Hotel Doon Castle Dehradun

... bus stop to Khodiyar temple<br><br> 27.09.2009<br><br> 07.00 am<br><br> By shared autorikshaw from Khodiyar temple to Rangoli hotel Chokdi<br><br> 27.09.2009<br><br> 09.00 am<br><br> By private bus from Rangoli hotel Chokdi to Botad bus stand<br><br> 27.09.2009<br><br> 11.00 am<br><br> By shared tempo from ...

... there by bike lift, Saw SBI ATM 05.20 pm 06.00 pm While searching for staying place, met Mr Mahendra Jain, a devout Jain who said he was alone here and staying in Jambu Dweep 07.00 pm Mr jain took me to his staying place. Being non jain, I was very reluctantly accommodated for one night only in that Dharamshala 08.00 ...

... 82 km from Dhanauti and the closest railhead is<br> at Dehradun. From here you can drive up to Dhanaulti, or take a tourist<br> taxi or bus. <br> Accommodation<br><br> Dhanaulti is a medium-to-low budget holiday option. Accommodation is<br> limited to a few tourist guesthouses, the GMVN tourist bungalow and the<br> Forest Rest House for which you need ...

... by the waterfall. Ganesh advised us to just go to the waterfall, enjoy it, and come back because it would be dark very soon. We thanked him and travelled onward, only to find that the guidebook left out another crucial element of traversing to the falls: the entire path was a steep climb up a mountain. It took us forever to get there, but when we finally did it was amazing. The drinking Indians left almost immediatly after we got there, and soon we were the only people there ...

... to float through the air, and I immediately made the decision that I'd stay here for a while. I've been on the move quite regularly for some time now, and this seemed like an ideal place to rest for a bit. After a long, unbroken sleep (the weather is cool enough that I didn't even wake up when the power went out and the fan stopped), I got up at 3.30ish. Feeling a bit peckish, I headed into one of the many restaurants overlooking the river ...

... flash with streaks of the new day's light once the pinks disappear. And the air is alive with more than exuberant, rushing wind as flitting, chittering, whistling, thweetiing and trilling song birds refuse to be outdone by the cawing and darting crows. I continue enjoying the morning, bathe, pray a bit, journal, work on the internet (gmail chatting with my daughter Lisa in Portland) until taking a late breakfast. As the sun heats up by mid morning, the winds die ...

... knuckles white with anticipation....the first rapids were easily overcame but after that they got bigger and more challenging. Whatever bit of stress that the yoga hadn´t pulled out of me was now definitely exorcised as we roared our way downstream, bobbing and weaving over the waves. What was particularly nice about the trip was that I was the only non-Indian. Despite it´s size, when you´re travelling around India its almost next to impossible to have any decent interaction ...

And so I left my luxury guest house room. Luxury? I hear you cry, Jonny doesn't 'do' luxury, but yes, I have to say I caved in when I came to this guest house and the owner told me I could have a 'normal' room for 400 rupees OR pay an extra 50 rupees for LUXURY. Now, I have a feeling the Indians have got the wrong end of the stick when it comes to luxury, or maybe someone has masterfully changed the deffinition in the dictionary, for, apparently, luxury now ...

... I was starting the long journey to Varanasi and hopped the bus to Dehra Dun the next morning. I arrived in Dehra Dun to find the typical dirty busy streets and honking horns and walked a couple of blocks to the train station stashing my backpack in one of the lockers. I had a day to take in this town and hopped onto one of the shared rickshaws, which followed a predetermined path. I heard that the Tibetan Buddhist Temple was a short walk from the New ...

Thursday, May 22nd: Woke up at 5am, had breakfast at 7, Hindi class at 7:30, Dr. Eaton's first lecture about simple environment topics (eg. water and nitrogen cycles, climate patterns, etc) from 9-11:30, lunch at 12, then went to the Wildlife Institute of India. At the Wildlife Institute, we sat in a huge lecture room with microphones, bottled water, Pepsi at each seat. After all the staff introduced themselves, we all ...