Rishikesh rocks!!!

... and not just because the Beatles came here. The last 24 or so hours are kind of a blur, so forgive me if I sound incoherent. I left the ashram at about 10:30 on Monday morning. My taxi? A motorcycle, because traffic was so bad in town if we had taken the car I would have never made it to the train station in time. As it was, it was quite an exciting journey with my big backpack strapped to my back zipping through the streets. At times it felt like we were playing chicken with the other vehicles as the rules of the road went completely out the window and there was no such thing as "lanes". My train was sheduled to leave at 11:55 and we arrived at 11:30. Just in time... that is, if my train hadn't actually left at 8:30 that morning. WHAT?! I've heard of trains being late, but 3 1/2 hours early? What kind of public transportation system changes the schedule like that? Oh right, India's, of course. How could I be so silly? So anyway, a little bit of frustration, disbelief, and 800 rupees later I was on another train. (No, I did not shell out another 800 myself, the taxi driver/ashram kindly covered the cost. 800 rupees is only like $16 but still, I wasn't going to pay this just on principle alone.)

It was a long overnight journey and I was the only tourist in sight. One man spoke English quite well and we all managed to have a lively conversation about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorism, and karma. Nothing serious. Haha. I arrived in Haridwar at about 9:30 or so and attempted to locate the bus station, but that proved next to impossible. So I ended up taking an auto rickshaw to Rishikesh, only about an hour's drive. I found my hotel, had some breakfast, showered, and now I am ready to explore! I am happy to report that the Ganga is actually blue. And it's quite lovely. Downtown Rishikesh seems a bit like Varanasi, as in semi-chaotic, but where I'm staying is on the outskirts. It's nice and quiet and even, dare I say, clean. Well, clean by Indian standards anyway. I am at an internet cafe, so one of my goals in the next couple days is to locate somewhere with wifi so I can upload some pictures. But now, it's off to take some! Acha! (Good!)