Ileftgood

As vast and diverse as India is, I feel lucky in the fact I found two wonderful places to spend the majority of my time. After a week of travel to a couple areas of Agra and Jaipur, I found my way to the North Eastern region and a town called Rishikesh.

It was there I did my ten day stint in the Dayanda Ashram taking part in a Iyengar yoga retreat. Aside from the daily sessions of yoga, which I found to be both enjoyable and useful after a few months of traveling, I had the great fortune of meeting a group of interesting, fun and diverse people. There were about twenty of us or so who participated in the retreat; the group was a true international coalition which included Polish, Swedish, Canadian, Indian, Japanese and a strong showing of the Thai contingent. It turned out to be a lot of fun and gave me ample time to reflect on my trip up to that point. After the ten days were up I moved shop to a little town two tuk-tuk rides and a ten minute walk away, called Laxman Jullah.

Here I spent the days hanging out with the five Westerners of the ashram. We apparently found it difficult to be apart and all found rooms in the same hotel for a couple of nights. Our combined time together was a little short as people decided to move on to take on other challenges in India; Stephanie, from Canada was the first to leave our group. She had planned to make her way to Goa after a few stops along the way. A couple other folks; Per from Sweden and Alana from Canada decided to join another Ashram for an additional weeks worth of yoga. Personally, I had my fill of a rigorous schedule and was more than happy to be doing things based on my timeline again. Plus I found the little town quite charming and was more than happy to get to know it better; more specifically, the German Bakery…actually, several of the German bakeries that spotted the town. After ten days of Ashram food, only interrupted with the occasional Kit-Kat, I was very happy to have a few different flavors to indulge in. Joanna, a fantastic woman from Poland, would prove to be the longest hold out and my compatriot for the next several days. We eventually ended up with rooms in our hotel next to each other with a shared balcony and view of the Ganga. It sounds luxurious, but in reality the rooms only cost 250 rupees a night, which roughly works out to about $5. Score. On the down side there were monkeys. “Down side…,” you may ask, “…how can monkeys be a down side?” Well, I would have thought them a plus as well, but it turns out monkeys are clever, thieving, angry bitches. While I did happen to get a few choice photos and a couple bits of entertainment from their presence (there was a morning when Joanna was awakened by monkeys on her porch enjoying a bag of fruit her neighbor on the opposite side left for her, making a mess of her newly laundered clothes drying on a line; to which Joanna reacted by opening her door while simultaneously clapping her hands and screaming “MONKEYS!”, to which the largest of the monkeys rebutted by leaping off the railing at Joanna. Luckily, Joanna had been practicing yoga and her reflexes were in peak form, at least enough to allow her to close her door before the monkey could attack. I heard all of this go on from my room and made my way to the window just as the monkey took flight…I concluded there are few better ways to wake up in the morning than hearing the word “monkeys” yelled in a Polish accent while watching a monkey bounce off a closing door), but aside from that, they pretty much do nothing but hassle people all day long.

I stayed in Laxman Jullah for a while longer than thought I would. Joanna convinced me to take yoga classes with her taught by Diwan, one of the Yogis we’d met and practiced with at the Ashram. Everyday for six days, I made my way back to the Ashram and practiced  Iyengar yoga with Joanna and a couple other folks for about two hours. It was great to have a class with so few people, while being taught by someone who had a clear passion for what they did. It was also nice to have at least a little something to do other than toasting a ridiculous amount of marshmallows everyday for a week and eating myself into near oblivion with vegetarian, though not quite healthy (thank you, chocolate croissants) cuisine. I’ll hang on to that story for a more intimate gathering of folks.

Eventually, we were reunited with the Swede and Canadian after there own six days of yoga madness. A couple days later, Alana asked what I had planned for the rest of my time in India. Having spent little to no time thinking about such things, I weighed heavily her offer to travel with her to meet up with one of our earlier departed brethren, Stephanie in Goa. It would mean I would most likely have to push back my departure from India. However, the draw of sun (it started getting very cold in the North), booze, fish (Laxman Jullah is located in a dry State…also, they have no meat), and the prospect of highly entertaining company was more than enough reason for me to agree. So, with that the two of us decided to take a night train from Risikesh to catch a flight from Delhi to Goa. A wise decision, indeed as opposed to the other option which would have taken us through Mumbai right around the time of the terror attacks: Disaster was averted and sunshine was on the horizon.

Part II in a bit,

-N