Well.... in the past few days I have been sneezing a lot, scratchy throat and runny nose... however since yesterday it has developed into a full blown cold!! In India?! how can this be?! to make things even better, I woke up this morning with a rash all over my face!! I can't for the life of me figure out how in the world I developed a rash :-( It would seem to me that my body is now rejecting India, saying "ok, we've had enough, time to go home now!!" and quite frankly, I do agree with my body, only 2 more days though, lets hope I don't wake up tomorrow with a full body rash!! Please Lord Shiva, be nice!!
So anyway, besides all that, I after a momentary freak out over my rash, I pulled on my yoga clothes, grabbed my mat and headed down stairs and over to the hotel which has the yoga class. It was 2 hours of "oh my god I dont think I could possible twist any further" awesomeness. It is such a treat to be taught yoga by a real yogi!! He was so kind and helpful and the way he talked along with his accent was so great. If your feet weren't quite far enough apart and would look at you, look down with a furrowed brow type of look and move his hands in the motion signifying "feet farther apart". Then if he came over to you to correct your form he would go "tailbone down, back straight, straight straight! now feet move tiny bit.. yes! This is!!" anytime you got the pose right he'd go "this is!!". Throughout the class we also did some meditations, he would chant the mantra, then we would recite back... everyone else seemed to know it, so I would kind of recite back what I could then hum along the rest. After class I asked the teacher if he could write down the mantras and their meanings, and his response? "how about you can e-mail me and I can e-mail you back" in my head I was thinking "well now isn't that just the sheer sign that everyone, even yogi's are in the modern world of technology." It made me laugh a little, after being all stretched out and serene from meditation to have your yogi instructor tell you to email him.
So then I went and got some breakfast, then set off to find the Maharishi Mahesh Ashram, where the Beatles stayed 42 years ago. After quite another long uphill hike I found it, this guy hobbled over to the gate as he saw me walking up to it and immediately says "The Beatles palace?" laughing I said, "uhh yea" thinking, they call it the beatles palace??" anyway, so he asked for 50 rupees, which I gladly gave, and walked through. Feeling extremely giddy inside I begin up towards the Ashram, thinking all the while "The Beatles walked these very same steps!!!!!" it was very surreal. Then I got there!! and funny enough the gate into it looked exactly like the gate that is in the photograph for strawberry fields. The Ashram looks very much like an old ruins site of some old century village, all over grown, the buildings totally fallen apart etc. But still I was so excited. So I, very wide eyed and in total awe, walked around taking pictures and trying to find the spot where one of the famous pictures of the beatles from their Ashram time, with the Maharishi, Mia Farrow and Prudence (mia farrows sister and also the inspiration for the song Dear Prudence). Since everything was so overgrown, I couldn't find it, but I'm pretty sure it was perhaps one of three places which looked like it could have been the place. Oh, it was just so wonderful!! I'm such a nerd when it comes to The Beatles, I so wish I could have lived during their hayday, and maybe meet them!!!!
So that killed a good 45 minutes of my day, then I trekked back down and had no idea what to do next. I didn't really want to walk around just with all of the massive massive amounts of people here right now, it's impossible to walk around, plus because they are all from villages they end up just surrounding you and staring so your stuck, or they follow you.... not very relaxing to say the least. So I went to one of the bath and body type shops here that are all herbal and ayurvedic type stuff, and got some stuff to hopefully fix this rash/allergic reaction...thing that is on my face. They were very helpful and very kind. I then went and found some lunch, and then made my way back to my hotel room to wash my face and contemplate what to do next. This is so not what I was hoping would happen here. But every hotel manager and shop owner keeps saying the same thing "you came at really bad time!! so crowded, hard to relax" meanwhile I'm thinking "yea great!! thanks!" sigh...... I then ventured off to find a bookshop to see if I could find a good book on meditation or something like that, well the number of books on that stuff is a tad overwhelming, so I figured perhaps I'd ask someone later what they might recommend... or better yet, they could teach me!! so then I went to one of the travel agencies to see about moving my train up to leave in the morning as opposed to the evening. Because I can't possibly see what I could do with my time all day tomorrow seeing as how I had quite the difficult time today trying to fill my time until the evening yoga class. So thankfully I was able to cancel my ticket and get another one for the AM. Thank god!!!
So finally I made to 5:30!!! yoga class #2 time!! However, by this point my nose was even more sniffly, eyes watering, nose tingling... great! haha Anyway, I got my fresh papaya juice, as I did before the morning class (that is something I definitely love love love about India, fresh squeezed juices everywhere!!) So the second class was just as wonderful, oh and I forgot to mention, the class room had windows all around it which looked right out to the Himalayas!!!! talk about getting into the serene state!! so lovely!! anyway, the class was wonderful like I said, except for my stupid nose!!! plus with my cough, breathing deeply was a bit difficult.
After class Rita and I went and grabbed something to eat and now we are both in this cafe e-mailing away.
So.... I am certainly glad that I at least came to Rishikesh, and got to take a couple yoga/meditation classes as well as getting to see "The Beatle Palace!" haha but I am sad that I came at the worst possible time. But, I definitely want to come back here sometime and next time I'll know when to NOT come, as well as maybe staying at an acutal ashram which has a daily schedule which you can follow as you wish. Oh that's another phrase my yogi teacher says which makes me giggle; "as you wish" it just sounds so formal!! Yesterday when I was inquiring at the front desk about where things were and what I could do, he was sitting in the lobby and overheard me and jumped in and drew me a map and numbered which order I should do the things I had written down. So then afterwards I was sitting there trying to figure out what I wanted to do, meaning should I take the yoga class now? or go eat since I hadn't eaten anything since the morning. His response "as you wish" Lol so great!
Anyway, so I have to leave the hotel at 4am to go trek back to across the "bridge of death" (thats my name for it) then through the village and to the first bridge to meet my taxi which will take me to Haridwar (an hours drive) to catch my train which leaves at 6am. I am a bit worried about making this voyage to the taxi alone when it is still dark out.... more so about crossing the "bridge of death" in the dark... thank god I have a "torch light" (aka flashlight) on my phone!!! You can bet I'll be praying to Shiva the whole time I'm crossing, and at least i'll be able to quickly cross it this time!
Make sure you all pray to Shiva for me too!!!
Subha Raatri :-)
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