Gaumukh

Thursday July 10^th – Wednesday July 16^th

We spent the morning before heading north, trying to figure out train tickets for me and my parents who are coming on the 25^th. After being mostly successful at that, we headed to the bus station and got on the first bus that was headed to Uttarkashi, a city that seems to exist only as the halfway point Rishikesh and Gangotri. We had the very back row of the bus and things were pretty comfortable until other people started hopping on. These government buses take the same routes each day so as they pass between the many small towns along the main road up to Uttarkashi people will hop on and off, not usually taking a seat. At one point, a woman with two children got on the bus and headed toward the back. A man in the row in front of us gave up his seat, rightfully, but then just pushed his way into sitting in the back row which was already crowded. The woman sat down in the seat, gave one child to the perfect stranger on her right and then promptly fell asleep while holding the younger one. I felt like all around it was a very Indian experience for two reasons. The first being that this woman was willing to trust a complete stranger with her child, even so much as to fall asleep. My hypothesis is, however, that she is actually trusting the bus full of people to make sure that this stranger is treating her child as he would his own, everyone is kind of involved in everything. The second aspect was the man working his way into sitting on the overcrowded bench. Everyone shifted without a word, and even though everyone was very uncomfortable, no one said anything to the man. People have really learned to accommodate one another here.

The bus ride itself covered about 160 km and took 6 hours and I was terrified almost the whole time. The road that we followed was mostly paved but only wide enough to allow one car to pass at a time even though there were cars going both ways. When we would meet another car or bus on the narrow road, one or the other would pull off to the side momentarily to let the other pass. There did not seem to be too much reason as to which vehicle pulled over but it always seemed to work out.

Last year there was an especially bad monsoon season and it apparently knocked out a lot of the roads that head up into the mountains. We saw a lot of the destruction on the way up and not all of it had been fixed. There were sections of the paved road that had been destroyed by landslides and had just been smoothed out into gravel roads. Much of the road did no have guard rails because they either had been destroyed in years past or never put in to begin with. Still we climbed higher and higher.

We eventually got to a point in the mountains where the foliage changed from the jungled and the terraced hillsides to something that looked a little more like the high sierras or even the cascades in spots. There were pine trees and the air was much dryer. It was a familiar and comforting change from the dense jungle further down.

We got to Uttarkashi a little past five and made it up to this place called the Monal Guest house which was run by a tall, balding, and energetic Indian man who gave us a good deal on a nice double room. The guest house was right near the permit office that issued the permits we needed to get to Gaumukh. We rushed over there but found that they were already closed for the day and didn't open until 10 am the next morning. We decided to just spend the rest of the day relaxing and would return in the morning.

The next day we got the permits without too much Indian Government bureaucracy (it took a long time but they didn't make us jump through any hoops). But by the time we were done there were no more buses heading up to Gangotri, which is the starting point for the trail. Instead, we were able to catch a shared Jeep.

When it comes to private transportation in India, there is no such thing as get in and go. Even though we thought we filled out the car (who knows how long the others were waiting) we still had to wait a good ten, very hot, minutes at the stop before we drove to another random parking lot and waited for 20 minutes while the driver walked around and talked to people, seeming to just be socializing while his car was full of customers. Leslie and I were in the back of the car which means we were in the side facing benches. The benches, I think, were built to seat four people, two on each side, and that was how many people we had while we were waiting. Feeling pretty comfortable in the back we were ready to get going but we didn't realize that our driver was arranging two more people to get with us. Leslie and I were sitting across from each other and the first guy to get on was small and smelled of cigarettes and sat on my side of the bench. He started talking loudly and incessantly to the man on the other side of me so I was sandwiched between a very loud one-sided conversation. The driver started going and we thought that at least Leslie had lucked out. Sadly she did not. Only 5 minutes after we began, the taxi pulled over, the back opened, and an extremely large man squished his way into the seat next to Leslie.

The fat man was dressed in all salmon robes and had white hair that blended seamlessly into his white beard. He was probably about 6 feet tall and almost 300 pounds. The first time that Leslie readjusted herself uncomfortably, he let out a deep laugh and stated, truly, “I am very fat. And she, she is very skinny”. The man's name was Raj Drisha (Or something similar) and he turned out to be an asset on the ride. He spoke pretty good English and asked us a little about who we are. He especially liked my name and would just repeat it to himself occasionally.

As we were driving up this portion of the road, just as steep and unkempt as the last, we started seeing groups of people in all orange walking down. All of them had these containers strapped to their chests and many of them carried staffs and nothing else. Raj told us that they were Hindus who had gotten water from Gangotri or Gaumukh (which was what was in the containers) and were now walking all the way to Rishikesh, Delhi or even as far as Jaipur to use that water as an offering to Shiva. As I was starting to wonder where these people were getting food and water for a journey of many hundreds of miles, our jeep slowed as a Sadhu dressed in all red and pink stood in front of us, shouting in Hindi. The driver turned the jeep but the man kept himself in front, insisting on something. Everyone was laughing and eventually we all got out of the Jeep and Raj told us to follow him. It turned out that we had stopped at some sort of Hindu station that was making food and snacks for the people walking down and the man was insisting we stop to eat something. We got rice and dahl and some sweets before hopping back in the jeep to continue. It was very strange but also very please to be given food by this group of people.

