Yoga Capital

Hindu statue
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It was a very long and uncomfortable ride to Rishikesh so it was a crushing blow to be dropped off at the wrong hotel (with a similar name) after a hellish 17 hour bus ride overnight on seats about as comfortable as gorse waistcoat. Luckily out actual hotel was in an area inaccessible by car so we got to shake off the disappointment with a brisk 3 kilometre walk at dawn. Anyone who knows me knows how I love dawn walks. You won't catch me in bed after 6am. Except on religious holidays (all religions, including cults) and when it's snowing......anywhere in the world!

Ganges
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To  be fair Rishikesh does have a pseudo-religious calmness about it. Perhaps that's what attracted The Beatles here in the 60's though they left after their guru tried to milk them for money and acted in appropriately around female yoga students. That anecdote paints the exact picture of Rishikesh for me today.

The colours are vibrant with yogis resplendent in intense yellow and orange robes and garlands of marigold blossoms But being the self-proclaimed "yoga capital" of the world the tourist dollar is ruthlessly directed to the meditative arts in all their different forms. The tourist community therefore, is made up of young travelers (like me) who just come for a look, older women looking to refresh their spiritual side after years at work or at home and the quasi-hippie. They are the ones who reach India as part of their climate-changing round-the-world ticket go straight out and buy some traditional Indian clothing, stay in the most disgusting rooms, stop showering and feign interest in ancient drumming techniques, before heading to Canada for the last of the ski season. It's not that I have a problem with people reinventing themselves or trying to involve themselves in the country they are a tourist in, it's just that there's a certain falseness to the overpriced yoga and dance classes that milk the tourist in return for the old school hippie feeling. Perhaps I am over-cynical!

Ashram (yoga school)
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One thing Rishikesh can't fake is its natural beauty. It's set on the banks of the mother Ganges but is further upstream than India's centres of heavy industry so escapes the worst of the terrible pollution that plagues the rivers lower reaches. Though that's not to suggest it's clean as it still doubles as a toilet and refuse station for the locals. But it was clean enough for us, with our mouths closed.

A sandy beach an hour up the valley was the starting  point for our white water rafting trip. As well as being a fun adventure the stretch of river was interesting in that it passed through some isolated sections of river that could have been in New Zealand, though the appearance of monkeys kind of gave the game away. It was nice to feel and surprising to find such a place in a country of more than 1 billion people!

Our room
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Then as suddenly as it appeared it disappeared with a train journey the industrial heart of India, the city of Agra and the home of the Taj Mahal.