Goa

Aaah well haven't written on here in a while. If you were here too you wouldn't have written anything either. The beach here is quite nice, i mean real nice, not just India nice. There are many restaurants to eat at, and so many activities which include: floating around on floaties, swimming, reading on the porch, reading in the sun on the lounge chairs, playing paddle ball, going for walks, playing chess with a guy from the hotel, eating food, buying stuff, internet and did i mention swimming. Well i know kinda scary but it's true, been living the life here and there is nothing to complain about here. a few weeks (well less than that) and its home time. Tomorrow is going to be our biggest day yet. we will be renting a scooter and driving the 2 hours to the Anjuna market and back. it could take us all day and it's pretty much guarunteed to be dangerous. It is real India afterall. well wish us luck.

Rishikesh

our place is the one on the right on the river with all the construction going on

Well we have now spent 5 nights in the yoga capital of the Universe, yes the Universe. I guess many of the people here are so entwined with themselves and the world around them, they can claim this. I'm not so convinced, but i'll take their word for it for now until a more suitable place is found. Rishikesh is a town that is spread out into many different smaller areas along the Ganges river. We thought we would try out this whole ashram yoga thing and walked over to the Swarg Ashram area to check it out. Now we got there a little late as the bus took all day, literally, 2 buses etc... So we got into one that was recommended in the book and didn't really like the vibe of the dude at the counter from the start. My shoulder has been bothering me as of late and i wasn't sure how much yoga i would be able to do. So we had the idea of trying out for a few days and if we didn't like it then go get a room at a hotel. (As all yoga classes and meals are included in the price). But the dude wasn't having any of that and wanted full payment for at least 3 nights. So we weren't having that and we got a room in a less than decent hotel. We woke up the next day to try and find further accommodation. We went back to the same place to try it for 3 nights but now the guy says that it's full (we weren't sure if it was true or that he was pissed off at us). So we walked to a couple of other places but they all had a really religious feel to them, which Justina and I really aren't into. So then after lunch we went to check out another one of the areas a couple of km's up the river from the Swarg Ashram, called Laxman Jhula. We knew right from the start that this was where we wanted to be. More for the foreigners looking for zen than Swarg Ashram which was for the Indians looking for zen. And hey, let's face it, different people have different views of what would help them in their zen searching. We found a very nice chill ashram called Sant Sewa with pay as you go yoga for beginners morning and night and not all the crazy rules that many of the other places had (ie no soap or no chess playing). So this is were we hung out for the next 4 nights and 5 days. We took a couple of yoga classes, had long meals, read and went for walks. The yoga was advertised for beginners but we soon found out that the Indian teachers had a different view of what beginner meant than some teachers back home. On our first day he had us doing the one leg balancing squat and the lotus or half lotus pose with a lean all the way back to the ground, both quite impossible for Justina and I. The second class he had us try the wheel pose and the swan pose, 2 more impossible ones than he even stumbled slightly when he was showing us. I think beginner for me means that it's ridiculously easy for you but i guess i'm wrong. Well it was an experience at least and as one guy said, you will leave having gained something. We enjoyed much of the good food here with the surrounding Israelis. (Would you feel a little weird if you were surrounded by Canadians or with all people from wherever your from at some restaurant in Rishikesh India? and not only the restaurant but the stores, the internet places. I myself would be freaked out but the Israelis don't seem to mind, they even like it.) Last night we walked back to the Swarg Ashram as although not where we wanted to stay, it has a really neat vibe to it. We encountered one of the sun going down/ceremony to the Ganges/ something we don't even know about, going on in front of the Ashram that we had first looked at. Lot's to do with fire and chants and the river and offerings and many other things that i don't understand but it was really cool to see nonetheless. Today we checked out of our hotel and are going to pass the day until catching our night bus ride out of here. take care everyone, and remember, Om sweet Om.

Shimla

Ok so after another crummy overnight bus ride where neither of us got any sleep at all, we arrive in Shimla.(later to be named Shitla by us) Now this town was described as a nice typical hill station and the capital of honeymoons. Now again we are puzzled by India and Indians. Why anyone would want to come here for there honeymoon is beyound me. Really. We arrive in this town that is polluted due to the crappy buses and encircling mountains with the sewage drains running down most of the sides of the stairs you climb and the streets you walk down. I think that our mood didn't help but it's the same starting view that all the Indians get as well. So here is where the touts come in. No we don't need help, don't follow us, stop right there and don't move until i say so and then walk away. But no, no is never no to an Indian. He will follow until the end as we saw. So we walk up to the top of the hill and over to the YMCA because that must be a good option(and they don't give commisions). but as we have seen in India, YMCA doesn't mean cheap but still good, it actually means expensive and not as good. It's really weird really. How there you can get a crummy room with no bathroom for 400Rps but somewhere else get a slightly better room with a bathroom for 300Rps. So we continued walking and checked another hotel that was full. So we set the bags down and i was going to go to another hotel up the hill but the old man tout beat me there and so i wasn't prepared to pay extra because i had a walking companion. So i said i was going back down the hill. I return to where Justina is and thinking that he maybe is gone, i start back up the stairs in this cat and mouse game. Now there were 2 ways up the hill, i had the stairs between the houses way and the tout was on the trail going around way. The tout came back down and was asking the other touts if they had seen me which they said they hadn't. So as I was turning around the coner of the first stairs, i see the man start into a run. The kind of old man run where he has to kinda rev the engine before starting. Well i wasn't going to loose this race. I sprint up the stairs to where it meets the trail, seeing him just turn the corner. I get into the hotel a good 10 seconds and secure an acceptable room for the right price. My first race in India and i won, although he was an old man, but still probably even more determined than me. So Shimla maybe once was nice but now is no more. The room we stayed at really wasn't that good, and you were that into even taking a shower in the bathroom. We slept most of the first day and then went out to walk around. There are a few streets around the "hill" that were nice with the colonial country england style housing and the shops and many people doing exactly the same as us, just walking around. So this is the only picture that i really have of the place of the main square and so the only one you will get. We bought some books, walked up to the temple dedicated to the monkey god at the top of the hill and just strolled around. There just really wasn't much to the place that's all. So after 2 nights there we new that it was time to leave and so we got on another bus, yes, i know. But this one was all day, and we arrived in Rishikesh at around 6:30pm, saying that it will be our very last bus ride in this journey. Well it turns out that me might have to catch one to Delhi but at least it won't be a local bus.