A place of peace, relaxation and pain!

cheese cock balls
see all photos »

Ok before we start on Rishikesh we must take a moment to appreciate the menu from a rather fancy restaurant in Amritsar where the food was absolutely delicious although we didn’t try the cheese cock rolls!

We thought that we would come to Rishikesh and if we liked it stay for a couple of weeks, do some yoga and wait til it cooled down a bit more in Rajasthan however it’s turned out that we love it and we didn’t manage to make it to a yoga class until we’d been here a week so I think we’re going to need a bit more time

how can something so good for you hurt so much?

view across the ganges from our chill out room
see all photos »

It’s quite a big place but it’s separated into three main areas; Downtown - a big bustling area full of markets, taxis, buses and people which we generally avoid unless we need an ATM, Swarg Ashram – we haven’t been to and Laxman Jhula – where we are staying which is virtually traffic free and made up of two village size settlements joined by a bridge over the Ganges

The landscape is beautiful and it's almost surrounded by hills, in the evening you can hear the bells in the Ashrams tinkling in the breeze and the frequent power cuts mean the peace is only broken by the sound of generators!

Laxman jhula
see all photos »

It’s all about the yoga here and there are lots of Ashram’s which are a bit like temples but open to everyone and most of them have rooms you can stay in and frequent yoga and mediation classes - we decided not to stay in one as its all a bit too serious for us

I was determined that we wouldn’t just take the first room we found this time as we’d had a good nights sleep in Haridwar and just a short bus then rickshaw journey to get here, then we had to walk down the steps or “shortcut” as it has surely ironically been termed to get from the road to the main centre – there were lots of steps and it was damn hot so we took the first room we found in the unfortunately named Nigah Guesthouse and got rid of the bags

the chill out room
see all photos »

We only stayed there the one night as we met some girls who recommended Hotel Ishan so we moved there and they had a fairly nice room free but while we were waiting for them to clean it we waited up on the roof and saw an open room so wandered in and found our where we are staying now – you walk in to a big room with a bed, TV, table and chairs, wardrobe and dresser, there’s a nice big bathroom AND next to the bed is another door with steps up to our chill out room – Ben’s suggested we use it for yoga but so far we’ve been using it for lazing!

the bedroom
see all photos »

I unpacked! I put things in draws and cupboards! It was a great feeling as was knowing I’m not going to be packing for a while

Ben’s still living out of his bag – which has now been shoved under the bed

So yoga took us so long to get round to as the class we wanted started at 8.30am and putting the alarm on just seemed too depressing but we’ve made it to 2 classes now – and i wonder how can something so good for you hurt so much? after the first class we had to take a few days off due to the fact we were in absolute agony! I couldnt lift my arms and walking was out of the question for 24 hours, but our second class was yesterday and I can move without wincing, which is great progress!

We’re coping well with the lack of meat and alcohol and the only thing I’m missing is pork which I cant get in this crazy country anyway – but they have pigs here, oh yes they have pigs walking around on their fat succulent legs mocking me with their juicy ribs

But I’m totally coping

So that’s all for now there will no doubt be another entry from Rishikesh as we are in no hurry to leave this little haven – and we still have to find the beach and go fishing, it’s all go!

xx