Jamey, Cara, and I are shortly back in Delhi today before heading out by bike early tomorrow morning for our first organic farm. The farm is located about 200+ km from Delhi and we're allowing ourselves three days to bike there, due to the amount of weight we plan on carrying. I don't have much info on the farm but, when I do, I will be sure to report back.
The rest of our stay in Rishikesh/Ramjhula/Lakshmanjhula was great and relaxing. Our accommodations were definitely a step down from our accommodations at the Ashram in Haridwar but, then again, we were staying in a room that cost only $2 a night for three people -- that's 67 cents per person per night-- and as you can see from the picture of our shared bathroom above, we got what we paid for. The perks were that our neighbors were two brothers, named Nico and Juanchi, from Argentina that we made friends with and a friendly stray dog that I may or may not have fallen in love with.
During this trip we interacted a good deal with animals. Monkeys, from which I still like to keep my distance, were everywhere and could often be found blocking my entrance to the bridges, hanging on the side of the road, or lounging on benches. At one point we stoped to watch an Australian girl feed a family of grey monkeys (they're supposed to be nicer than the red ones). I watched this with curiosity and (mostly) fear that a monkey was going to attack her. There were no attacks but I still don't plan on getting within reaching distance of one anytime soon. I didn't take any pictures of the monkeys because I don't really like them but Cara took this picture of me near monkeys. My apologies to any monkeys reading this blog, I'm sorry but I just don't trust you.
Cara took it upon herself to feed leftovers to a cow on the street. The cow appreciated the gesture and returned the favor by chasing Cara down the street. I got a kick out of this and reached for my camera, at which point the cow started chasing me, as he mistook my camera for food.
Here is a picture of the cow following Cara.
Lastly, the best discovery (in my opinion, of course) was finding out that some of the stray dogs in India are very friendly. They're especially friendly if you've given them food. They tend to like bread stuffs, such as Roti or Chapati and meat, which we never have. They don't tend to like peanut butter (what dog doesn't like peanut butter?!), fruits, or vegetables. Here is a picture of the dog that kept coming by
Besides being a great conversationalist (we talked about ALL kinds of things), she is very good at giving sad puppy eyes when I don't have food to give her. This is also the first self-portrait I have done with an animal. Tyra would be proud.
