26 November 2018 3 of 4
It’s been a week of varied experiences – from the foothills of the Himalayas, to the Pakistani border, to the beaches of Goa. Plus a very satisfying experience is that I’ve now worn all the clothes I packed for the trip 😉
We were staying close to Rishikesh – a mountain town on the Ganges River known as a spiritual destination and a place to study yoga and meditation. I interpreted that to mean “quiet, chilled out and reflective”. I was highly incorrect with the town FULL of tourists (both locals and foreigners) and constantly busy. Hindus believe that any rituals performed on or near the Ganges River see their blessedness multiplied so there is much effort to maximise prayers while in town. There are temples and ashrams side by side along the river, on every minor mountain peak, and squeezed in next to small tributaries with regular prayers and a constant hustle-bustle of devotees shuffling between them. It is a very nice place to visit, just not quiet.
If you’re not meditating or praying in Rishikesh, neither of which I am proficient at, you are rafting on the Ganges River. In addition to the guides, we were 7 in our raft. I was the only foreigner and only female, and as it turned out, one of only two useful people in the raft (the other being Abhinav). My logical brain couldn’t cope with the Indians wearing jeans, jumpers and thongs to go rafting, and carrying around their car keys, mobile phones and fancy sunglasses. We are going to get wet people!! And together they were uncoordinated, distracted, unfit and lazy – the guide finished our rafting early because he wasn’t enjoying how the raft kept going in circles when the others decided to join in the rowing. I laughed the whole time. And got very wet. I embraced the spiritual element of the area by having a long soak in the (very cold) river in between rapids to wash all my sins away. I’m a fresh woman!
We then headed west to Amritsar, a nice city 28kms from the Pakistani border. I learnt a lot of interesting stuff about the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the rule of the British. And we visited the Golden Temple – the holiest temple in the Sikh religion – which was ridiculously impressive. I really recommend a visit to this part of the world.
One of the big draw cards of Amritsar is the daily “retreat” ceremony at the border. My gosh, I have never been so unprepared for a spectacle. With a metre between the country border lines, and giant fancy metal security gates to mark the border, a team of 10 Indian border force members with fancy headwear line up on one side, and the Pakistani equivalent on the other, and so proceeds an elaborate 30 minute war dance in a show of muscle. Abhinav likened it to the Haka but done by soldiers. We were on the Indian side, seated in a purpose built stadium with thousands of screaming locals and no less than 43 huge speakers at top volume pounding out music to get the crowd jumping. The show starts at 4:30pm, and there were people there from 2:30pm. Daily. I felt like I was at the cricket with the chants of India going on and on. My head was going to explode from all the noise. And amidst all the cacophony, people are still crossing the border, including what seemed to be a “first meeting” of an arranged marriage. India continues to surprise me!
Now we’re in Goa where I forked out a few more dollars to stay in the fancy part so we’d maximise our relaxing time. We have an apartment overlooking the water, up above the trees with a cool sea breeze to help us cope with 35 degrees outside. And because I am fancy, tonight we had sunset cocktails at the local resort, followed by freshly caught lobster at the local restaurant. Yum! Cost $40…
And finally, things that made me chuckle this week, a police car with a sticker on the back window saying “live young, live free”; sitting in a restaurant looking out at the street enjoying lunch and an elephant and his owner wander past; and sitting in a local bus so cramped that my body was like an accordion – folded up into a box with my toes only just touching the ground and my chin resting on my knees – a new school of yoga.
You can expect one more email as I’m now in my last week of this holiday 🙁
As the cops say, live young, live free people
