I woke up this morning at 3:30 am, pulled my stuff together and headed out to find my taxi. As I stated in the previous blog, I was a bit nervous about this walk, since it was still dark out and I'd be walking alone.... boy was I ever wrong!! this seems to be a re-occuring theme in India, you can truly expect to always be surprised. So walking out of the hotel at 4am I hear one of the Ashrams doing their chants, I walk down a side street to get to the main street and whoa!!! it looks just like it does during the day!!! people walking around everywhere, not quite as crowded, but still very crowded for 4am, most shops are closed but quite a few are open. So I picked up my pace to an almost power walk pace and booked it towards the "bridge of death" and damn it! it's crowded, however still enough room for me to walk quickly, and pass the slow walkers so I can just make it over that damn bridge!!
I finally make it to my taxi and off we go. It is truly amazing as we drive to see all of these people walking through the night just to come to Rishikesh to worship Lord Shiva. I did a bit of investigating on this event and it is apparently called "Kanwar Mela" where about 7 Million people come from all over making voyages as long as 120km on foot!!! (either barefoot or in flip flops) where they collect holy water from the Ganga river (or as we call it "the ganges") and to pay tribute to Lord Shiva. I found some pictures since I didn't want to draw attention to myself by taking pictures of them.
They all carry these contraptions which I figured out may possibly resemble the Lakshme Jhula (aka bridge of death as I call it) and on each end are baskets which they put the containers of holy water that they collect. The other picture is exactly what I saw while driving to the train this morning, trucks loaded with people, people walking, on motorcycles, bicycles etc.... every mode of transportation possible! I even saw them riding on top of the trains on my way up to rishikesh!!
Anyway, so I made my train, and arrived in Delhi around 12:30 or so, I got a rickshaw and headed over to Khan Market to go to my new little favorite bookstore/cafe and got some fresh juice!! oh how I love my fresh squeezed juice mixes. I then got a "greek salad" their version is slightly different, they use green olives and add green peppers... and also got some hummus and pita. I was quite starving as I only had a granola bar around 7am and a few oatmeal cookies... which weren't really cookies, i happened to find some rather healthy flax,oatmeal raisen cookies, which could have actually been a granola bar. Anyway! so yea, I was quite dizzy with hunger. I finished my meal then quite happily stuffed got another rickshaw and headed back to the house. After showering and unloading my stuff, i promptly fell asleep for a good 3 hours, ahhhh actual sleep!!!! I basically have not slept since sunday night. Not on purpose by any means, but I just couln't sleep monday night, then tuesday my stuffy nose made it hard to breathe and couldn't fall asleep till like 3am, then got up at 7am for yoga, then last night I again couldn't fall asleep till about 1am, then got up at 3:30am to head out. Soo.... yea, just a tad exhausted.
So this evening has been very low key. I have my day planned for tomorrow, going to go pick up my dress that I had made out of some gorgeous sari fabric. Then want to find the Himalayan skin care line that I got up in Rishikesh, I really like it and it is extremely cheap, whereas I would assume they probably jack up the price back home. So I want to stock up. Then perhaps I'll go have lunch at the bookstore/cafe and have my last yummy fresh juice before I leave to come home on saturday. I will miss my fresh juice!!! I think my next big kitchen appliance may just be a juicer, cuz I have become rather fond of fresh squeezed juice, as I am sure you are now aware of seeing as how often I have mentioned it in this blog alone! Lol Then I am going to head over to the VLCC spa to see if they can perhaps suggest some type of herbal remedy for this stupid rash/allergic reaction thingy.... was going to do that today, but just didnt have the energy to move. I wish I could figure out what on earth this is?! so strange.
Anyway, I am heading to bed now to get some actual sleep!!!!!!!!!
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