Excursions outside the retreat

(Rishikesh, India, 10th of Sep 2016)

On two occasions we were away on excursions outside the retreat, or well, it turned out in the end to be only one. The first trip should go up in the Himalaya mountains for a morning yoga session during sun rise. We were told to gather in the reception at 4 o’clock in the morning (!) for departure with a taxi up in to the mountains.

In the dark, on her way to the taxi, Christel managed to tread in cow shit, cozy when you have flip flop shoes on and are a bit tired. Fortunately, there are water taps in the streets in Rishikesh so she got reasonably clean again. Our taxi was waiting for us on the other side of Ganges and we went off. When we had been driving for a while the road suddenly was blocked by some big signs accompanied with some guards. We were told that we could not continue up the hill because it had rained large amounts the last couples of days and the road was not safe. What an anticlimax! Nothing to do about it – we turned back with the taxi and walked the same way back again, once again Christel tread in some cow shit, and an hour later we were back in bed again. And this was an experience we had heard would be absolutely fantastic. But as our Indian guide said – no one can beat the raw forces of nature.

Our next excursion went to a waterfall a bit up in the mountains. We had not been properly informed about what we should wear and bring with us – but just before we left someone told us there was going to be an opportunity to swim, so we rushed up and got our swimwear. What they did not tell us was what to put on our feet. Christel always wear her flip flops and so also this day. When our taxi drove by a sign reading “waterfall” and an arrow pointing up a really bad road we thought we would have to walk from there. But no, the taxi continued up the road, in Sweden it would definitely be called unusable. We were told that this road was new, earlier visitors have had to walk the 2-3 kilometers up to the waterfall. The taxi dropped us off at a small waterfall but we were told that if we wanted to see the large waterfall, we would have to walk another 1000 meters up the hill. And of course we wanted to see the real thing! I can tell you that it is really exciting to climb handmade Indian staircases with lots of loose pebbles wearing flip flop. The climb was physically tough but definitely not worse than riding on a bicycle up a mountain in Spain. Up we came anyway and reached the waterfall. There was a bridge over a small lake just below the waterfall, a few other tourists and two minimal Indian kiosks.

Johan and Wolker got in to their swim gear and jumped in to the well by the waterfall. Christel chickened out when there were only guys who got in, even in the other group of Westerners at the waterfall it was just the guys who jumped in. Instead, she sat down beside a small Indian lady, who sat under a tarp and seemed to be responsible for one of the small booths, and tried to talk, but unfortunately the conversation became a little shaky as her English was somewhat limited. But pretty she was!