Parakh Hotel Haridwar

... do white water rafting;

- Jeep safari in the jungle;

- walk in the jungle;

- visit tribal villages;

- visit holy places in Himalayas;

- visit beautiful temples in the mountains;

- Cycle in the mountains;

- spend a day or two in Rishikesh, International Yoga Center;

- do yoga and meditation in one of many ashrams ...

... airport, Rutherford and I experienced the most diverse group of people we have ever seen in one place. There were so many different skin colors, robes and turbans. Some women were covered from head to toe while others were dressed like me. It was pretty amazing. Rutherford interviewed a man from Oman and though his English was not all that great, he was smiley and welcoming. Anyway, it was a fascinating layover and definitely made me want to learn more about the variety of cultures ...

... zwykle trwa ok 20-30 minut warto przejsc sie po dlugim, wypelnionym najrozniejszymi gadzetami, restauracjami, kafejkami Bara Bazaar. Sa tam kolory i stroje z calych Indii. Duzo milsza dla duszy jest druga opcja - spacer wzdluz Gangi pomiedzy ludzmi ukladajacymi sie do snu na jej brzegu. Od czasu do czasu slychac glosno grajacy TV, ktory oglada gromadka ludzi; lub dzieci sprzedajace chi/herbate; czy tez ciche dyskusje sadhus - ale to wszystko dodaje ...

... a whole van of police men arrived to escort me and viki away as it was far to risky for girls to join in as there were many drunk men around.... we felt gutted!! but we went to cleanse our sins in the ganges which was also a great experience!! after this we headed back to our hotel to shower and SCRUB clean (viki is still dirty though.... i think she was attacked by the most amount ...

... seeking a tip before you join the trip (an organising fee - you understand... double Hmm) Don't pay the buggers until you have returned and are satisfied with the trip. Despite all this, Rishikesh has a many sided personality, with all forms of temples, yoga ashrams, massage centres, Yoga schools and not forgetting tourist fodder at sometimes half the price paid in Delhi.... The population is quite bohemian with a surprising amount of ...

... things, having avoided any real contact with flesh or blood through my lifetime of vegetarianism and here, with no warning I was finding out, thrown in at the deep end. She then pointed out a large number of minuscule white things on the scarf and calmly informed me that they were 'babies'. I was utterly horrified by both the foulness of these fly infants and the extent of the damage, which had worsened tenfold since my last visit a few days earlier. Julie barely had ...

... for my mistake (Ravi insisting, 'No problem, Mr. George') and as we headed back we came across a small road block of people protesting a shortage of 'cooking gas' or 'kitchen gas' which Ravi made sure to differentiate from cooking oil. Shortages are apparently a big problem, expecially in the more rural areas of India and human roadblocks are a common method of addressing these grievances by village people. We managed to move our vehicle through this ...

... Our fun and mischievous activities ended when the teams that went for rafting came back at the camp. With lunch served it was time to see that everything was in place. After the lunch the teams interchanged their activities and we were busy with the camp staff in getting prepared for evening snacks and dinner.   Later I got  a chance to take a nap which I took with closed eyes, but my dreamless sleep was soon interrupted with the clamor of the teams ...

... Haridwar I was really looking forward to it...however, a long and sleepless night train later (in which a thief tried to steal my bag from between my seat back and my back and I had to hit him with my water bottle...the rest of the passengers just pretended like they didn't see!) as we sat in a tourist restaurant called "Big Ben's," empty except for us and 3 other disheartened tourists spinning tails of their terrible time in ...

... further and more comfortably on the basic ones. Concentrating on my breathing and relaxing into the postures rather than straining made a big difference. One aspect of the course I hadn't expected was the kriyas, a set of almost uniformly unpleasant cleansing rituals. The most bearable involved pouring warm, salty water into one nostril and letting it drain out of the other. The stomach cleansing kriyas weren't pretty, though probably quite entertaining to ...