half hour towards our hostels. Not sure where we were headed, we stopped for a short break, put our bags down, and got shelter from the persisting rain. A long-white-haired foreign man, who had obviously become a local, was standing nearby, so we asked him where the hostel was that were looking for. In an Australian accent, he told us we still had a ways to go. A little discouraged, we continued chatting with him. He has been living here for 11 years! And I can now understand why! His niece, about my age, was with him, visiting from Perth for a few months. They were heading in the direction of our hostel, so we all set out together, luckily being guided through a shortcut by a resident :) We finally got to our hostel a half hour later, but were not thrilled with it, so kept looking. We stopped for another break, this time sitting down for tea and food. As we ate, another long-white-bearded resident foreigner asked if we were here to do yoga. We said yes and chatted with him for a bit. He is from California and has his own ashram there, for which he gave me the card and told me to stop by if ever I was down there. He also recommended a good place to stay, since we were still homeless, and that's where we headed. By the time we finished eating, the rain had let up, and we happily walked to Om Kara Guesthouse, got our rooms, then went for another masala chai tea before settling in after an exhausting walk (made worse by my blistered heels... little canvas shoes not good for long, rainy, backpack walk). Fell asleep quickly that night, but still not adjusted to new time. Have yet to sleep through the night, always waking up around 3am and unable to fall back asleep. Still sleeping with scarf, socks, hoodie, leggings, eye-mask, earplugs, sleeping bag, blanket. I'm sure I'll miss it terribly a couple months from now when the heat will be unbearable. The nice thing about waking up here in the middle of the night is that I hear bells and chanting rather than the Delhi honking and yelling. After many wake ups that night, I finally awoke to the sun coming up over the mountains, and walked onto my balcony to take it all in. Ran a few errands throughout the day, enjoying my backpackless stroll through town :) It rained on and off all day, and by evening the unpaved streets were a mess. The bottom of my skirt and my flip-flop-clad feet were splashed with mud and cow-dung. Lovely. Stopped for dinner, then went to Agama for yoga info, and back to my room for a foot rinse. And another attempt at a full night's sleep. Unsuccessful. Woke at three, convinced it was time to get up for yoga, discouraged when I looked at the clock. Slept on and off till 4, then got up, went to the bathroom, wrote in my journal, and tried to sleep until yoga time. No luck. Lay in bed awake until 6:30, then listened to lively music on my ipod till get-up time at 7. Figured I needed a little pep since I had hardly slept. I now have an alarm clock, so I can't blame my internal clock for the wake-ups. Maybe it has to do with the beds... wood plank covered in a 2-inch thick, hard, futon-like mattress, and huge, hard useless pillows again. Someday soon I will sleep. If not, I may become very strange.
Met some great people at my yoga class this morning, about 8 of us in the class, more or less my age, from Canada, US, and Europe. Went into my first little bookstore after class, to get info on Chakras, which our teacher referred to a lot. Bookstore was heaven, and I walked out with more than a Chakra book... and I'll surely be back for more! My free afternoons all month will be filled with strolls around town and yoga reading, reading, reading :)
Since I haven't posted any pics yet, here are a few websites for visuals:
My first hostel in Paharganj (Delhi) (about $9): http://www.hotelrakinternational.com/ Looks great in the photos, but it's the surrounding streets and neighbourhood that left a lot to be desired.
My first guesthouse in Rishikesh (the Californian's suggestion, about $7): http://www.omkarananda-ashram.org/gita_sadan.htm
My yoga school : http://trika.agamayoga.com/
Moving to a new guesthouse tomorrow, to be closer to my yoga school.
PS. Cindy - As I walk around town, I constantly hear familiar music coming from the shops, thanks to your CD library you so kindly shared with me :)
PPS. Claude - J'ai reussi a traverser les douannes avec ton sac de "dope" sans me faire mettre en prison :) Est-ce que j'en met dans la riviere du Gange ou seulement les oceans?
