Think More Differently

Rishikesh, India

So still in Rishikesh, my experiences with the weird and wonderful continue...

Saturday 14th

So being in the 'yoga capital of the world', I'd had a go at it for a bit of fun a few days before. I'd decided the experience was a one-off, but Emilie (the Canadian I'd met a couple of days before) somehow pursuaded me to go to a proper yoga class, saying the beginners class I did wasn't the real experience. This time it was a group of about fifteen of us, an equal amount of guys and gals and was even longer at an hour and a half this time. It was equally as painful as the first time, trying to sit cross legged or flex into various positions, and the instructor had to constantly grab my limbs to put them where they actually should be. The session was more intense, but because it was a proper class instead of for beginners was actually a lot more enjoyable, though the chanting we had to do near the end was pretty weird. It's nice to try these things for the experience, but yoga as expected was not my sort of thing to be honest, though a good experience nonetheless. What I took away from it was that I need to be more aware of my posture generally, that doing stretches is very good for long term health and certain breathing exercises can be pretty relaxing. It was worth doing it for that alone, and there's no doubt that you leave feeling very relaxed and fresh.

I was on a roll with these out-there experiences. Despite having heard genuinely good results of homeopathy when used on animals, I'm pretty skeptical of alternate forms of medicine. But being open-minded to new experiences, and on recommendation from someone I met a few weeks ago, I went that morning to an Ayurveda clinic to have my 'dosha' read. Ayurveda is an ancient form of medicine, practiced in India and based on the idea that everyone is made up of varying amounts of the five elements - earth, fire, wind, water, air, and that you need to maintain the correct balance of these. When they 'read your dosha' they determine what your physical make-up is, what it actually should be, and give you advice on actions and herbal medicine to correct this balance. Yep, I thought the same. For a couple of quid (200 rupees) the doctor, which I'm fairly certain is a term used loosely rather than in the sense we'd normally use it, asked me a number of questions about my health and lifestyle. He then took a pulse and blood pressure reading and compiled a report, telling me I was a 'Vata-Pita', and should therefore among many other foods, avoid spicy and acidic food, and have more peeled almonds and green tea, and take some herbal medicines he listed. I left with a piece of paper in my hand still unconvinced. There was nothing too radical on it and it was certainly something to think about, but I wasn't sold... Maybe it's just our way of needing everything scientifically proved in the west, and indeed eastern practices really do have substance, who knows. 

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That evening I had a very disappointing email, saying I wouldn't be starring in the paint advert! I jest as I never expected it to actually happen, but he then had another offer - 'anyways wat u say about being a santa in a mall activity for xmas day..24th & 25th dec ..in delhi...let me know'. Another hilarious proposition, but I didn't want to spend Christmas working so politely turned him down - who know what other offers he may send me though next!

Terraces up in the hills where local farmers grow vegetables

Sunday 15th

Having spent a lot of time in Rishikesh just doing small activities and hanging around relaxing, I wanted to get out of town and do something, so had agreed the day before to go hiking with a couple of French-Canadian girls I'd me a few days before. I went round to their hotel to meet them, to find the charred remains of some of their belongings on the balcony outside their door - It turned out they'd had a fire. In the night the electric heater in their room had started shouldering and was slowly burning one of the backpacks - Maude had awoken suddenly, somehow smelling or sensing it and managed to stamp it out just seconds before it burnt her passport and set the room alright properly. Very lucky escape. It turns out that when the hotel owner had originally brought the heater up it didn't have a plug, and he tried to just put the bare ends of the cable into the socket before the girls stopped them! He then bodged a plug on the end using a couple of pieces of wire and some tape which was equally as bad and cause the smoldering.

By lunchtime they'd still not managed to sort everything out with the police etc, so I went off hiking on my own in the hilly forest behind the town. I'd been told by the guy in the next-door hotel room of a route up to the top, and managed to find my way onto what I thought was the right route, but two-thirds of the way up reached a dead end in a very rural farmyard. When I asked the kid there who was herding goats, how to get to the top he said 'not possible, tiger!'. A tiger! I'm fairly sure he was kidding, but I could see no way further up so went back down. I then went to walk to a nearby waterfall instead, only to get half way to be told by a couple of indian hikers the police had shut it indefinitely because of a 'fight and a rape' a few days before. OK... There was supposedly another waterfall the other side of the valley, but this time I got nearby but just couldn't find it. What a crap afternoon! At least my room didn't catch fire I suppose.

