Vacation

As I wandered around Rishikesh today I thought about what the title of this blog would be. One idea was "Note to self: don't buy more than one banana," and the other was "Hey dude, pass the patchouli." The first stems from an experience I had yesterday afternoon. I had been told by a couple people here that the monkeys really like bananas, so much so that they might even try to take them from you. I sort of forgot about this as I bought two bananas, ate one, and thought I would bring the other back to my hotel for later. It was only about a 5-minute walk to my hotel after all. Not even a minute after my purchase one very large red-faced monkey scaled the fence I was walking along, his eyes on my banana. It took me no time to decide to drop it, plastic bag and all (sorry Rishikesh). Lesson learned. The second comes from the fact that there are A LOT of hippies in this town. I mean, I'm on vacation and wandering around, but just for a while. I get the impression that some of the folks here have been doing this for a very long time. You can easily live here for under $10 a day, accomodations and all.

Sadly, I have no pictures to share because I haven't had any luck finding a place where I can use my own computer, so it may just have to be text for a while and then a barrage of photos. It's really beautiful here, though. It's in the foothills of the Himalayas. I had forgotten how much I like mountains until I realized I hadn't seen any in over a month. I went for a great walk today, hiking up to an old temple with amazing views. My calves were quaking a little bit afterwards, another reminder of how sedentary ashram life was.

I love my hotel. I'm sure I could find cheaper accomodations, but that is relative here. It's in a quiet part of the city and I've met some great people already. There's a fabulous restaurant next to the lobby that serves a wide variety of food. Variety is key when it comes to eating, I've decided. I like Indian food, just not every day. Last night I met three American women who are all associated with the foreign service, either by themselves or through their husbands. They've had so many interesting experiences all over the world. We sat up on the roof deck and shared a bottle of wine, very hard to come by in this country, but these ladies are resourceful. I've noticed there are also a lot of Russians here, and apparently it's popular with Israelis as well because every international restaurant has an Israeli section on the menu.

All in all, I'm feelin' good. I'm officially on vacation now and master of my own schedule. Yoga at 6 did not happen this morning. I was planning on taking a class at the free festival this afternoon, but that didn't happen either. I went to the place and started to listen to the lecture that was happening before the yoga class. It was about mudras, taught by someone who kind of looked like a sadhu. I left about halfway through, though, partly because my cold was kicking in and partly because I just wasn't sure how to "relax my pancreas." I love yoga, but the old-school stuff can be pretty out there. One of the descriptions in the festival brochure actually reads, "Sri so-and-so lives under a mango tree." India is fascinating.