Rishikesh to Haridwar to Jodhpur

Mon 5th November

We had set our alarm for 6am as we wanted to get a head start on leaving Rishikesh, but fell straight back to sleep. We have been sleeping up to 12 hours a day it is unbeliveable, but i think we both needed it. We were woken again at 8am by swami gee ringing some bells. Got up showered in lovely hot water, packed up the last of our things said goodbye and headed off. Not walked more than a three hundred yards and we were caught by the monk, this time he gave me (julie) a necklace and pestered us to come to a holy ashram along the way so that he could teach us some yoga.We had avoided him so many times that we felt we ought to go with him for 5 minutes. Well we did the yoga thing and then he blessed us again and then he started on about how we should donate to him with love and that love cost rs 500, I offered him rs 100 but he said this was not enough, Anna gave him rs 500 so he blessed her again but he still wanted rs 500 from me,I offered him back the necklace but he inisted I keep it and took the rs 100. We made a quick escape. Walked to the bridged and crossed the Ganges, caught an auto rick shaw to the bus station (rs 100).

We had not had breakfast so we stopped in a chai bar for tea and chatted to a guy that had just come down from Manali with his three kids and girlfriend. They were on their way to Delhi on the bus. Walked into the bus station and found the bus for Haridwa, it was just about to leave, arrived Haridwa and walked over to the train station, queued and tried to book the night train to Varanasi but they told us it was book for the next three days. Decided to change our plans and go to Jodphur instead, queued again and manged to get two tickets for the sleeper carriage(rs 828), were a bit worried about this but decided it would be an experience.

We now had 5 hours to kill untill the train at 19.10. Walked back into the streets of Haridwa and stopped to share a Thali, it was ok but not the best , we only ate half. We walked down to the river and watched loads of young men panning for coins and bits of gold on the banks of the river. The river banks were also full of people washing, themselves and piles of laundery. There were large heaps of rubish everywhere, beggers and monks, familys and big gangs of kids just hanging out all along the river banks. We wanted to find some food to take with us on outr journey so went back into the streets, walking along we saw a small shop in a back street selling pad locks, we had read that it is a good idea to pad lock your back when traveling in sleeper class so decided to buy a couple. The shop was run by a woman, her mother and her daughter. The mother when realising we were English told us that her daughter had married a man in England and she was moving there in 4 months The daughter got excited and told us all about the man she had married, she was only 20 and in for months was heading for a new life in Ipswich! They invited us to sit down and have some chai with them and the girl got out her photos and showed us her husband and of her wedding day. She was so excited and it was so nice for us to just sit with some women and chat away! After a while we headed out to get some food, the prospect of our 21 hour journey to Jodphur looming! We got our selves a Tiffin for 150 rs, and went on searching for some tasty foods to fill it! We walked off of the main streets to get away form the hustle and bustle onto an unusually quite clean lane. We stopped at a cafe for some chai and while we were there two boys (young men) can in from the shop next door, they had spied us from the street, they wanted to chat and to tell us that one of them had a sister in England. They also wanted to share their blim with us, which we declined. They wanted to use our tobacco to roll their splif but they also insisted on using a filter! We tried to stop them, But they didnt understand and carried on boasting about it being the best bush in all of India! They were nice enough though and helped us to order the best currys for our tiffin as the menu was in Sanskrit and we couldnt make heads nor curried tails of it.

We then returned to to the railway station with two hours to go. We sat on the steps outside and chatted to a group of school kids who had been on a sports athletics trip, they of course wanted to have lots of photo's taken. There was one girl in the group and she spoke very good English. When here parents turned up at the station she came and found us again so that she could introduce us. With an hour before our train arrived we went to find the platform, found it eventually. We sat on the floor to wait but after a bit a couple of guys gave us their bench, men can be quite chivilras in India! We were surounded by groupd of women who were all staring, nothing new. One group asked if we were mother and daughter, they had obviously been discussing this. Rosanna started chatting to another group with children and she got out her sketch book with pictures anotated in both english and hindi. When the train came we found our carriage but got on at the wronng end. There were no lights in the carriage so it was pitch black and we couldn't see any seat numbers, a guy with a light on his phone helped us to our seats, but there was already a whole family in our section and we realised the seats had been double booked! The family, a mother, father and daughter said for us not to worrie 'this is India, everyone is relax' and for us to sit, but after a while the father went of promising to sort it all out. Also in this area were three young men travelling together who decided to the great amusment of everyone that they should chat to anna and read her palm, which they did. Everyone was clapping and the mother of the family wanted to know about marriage and was happy to hear that Anna would be getting married. The father came back to say that they had sorted out some other seats for us, bit of a shame as we were having such fun. Well all the men in this compartment decided it was their duty to deliver us to our new seats, everyone was very impressed to find that we had been upgraded to plush AC compartments, with sheets, blankets, towels and pillows! It was a lot cleaner and quieter than where we had paid to be. They all shook our hands and took photos, one of the guys tried to kiss anna but she pushed him off. We settled down for the night.