Typical small farmyard

Monday 16th

Being in the foothills of the Himalays still, I'd planned to try and join an organised hike through one of the local companies, but just like in Dharamsala a few weeks ago it seemed to be off-season so there was nothing going, and no maps or advice on local routes. I knew one of the treks went to a point high up in the hills - Kunjipuri temple, and managed to find where it was on Google maps, but had no idea of where the path might be to actually get there. I asked around a bit, and a restaurant owner pointed me roughly in the right direction, so with a rough idea I went for it.

Female farmers up in the hills

The first section was up a lane for a couple of miles passing houses on the outskirts of Rishikesh, then as I got further from town, past small farms typically consisting of a handful of cows and half an acre of vegetables. I realised then that at home so little of our food is actually locally produced, whereas here almost all fruit, veg and meat is - they're a step ahead, but only cause of economic reasons I guess. After about four miles, now deep into the wooded mountainous valley, the track narrowed to a rough dirt track then slowly became smaller and narrower until it was just a path. I kept checking with locals where possible that I was on the right track, but at a fork it was unclear which way to go so I took the slightly more obvious looking path. After another mile or so it got narrower and steeper, eventually starting to fade away and become a slope of loose scree. I persisted for a while before realising it was pointless and a bit dangerous trying to persist, so now completely covered in a mixture of sticky things and spiky needles from bushes, went all the way back to the fork and took the other route. 

The end in sight - Kunjipuri temple at the top

After this things became slightly more straightforward, and when I got lost from now on there was usually a local on hand to point the way. I eventually reached the 1600m or so temple at the summit mid-afternoon - slightly bigger that Ben Nevis in terms of elevation gained, not a bad day out! The views were fantastic, and would have been even better if it weren't for the ever-present mist and haze that I've seen for weeks now. I looked at the temple for a few minutes, and realising there was no-way I had time to walk back the same route, took the tarmacked road a couple of miles down the other side of the hill towards the bus stop.

Kunjipuri temple, at last

Walking down the road, I head a car coming from the temple direction so stepped onto the verge, only for the car to come to a stop beside me. The two Indian guys inside, in their forties with proud waistlines and painted spots on their foreheads offered me a lift. They looked like decent guys, and I knew the only reason anyone was coming down the hill was from visiting the temple so hopped in. Chatting away on the journey down, it turned out one of the guys - Manish - was a Director of a charity and was heading north in a couple of days to deliver some supplies to the area affected by the devastating floods back in June, so proceeded to tell me all about it. He stopped at a 'English Wine and Beer Shop' half way back - a slightly odd but common Indian term for the obvious, and I took the opportunity to grab a couple of beers as well, seeing that selling alcohol is illegal in Rishikesh for religious reasons. A few miles more down the road we stopped for a chai (milk tea) which Manish insisted on paying for, and asked if I fancied going along to help the charity deliver supplies - don't think the tea was a bribe but you never know! So one minute I'm just quietly doing some hiking, and the next I'm a potential volunteer. I thought about it for a while, then said yes.

Tuesday 17th

With a day to spare before the trip up north, I spent the day doing an online course I'd been wanting to do for a while, as well as sorting a nightmare of my own making. The night before, I realised my travel insurance was about to run out so called them to extend it, only to find their office in London had closed for the day shortly before. So today I rang to find that because it had expired it couldn't be extended, and also they no longer offered that policy. This doesn't sound like a problem until you hear that almost every insurer requires you to be in the UK when your policy starts, and I obviously wasn't. This was starting to look like a big issue that meant either no insurance, or flying back home to sort it out, but thankfully after about three hours of hunting around I found a company that would take me on, albeit at a pretty inflated price. Top tip - never let your travel insurance run out whilst you're away!

To top off my day, at nearly midnight (and with a 5am start looming) I realised my credit card wasn't in my wallet when I went to pay for said insurance. I turned my room upside down and checked everywhere, but it was no-where to be seen. Knowing I wouldn't have time to retrace my steps around town the next day, reluctantly I called my bank and cancelled it. Thankfully there were no dodgy transactions placed on it, and my suspicion is that I left it in a cash machine a few days before. This particular machine I found later, gave you your cash before your card - the opposite of most machines, and I must have just left it in the slot before it got sucked back in after I'd left. Pretty annoying, but I've still got another two cards to keep me going so not the end of the world.

It was the end of my time in Rishikesh - a very unique week or so of this trip and one I'd thoroughly enjoyed on the whole. I'd been open minded enough to try a broad range of what I call new-age practices, which in reality are mostly very old, but failed to be convinced by any of them. Some might say being open minded amounts to more than giving something a go, but usually the process of trying something, whatever it is, makes me either want to buy into it, or not, and here was mostly the latter. A couple of days of volunteering loomed, and not really having many details to go by - what would the journey bring I asked myself?

Hindu god in Kunjipuri temple