Rishikesh

On Friday we left the farm for Rishikesh and stayed at the Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram. We (Hannah, Emmylou, Lindsey and I) met up with 2 other girls who had been at the farm, Colette and Sarada. The Ashram was very nice, clean, and comfortable. They have a schedule for the day, which includes 3 meals and 2 yoga sessions as well as prayer if you want. We paid 500Rps each, so around 10$ for a night and the meals and yoga. We had hot water and mattresses on the beds! So it was very nice and relaxing after the farm. We attended yoga on Saturday morning, a 6am class. It was hard! The teacher was quite strict and flicked us if our arms or legs werent´in the right position. It felt like a workout for sure! The meals were very wholesome and clean, and all meals were in silence and we ate on the floor. Before every meal we sang a prayer mantra too, kind of like grace.

We didnt go to the second yoga class on Saturday because we were a bit stiff, instead we went exploring in the town. We went shopping, saw the Ganges and the people bathing in it, and saw all the spiritual people and followers all around the town. It is a very spiritual place. The entire town in vegetarian and no alcohol is served.

Sarada and Colette introduced us to a really nice restaurant that is run by an American lady and the Indian family that she lives with. She served banana and chocolate pancakes and tomato soup and grilled cheese! It was delicious and we frequented her place on almost every meal that we didnt eat at the Ashram (for a change of taste).
On Sunday, again we had a relaxing day, but in the evening we went to the Ganga Arti, which is a ceremony of wishing and praying and singing down at the Ganges river. There were hundreds of people there and the music was really neat. Lots of people were bathing and some drinking the
water, and there were bowls of flowers with candles in them that you light and make a wish and send down the river.






We met a family from Vancouver that was back visiting family and they insisted that we make a wish because the woman, 25 years earlier, had made a wish and it came true, so she had returned to thank Lord Krishna.

So Emmylou and I each bought the flower bundle and sent our wishes off down the river. We stayed until quite late listening to the music.

One man sang and played the harmony (i think) and another played it back to him on the tabla. It was fun and really interesting.

Monday we went to the waterfall nearby, where we found crabs! Big ones! I didn´t know there were freshwater crabs, but apparently there are!

It was raining when we left, and we had a wet ride back, but made it safetly and in time for dinner at the farm. There are some new, short term volunteers at the farm, and the corn has grown, but things are the same.
Oh, I forgot to mention Meera, a wonderfully sweet girl who works at the Ashram, and who is a friend of Sarada´s. She just finished her Master in Social Work and her family runs an orphanage for physically disabled children. I spoke with her about it, and her plan is to improve the centre and expand its work. She grew up at the orphanage with all of the children! She invited Hannah and I to visit anytime, so I will definately make a plan for that. I would love to see how it runs, works and talk with her some more.