Hotel Ganga View Rishikesh

The next two days in Delhi were essentially an exercise in laziness. I had real problems sleeping, the heat and my weird cushion like bed meant that I couldn't nod off before 6am every night, which naturally meant I got up late and felt drained for most of my time here. Delhi seems like a city with more 'tourist attractions' than almost anywhere else I've been, but I didn't really make it to any of them. My time was split equally between Paharganj and Connaught Place, where I would eat and br...

The previous evening I'd agreed with Boaz and Tamar that I'd join them on their pilgrimage to a nearby waterfall today. Having agreed to meet them at 10 for breakfast, I somewhat reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and into the shower (melatonin puts me to sleep at night, but has the unfortunate side effect of keeping me there in the morning). This waterfall had better be Niagara's equal, I thought. We met down by the river, and watched a few kiddies doing backflips into the icy cold water....

Today was a fairly solitary day. I've been in Rishikesh for a fair old while now, and to be honest I remember few of the details of the day's activities. Essentially, I think I ate breakfast at one of the usual riverside places, searched in vain for Boaz and Tamar and then set out to spend the day in the sun. I'd already seen the waterfalls and couldn't really be bothered with any major sightseeing, so decided to make my way to a beach just out of town. The sand was as white and fine as any I...

I woke up late, coming to the realisation that Rishikesh was a lazy town and that there was nothing to hurry for. Making my way out of my hotel at noonish (hurdling sleeping cows all the way) I literally bumped into Helena and Mari, the lovely Norwegians of Varanasi fame. What a pleasant surprise! I knew that they were on their way here, but had no idea when or where I'd see them. Turns out they'd been here a day or two already. They'd eaten already, so we arranged to meet at the beach for a ...

We arrived at 6am, hideously tired and cramped. Immediate impressions were good, I could see the hills even from the bus station and the place had a serene atmosphere that had been sadly lacking in India so far. After a quick chai break I was soon in a rickshaw with Boaz and Tamar heading to Laxman Jhula, where I'd been informed some easy living awaited me. As we walked across the narrow footbridge slung across the Ganges (much bluer and fresher looking than it'd been in Varanasi), a cool bre...

Ok... Basically, I ended up really enjoying Rishikesh and the company that I'd found, and despite half feeling that I should see more of Northern India I ended up staying in the beautiful and restful town for about three weeks. I got thoroughly sucked into a comfortable routine, and as such couldn't be bothered to write this travel pod stuff very often. To be honest, the days blurred into one, and a day by day account would be pretty tiresome anyway. I've now left (writing in Goa, nananiiiice...

Hello and welcome to part 2 of the Rishikesh series. I will entitle this entry 'Stuff that happened in Rishikesh'. Clean living: Rishikesh is a holy town, and is thus vegetarian, but more importantly booze free. Upon arrival, I decided that this could be problematic as I'm borderline socially retarded and pretty much need alcohol to talk to people. If such a thing as social IQ existed, mine would hover somewhere around 70. But to my surprise, I found that I dealt with the lack of intoxicants ...