Detox the bendy way

Two holy men in downtown Rishikesh, take a break for lunch
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Although we have come to realise there is no such thing as comfort on local transport, our journey from Rishikesh to Haridwar was a relatively painless 1 hour bus ride. However it always makes for interesting travel, being crammed on to a bus with 3 times the allowed capacity, in 36 degree heat. At least they have the sense to make it the one place cows aren't allowed.

Rishikesh, the centre of the world when it comes to yoga and made famous by the Beatles, is divided into 3 sections. Downtown Rishikesh, Swarg Ashram (an ashram is a place to stay, worship, and often do yoga, and although they are normally a building or two, Swarg Ashram is an entire part of the town), and Laxman Jhula (spelt in many ways depending on who you talk to). We jumped in a vikram (a big rickshaw) and headed for the latter.

their familiar orange clothing has been used as a disguise by outlaws for hundreds of years

A local, happy to have his photo taken, crosses the suspension bridge at Laxman Jhula
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The streets of Rishikesh are filled with the usual indian fare, but what you will particularly notice are the holy men. And being a holy town, Pushkar is full of them. Although 99 percent of these are very friendly and the most dealings you will have with them is maybe being asked for a rupee, all the guides discourage making friends with them, as western money is a great temptation to someone who spends most of his life wandering in the hills and living on 2 or 3 meals a week. Also their familiar orange clothing has been used as a disguise by outlaws for hundreds of years. However, Elly and I found 2 very chirpy holy men who would sit just before the bridge on our way to yoga and ask for change and every time we passed them we would give them a rupee or two and they would always give us a big toothless grin.

A villager drying some chilies
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The other important thing to mention about holy towns and particularly Rishikesh (and Pushkar which we plan to head to) is that there is no alcohol and no meat. I must admit the first time i heard this it didn’t fill me with happy thoughts, but I have to say it has actually been a really nice change to not have a drink at the end of the day, or tuck into some scraggly excuse of a piece of a chicken, just because its on the menu!

We arrived at Laxman Jhula about midday (surprise surprise) and because we didn’t know the area and as it turns out our rickshaw driver was a lazy git, he dropped us at the top of this massive set of steps that wound itself down the hill side and into the main square, rather than continue on the road. So we walked down these with our rucksacks and the extra bag we had bought in the north to carry our purchases and by the time we reached the bottom, we literally fell into the nearest hotel, just to get rid of our bags and take a shower.

A monkey drinking from the public water fountain
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After chatting to two girls we met in a coffee shop we decided to move to Hotel Ishan and didn’t move again for 6 weeks. Laxman Jhula is surrounded on 3 sides by lush forested hills, and the other a view across the plains. The ganges comes out of the hills, off the himalayas and cuts Rishikesh straight down the middle. We had found ourselves a beautiful room in a friendly and clean guesthouse, with fantastic views and didn’t want to leave. From the front of our room we had a view straight out on to the main square with all the hustle and bustle of people going about their everyday life and from the back we had views over the hills and the ganges flowing past. In the evening we would sit on the roof and watch the sunset, as the monkeys played back across the suspension bridge that connected the two sides of the river and then they would continue across the roof tops, sometimes taking a cheeky look into our room and scaring the hell out of us!

Elly deciding on fabric for her punjab.....of course she went with pink!
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Every 2 or 3 days we would do a yoga class with a very relaxed and helpful teacher, called Sunnil. Its amazing how quickly you cant start to do crazy bendy things with your body. When I first started I scared myself as to how tight my body was, but now I am proud to say I can touch my toes (yes with my legs straight), do a head stand, a forearm stand, and balance my body in weird ways on just my hands. It actually gets quite addictive and you find yourself stretching and bending when ever you can!

School children parading during Independence day.
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Apart from the yoga and the sunbathing on the roof of our guesthouse, we would go for walks and watch the fire flies, take rickshaw rides into downtown Rishikesh, find new places to eat and cheaper and cheaper thali. I don’t even think twice now about having parantha, curd and curry veg for breakfast. Now it is time for us to move on. We still want to see some of Rajasthan, the Taj Mahal (it has to be done) and we must head to Delhi to get our chest xrays for our Oz visas (plus I am secretly looking forward to going to Mcdonalds and having a room with air conditioning!)

The view from our guest house
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Next time I will tell you about the marauding terrapin…