Day 118 Rishikesh

It persisted down most of the night but thankfully it hasn’t rained today although it has threatened to. First order of the day was an Indian breakfast, porridge, curd, fruit, roti and dahl, a very good start to the day. Robyn decided it would be a good idea to wash out our riding gear, once again the water was as black as coal, but job done, we will look smart again in the morning. 

A street art scene. 

We then set off for a bit of an explore, crossing a swing bridge to visit a very large multi-storey temple and stroll  by the Ganges taking in the sights, sounds and smells. 

The locals having a catch up. 

We walked maybe 8 or 9 km for the day and we were soaking wet with sweat for most of it, the humidity is very high.

Lots of temples and yoga retreats. 

 We walked to what is known as the Beatles Ashram which is where they along with others spent time under the guidance of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Those of you old enough may remember this was headline news back in the day. The subsequent publicity really put this place on the map with people flocking here from around the globe to learn all about Trancendental Meditation (and to smoke a bit of weed). 

It’s heydays were the 70’s and 80’s but sadly now it is just ruined buildings slowly being reclaimed by the jungle. 

It was some complex, with large accommodation blocks, a post office, printers and a huge kitchen big enough to feed up to 500 people every day.

Massive accomodation block for people staying at the Ashram

These are meditation caves. The stones used to build them were taken from the Ganges river. 

This is where the Beatles, Donovan Mike Love and the Farrow sisters plus other international guests stayed. 

 It was cool to wander around though and imagine what it must have been like. There have been efforts to turn the site into a tourist attraction with artists being invited to draw murals depicting the players of the time. 

There is an exhibition of photos taken at the time which is very cool.

We stopped on the way back to have cake and tea and overheard a conversation in Kiwi, a nice girl from Christchurch, here for a month learning to be a yoga teacher. 

Back at the hotel Robyn had a cold shower, I jumped in the pool and then we went for a Chakra Ayurvedic massage which was a new experience and a very pleasant one, not too hard, I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to deep tissue massage.