Rishikesh

 

Fri 2^nd November

Next day we got our bearings and walked along the river to find somewhere else to stay. We bumped into a monk along the way who told us all about Krishna, then blessed us and gave Rosanna a necklace, when she said she couldn't take it he said material things mean nothing. When he realised we were looking for somewhere to stay he took us to a small Ashram right on the banks of the Ganges and introduced us to Swami Gee, we booked in to stay 3 nights (rs300 per night.. about 2 quid a night each). We said we wanted to find some food, we had only had a glass of chai so far that day, the monk took us up to the street were we tried our first street food, two samosa's each and a small chai (rs 24). The monk said he would wait for us at the police station as the police man was a devotee and he wanted to talk to him. We didn't want to be caught up with the monk all day, lovely as he was so we walked in the opposite direction. We ended up sitting on the beach chatting to some beggar kids, about 8 or 9 years old but looked about 6. One of them said his mother and father were dead but we later saw him with his mother who I had been talking to earlier he was very cheeky, but innocent really and entertaining! Had chai and somosa's from a street cafe and sat on a ghatt to eat and drink (so much for loosing weight in India, the fried food is too good). There was a little girl there around 11 or 12 playing with her little brother who was really only just old enough to walk, we messed about with them for a little while, sticking out tongues and the little boy nearly broke mums glasses!

We walked to the posh end of town and watched the big show outside the posh Ashram that was celebrating for a World Peace conference. It was a big ceremony but the mosquitoes had taken over the place so we walked up river to watch it in the shadows. The music echoed out over the river and got pretty trippy, we joined in with the ceremony and sent our little offerings down the great Ganga (the offerings are little parcels of marigold flowers candles and incence that sit in a little boat made from green leaves) making a wish for special people at home. Dinner was a Shared Talhi (rs 100) at New Luck Restaurant which is a pretty touristy place but has a nice garden where you can while away hours drinking tea and watching the monkeys assult tourists on the foot bridge just above it.