Rishikesh, what to say....yoga, meditation, ashrams, and tourists. This is one busy little place with everyone on their own special journey so to speak...it looks to me like a few of the tourists have gone more than a little overboard in their spiritual journey..but each to their own! We are surprised to see some pretty old tourists...but then again there are some really nice hotels and tour groups arranged through the big hotels in Delhi etc....but still India is not the place to visit if your stomach isn't strong. Talking of which the cows here are dammed tough and basically survive on eating plastic and paper bags. One lady we met says that they are outlawing plastic bags in some cities as they are killing the cows (which are obviously holy) and some cows have over 90 lbs of plastic stuck in their stomachs! (I was wondering about this plastic as the cow dung looks pretty much the same as our cattle just being a little looser (plastic laxative!).
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| even the cows like the shopping in Rishikesh |
We spent our five days in Rishikish exploring the streets, relaxing on the beaches along the Ganges (mother Ganga) river, watching the monkeys (lots and one of the "red ass" fellows attacked me and chomped on my pants), watching sunsets, reading and relaxing...very nice and we leave Rishikish with some great memories!
After "organizing" our getaway we took a tuk tuk to Hardiwar (about 25 km) and just about sucummed to fume poisoning (might as well have sucked on a diesel pipe for an hour) before we unloaded at the bus(?)station...bears a distinct resemblance to the Alexis Creek landfill...only dirtier. Some strange sights on the way to the bus station the least of which was a baba, awash in gray ash and standing buck naked in the middle of a bridge slowing down traffic...strange! Bought our ticket at a travel agent promising a tourist sleeper bus.. pay 650R each which to put in perspective is slightly more than what we had just paid for 5 nights lodging in Rishikesh, so even though it only costs us $12.00 each, is expensive......get to the tourist bus station which is little more than a very dirty dirt parking lot with some chai stands, people waiting around and a few buses in various stages of neglect. There is a bus on the outskirts that has seen better days....no windshield, hood doesn't shut, a few boarded up windows and what looks like a flat tire. Chris laughingly takes a picture of this derelict. Some of the other buses look okay. We sit in the shade sipping chai and wait until our appointed departure time when we are to leave on bus #3206. Time comes around and minor chaos is starting so Chris goes looking for our bus...returns laughing his head off - guess what - that broken down bus with no windshield is ours! But enough of our bitching...what about the driver..as it is frigging cold and I cannot even imagine what is thrown up by traffic (and speaking of traffic it flows non-stop...bumper to bumper all night with huge traffic jams in Delhi at the toll booths even at midnight. In fact this is our first sleeper bus and its pretty cool as we have our own private space above the seats (not good in a roll-over!) and one entire side is window...that opens wide open (like wide enough that someone small could easily fall out of the window onto the packed street!)...a great place to see India from! So the bus stops every once in a while to allow people to grab a chai etc. These stops rarely have a bathroom and are considered "open" areas...that is you whiz or take a dump where ever you want. Needless to say the smell would gag a hyena and one definitely wants to watch their step! (good for the guys..not so much for the gals!)
So after a bus switch (where our sleeper was already taken and the bus full...so we had to stand in the front for the final leg to Pushkar. The driver assured us he would make it in two hours (the book ways 4) and sure enough he definitely had some kamakazee blood in his system as he maneuvered this huge bus through the throngs of motos, Tata's laying on the mega-horn almost non-stop!
Pushkar...here we are...on the ghat lined Pushkar Lake...very nice and not even a village in India terms with only 17,000 souls. We have spent five days here, climbed both of the mountains at sunset, taken a camel ride into the desert (great Thar Desert) in Rajisthan and walked the ghats and virtually every street in this colorful, bustling and NOISEY village. First of all a short list of what is illegal in holy Pushkar: Eating/serving of meat. : Kissing : No drinking : No sex (hold it...can't be true given the expansive number of kids!) So what isn't illegal is Charas and Chillum...smoking of ganga and hashish which is definitely a national pasttime throughout all of India we have visited...people light up any and everywhere especially the locals...and just an observation...there are no rowdies, people acting stupid and mean like when folks use alcohol! Even the lassies (a fantastic drink made of curd(yogurt) and fruit (like a superthick better tasting milkshake), also come specially made as "special" or "bhang" lassies mixed with ganga...they taste good and work (as evidenced by Lori making me do a mega chocolate bar run after a special lassie)! Our local restaurant guy said "I want to go to Canada and open a restaurant selling chai and "special lassies"!...no doubt he would get RICH..but only until he ended up in jail!
Our camel ride was definitely fun as we headed out of town into the desert for an overnight trip. So riding a camel is like riding a bumpy horse that sits 2 stories tall...you're a long ways up! You turn the varmits like a horse...except with their long necks you can stretch the neck of a stubborn camel right to your leg...not good as they are biters. We were surprised to see many birds species and even some large antelope...but then again that is one of the good things about being a vegetarian society against killing...despite horrific environmental degradation there are wild animals living right on the outskirts of towns etc. We were also surprised to learn that the government actually grass seeded many of the sand dunes with pampas grass in the state of Rajisthan to stabilize the sand dunes and allow farmers to grow crops where they could get water.
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| our camel camp out in the desert |
I think that we mentioned that the best way to describe India is "sensory overload".....well we can define it even more after 5 days in Pushkar...NOISE is India!!!! We are convinced that most Indians are scared (no kidding!) of silence! Even in the desert music was blaring at mega decibels wherever people lived and right now we are listening (because we have no choice!) to the babbling of some lunatic spewing religious Hindi at 50 words a minute over a massive loud-speaker...and they have been at it for over 20 hrs non-stop!!!!!! Myanna...you got it right as the most important luggage to take to India is ear plugs...but they are not even working with this lunatics dialog (and although the Indian weddings are incredible...color...life...dancing and music the noise is insane...they blast off these huge fire crackers (better than M50's) but they pale in comparison (in terms of sheer noise) to the music which is broadcast though a mass of 10 plus 3 foot speakers powered by their own generator towed behind a horse...I swear I can feel my balls giggling when they pass by!!! Leaving for Udiapur this evening...lots of bus time and a tuk tuk/bus transfer...will we make it? stay tuned!