(Translation: Grand-maman's ashes that she wanted to have spread in oceans around the world. Yes, I got through customs with a large ziploc bag filled with grey powder, which my uncle thought it would be amusing to label as "dope". And I felt no need to rename it. A little risky in retrospect.)
Time for my 4 o'clock yoga session, excited to see what's next!
Erika, I'm happy you've found bliss and have already settled where you really wanted to be. I think you are actually quite close to the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram, part of the centers I used to go to in Montreal and Val-Morin. I'm sure you'll remember when I took Livia and you to the Val-Morin Camp and you couldn't stop laughing (weren't you around 12 y.o and Livia 9 at the time?), because we had to meditate in front of the hammock where Swami Vishnu Devananda was spending his last days.
ReplyDeleteI guess you are taking the first level intensive course. You know, Erika, this must be quite close to where I was headed when I left for my travel at age 25. Of course I never made it to India, although I was gone almost two years.
Be happy ;)
Je n'aurais jamais pense, a 10 ans, qu'une vingtaine d'annees plus tard je prendrais ca tellement au serieux! En effet, l'ashram que tu mentionnes est pres d'ici... j'irais le voir et j'en prendrai une photo.
DeleteHappy I am :)
yay! I was very happy to read that blog! seems like you found exactly what you were looking at in the little town!
ReplyDeletei check up on you every day! :-)
Thanks for reading and responding! I just wrote you and Mark a postcard... will be in the air soon :)
DeleteI am jealous I have never been to Rishikesh and I am Indian. Next time when I will go to India I will go there.
ReplyDeleteMeera Jee
I hope you can one day come here, Meera. It's wonderful. I wanted to tell you that everyday I wear the necklace with the om pendant that you gave me, and I'm sure it brings me luck! Thank you :)
Deleteoh, Erika, i get goose bumps thinking about what you are doing. i've already thought to myself: maybe i'll do the same thing next year! i told Rob yesterday at the climbing gym: I miss Erika! it's not as much fun climbing with him. so happy you're happy. i can live vicariously through you :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you're enjoying the read :)
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend you doing this next year if you feel it would be right for you. I miss climbing with you too! Back on the walls in June :)
Bonjour Érika,
ReplyDeleteJe suis en train de lire tes blogues depuis le début! La lecture est toujours très intéressante et dresse une image de l'Inde semblable à celle que j'avais. Par contre, je n'aurais pu imaginer les différentes péripéties auxquelles tu as eu à faire face. Te lire me rappelle ta mère avec tous les voyages qu'elle a faits!
Pour ce qui est des cendres, tu peux les disperser à tous les endroits que tu désires. Je n'ai aucune restrictions; tes choix seront très certainement on ne peut plus adéquats.
Je suis désolé que les sacs que j'ai utilisé aient potentiellement pu te causer des problèmes. Comme Réjeanne te l'a écrit hier, j'ai utilisé des sacs qu'elle avait recyclés et sur lesquelles il était inscrit le nom du poisson que j'avais pêché soit du DORÉ... Je n'aurais jamais écrit quelque chose comme dope ou autre chose de semblable sur ces sacs... Je comprends maintenant le message que Gilles nous a envoyé il y a quelques semaines; je ne comprenais pas au début et je croyais que c'était lui qui avait inscrit quelque chose sur le/les sacs.
Bonne continuation de voyage/méditation/yoga/aventures!!!
:)
Oui, Rejeanne m'a aussi ecrit un mot pour clarifier la situation. Moi aussi je suis desolee de t'avoir mi dans cette position...
ReplyDeleteSur ma liste de choses a faire, il y avait, "Ecrire a Claude pour lui demander s'il est d'accord pour les cendres", mais je ne l'avais pas encore fait. Donc merci pour ton ok. Je vous gardes au courant de quand et ou je les disperses.
Je suis heureuse que tu aimes lire mon blog :)
Erika xxx