Location Update

We're arrived yesterday afternoon in Lakshma Jhula/Ram Jhula/Rishikesh, which is the yoga capital of the world. We don't have wireless access where we're staying, so I probably won't be updating the blog too often. Of the notable things that have happened here, a young beggar girl mocked me and I watched a cow poop on the street.

It is beautiful here. If I had more time at this internet cafe, I'd go into detail but I can't. Also, I just read that the Phillies won the world series. I'm sad I'm not there to celebrate. Feel free to drop me some info on how Philly is responding.

Jamey's Blog

Make sure to check out his blog too. He goes into more for his reasons for this trip.

www.veganbetweenyourlegs.com

I, er, have, uh, nothing to do with his latest post...

Festival of Lights

Diwali was great. Before the evening Diwali prayers commenced, Cara, Mario (our Austrian friend from the Ashram), and I decided to take a walk around town in hopes of seeing the monks before they make their way to the evening prayer. Besides getting harrassed by a Eunuch, a person who looks like a man dressed in women's clothes that is considered to have no sex, when we left the ashram for a mid-day stroll, our walk around town was amazing. Haridwar is known to be a spiritual city, as it is home to numerous temples and ashrams. When we exited the ashram, the street was litterally littered with men (and some women) in orange robes. It looked like a picture out of National Geographic -- they were walking in the street, sitting on the steps to a temple, everywhere (including on the side of the road squatting to pee, I think we might have seen at least 10 men doing this). I didn't bring my camera with me but Cara did, so hopefully she will be able to post some of the pictures on her flickr site when she gets the chance.

As for the evening, we started with a prayer where we blessed and lit 500 mini candles (Diwali falls on the new moon so the candles are to light the way for lord Ram's return from exile), which were really mini clay bowls filled with ghee and wick, and placed them around the entire Ashram. We then lit a couple fireworks and sparklers then went to eat. Our Diwali meal was officially the first meal I've eaten in India that I did not like. The meal consisted of mainly sweets and a styrofoam like cracker to scoop up the main entree, a vegetable dish, which was the only part of the meal I did liked. The rest of the evening was then spent setting off fireworks and sparklers. I'll upload pictures of the night, as people from the Ashram gave Cara, Jamey, and I traditional Indian clothes to wear for the festival. I'll let you be the judge of how we look.

Happy Diwali Tuesday

Today is Diwali. I woke up at 7am for Yoga, drank some tea, took a shower, ate and am now listening to a marching band that just entered the Ashram. Later I plan to light some fireworks and sparklers.

How's your Tuesday?

(Feel free to leave your hateful comments below)

Hippie in training?

Things are extremely laid-back and relaxing here at the Ashram. I skipped the 4:30 morning prayer and instead woke up for the 7am yoga class. After sitting around for a while, laughing at one of the dogs who has been leashed up for unknown reasons (there are two and they usually run around the place freely) and eating breakfast/lunch I went down to the Ganges with Cara, Jamey, and our new Austrian friend, Mario. We swam for a bit (Jamey watched because he claimed that one of us needs to stay healthy and take care of the others if we catch a disease from the Ganges. How un-Hindi of him...) and then spent the rest of the day laying out in the sun while Mario sang sweet-nothings in our ears, er, I mean he sang us Hindi songs.

The ashram is great. There is a loose "schedule" for the day, which includes morning prayer (puja), morning yoga, tea, more tea, breakfast/lunch, 4 hours of nothing, tea, a class, tea, tea, dinner, prayer, tea, sleep AND best of all, everything is optional. I mainly partake in the tea and the meals.

In case you were wondering how we got to an Ashram, being that yoga is one of the last things I would be known for, Cara is interested in yoga and actually plans on getting certified in February at an Ashram in Kerala.

Going with the Flow of the Ganges

Of the many things we were told about India, one of them was to not expect things to go according to plan. They haven't. Yesterday, we left Navneet and Priya's apartment expecting to catch a night bus to Dharmsala but ended up scratching the Dharmsala/McLeod Ganj idea, due to time constrictions, and instead took a night bus to Haridwar.

The great thing is that when you allow yourself to go with the flow, amazing things occur. In the night bus Jamey sat next to a young man, Prantik, who it turned out was traveling with his two other friends Abhinab and Devandra, to Haridwar and Rishikish. The bus arrived in Haridwar at 4am and we had no plan for our morning and no address for the Ashram we were planning to eventually go to. We ended up spending the morning with the three guys. We went to the river with them for morning prayer, which is when people bathe in the Ganges to purify themselves. They explained to us a lot about the rituals, and showed us to the temples. We ended up spending the entire morning with all three of them, six hours altogether. So far, that morning has been my favorite experience since it was all such a matter of chance that we even met them.

(The picture is, from L o R, Abhinab, Devandra, and Prantik)

I'm currently sitting in a yoga Ashram outside of Haridwar. I wintessed a prayer session this evening and, word has it, that I will probably be woken up for one anytime between 4:00 - 5:00 am. It should all be worth it though, as I spent a good hour lying on the roof looking at the stars from under my blanket, smelling the smoke of the campfire in the distance. For the time being, I can't ask for more.

That is all for now. I've accepted that I don't have the time to report on everything that happens, so I've chosen to keep my posts reletively short.

Off to the Himalayas!

We are leaving for McLeod Ganj, Haridwar, and Rishikish tonight. There is a good chance that we will be out of range of internet, so please don't worry if you do not hear from me much in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Once again, I'll post stories and pics when i get a chance (but don't hold your breath).