Brijwani Palace Hotel Rishikesh

... where the water came from... to be honest I still don't). Next he dipped his finger into a small dish filled with a thick red paint, and dabbed a small dot on each of our foreheads. It was a bit confusing, but oddly reassuring. He lit some incense and after the smoke raised up over our faces he remarked "good" and began to encircle the smoke around our faces. When he was finished, we gave him another donation, and walked down the 13 floors. (I must admit while a nice ...

... where we had stayed the night before, and only had a pay $5 a night total for all three of us. The guy Tom that I had met in Anjuna, Goa, a few weeks ago happened to be in Rishikesh now, so I called him and after checking in, and we found him sitting in a cafe known as the Little Buddha, a place that would soon become that would soon become my home here in Rishikesh. The Little Buddha was a really relaxing place where you sit on the floor with pillows and they ...

... small doses. Mr New Zealand: I met this geezer at the coffee shop a few times. He looked about 60, and was heavily tattooed with a cigarette constantly flapping about in his mouth. We hit it off immediately when he slagged off the bedraggled, dreadheaded idiots who have become the bane of my life in India. He's been coming to India since the 70's and was a mine of information (knew SO much about Rishikesh and its pilgrims and Indian dress and almost everything else), and I ...

... leau est propre, verte et magnifique, pleine de gros poissons engraisses au chapatis, et ya les grandes montagnes en arriere-plan, avec un vent bien frais et parfois tres fort qui souffle de l'Himalaya. <br>Apres 2 nuits passees dans une guesthouse, jai emmenage dans un ashram; Anand Prakash Ashram si le nom vous interesse. Le batiment etait magnifique, le jardin luxuriant, les salles de yoga inspirantes et la terasse sur le toit un vrai havre. Le prof principal de ...

... was! <br><br>After the meal it was Showtime but Showtime took a while. We actually waited until around midnight for the bride and groom to show up. The groom came first, of course, with drummers in front and people all around. They carried him on a chair and he was dressed in gold and flowers. He was quite handsome. They sat him on his "throne" in front of the guests and we waited another half hour or so for the bride. She looked just beautiful. Shame that ...

... with a private bathroom and meditation and yoga classes included it sounded sweet. The first room they showed me looked like a dungeon without the the frills but I agreed for the time being until something better became available. I went to get my stuff and when I came back I was delighted to find a corner suite (ok I call it a suite but it's ...

... at the Ashrams; looking for spiritual guidance, and at the more modern Yoga retreats; to study the arts of breathing, meditation, and exercise. We ourselves stayed at one of the most prominent Ashrams in Rishikesh, the Shivananda Ashram at Laxman Jhula. It is a huge Ashram whose pink buildings cover the west bank of the area. Over 300 people live there and many people come to visit and stay in the guest houses. We were lucky to be referred and ...

The moves being made to Agra that i mentioned at the end of my last email were made mighty slowly as our train was delayed for a mammoth 20 hours!!! This meant we could stay one more night at our beloved 'Cosy' in Jodhpur-in a tent on the roof might i add-so all's well that ends well! Apart from the Taj Mahal which was as breathtakingly beautiful as you may imagine, Agra was a bit underwhelming. We were stationed right beside a big mosque that blasted out prayer after prayer and there ...

... a visit to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram (which is now closed). Rishikesh is also known as the birthplace of the Ganges river (Ganga) because it's first town from where the Ganges drops out of the mountains. It's also the "World Capital of Yoga" and you many, many people from all over the world drop in to visit a local Ashram...which is basically just a place where one can go to escape the day-to-day grind for a bit of spiritual refreshing (or whatever ...

... they let the rope down and handed out little balls of sugar that are considered holy now that a holy man had prayed over it and eating it is seen as a way of cleansing. To say that the experience was moving would be a drastic understatement. The next morning at 4 am we were woken up by what sounded like a thousand bells being rung for 5 whole minuets. Then there was a full hour of chanting over the loud speaker. I was kind of glad though because I had planed to see the sun ...