A messed up panorama of the view from one of our stops on the way to Gangotri

We got to Gangotri in the afternoon and immediately checked into a small guesthouse. Gangotri is a very holy Hindu place and is the town that lies furthest up river along the Ganges, only 18 Km from the source. It has a very sacred temple and that lies at the northernmost point of the city and we were able to see a small devotional ceremony taking place.

Statues of some Hindu gods and some ceremony happening

 We had dinner and then went on the task of finding supplies for our three day backpacking trip. We found a couple bags of a mixture of things similar to trail mix. We also got some peanut butter and cookies and then when we found some kerosene for the stove, we splurged on some instant noodles. Thinking we probably didn't have enough food but figuring we would be fine, we found a place by the raging river to sit an eat. Leslie ordered two masala dosas while I tried to order 8 vegetarian momos (dumplings) There was a miscommunication, however and they brought out about 36 and were still making more and bringing them out when we had to stop them. It was in the middle of that massive dinner and especially once we got back to our room that I first started to feel sick.

View of the river from the restaurant where we had dinner

Gangotri from the trail

At first, the symptoms were similar to that of a fever. I felt irrationally cold and couldn't control my body temperature. I bundled up and tried to sleep but it was difficult since I was also feeling very nauseous and new that I would have to wake up at 4am the next morning to get started on our treck. Eventually I got a little sleep and woke the next morning to back up, also to find out that now Leslie wasn't feeling well either. We both felt that we should still try to do the hike since we had paid for a permit and were already awake. The going was slow at first. It was dark and we were winded by every step. We thought that we might be one of only a few people on the trail but it turned out that we were very wrong.

We started passing people going the opposite way (back down to Gangotri) and I was wondering where they had come from and if they had been walking all night. And then, 2Km from the start, we came across a big temple that was filled with people. We immediately got handed prasad (a food offering from the gods given at Hindu temples) but we were far from hungry. After we battled our way through the hordes of people and got our permits checked by the border patrol we headed off on the 12 km trail towards the glacier.

From the beginning both Leslie and I were moving slowly, we both had packs that were full of things we needed to travel but that weren't ideally light when it comes to backpacking. Because of our early start and slow progress, we were getting passed by large groups of people almost the whole time. Apparently we were far enough off the beaten tourist track that it was quite the surprise for many of the people on the trail to see two white people with big packs, walking up to one of the holiest of Hindu places. Because of that novelty and since everyone on the trail was male we often got surrounded by big packs of people all trying to talk to us and take pictures of/with us. It was funny at first but once we realized this would follow us all the way to the glacier it got very annoying and even aggressive at times. We would be walking and realize someone was walking close behind us and then pull over to let them by. That person would usually stop also and look off into the distance like he wasn't stopping for us. As soon as we would start walking he would start again.

It was so strange. It was like everyone wanted to be near us or a part of our walk in some way but had no idea how to behave around white people and often chose the most obnoxious methods. Most people wouldn't even try to ask before whipping out their phones to take pictures or even videotape us, it was like we were the subjects of some strange nature show.

Leslie killing it

Since we were getting so many pictures taken, I figured I would get one on my phone

View of the guest house. A welcome sight

The further we got down the trail, the more exhausted I felt. As Leslie said, the hike wasn't just physically challenging (it was) but also emotionally draining dealing with all of the people on the trail. In the last kilometer we stopped every hundred meters or so to take a break and after about 6 hours of walking, we finally made it to the guest house that sits 4 km from the glacier. We checked in and were the only ones at the tent. Most people do the whole hike in a single day so that they don't have to carry any supplies which was a big relief since we fully expected to be surrounded by more prying eyes. We found out here that the tents were at about 12000 feet and we had started around 9000 so it wasn't too much of a surprise we were feeling sick.

Feeling sick

Once we got into our beds, we really crashed. I slept for three hours and woke up feeling worse than before, and with absolutely no appetite. We both stayed in bed for the rest of the day and didn't really eat anything. The next day we spent most of it in bed also, still not feeling up for walking. Eventually, in the afternoon, I mustered to strength to walk the 4 km to Gaumukh. I figured we had made it so close that we should finish the hike out. Leslie was feeling a little bit better than I was so she led the charge and me made it all the way to the glacier and back.

The Glacier!

Some animals

Some beautiful Mountain views

By the time we got back I we both felt terrible again because it is apparently a really bad idea to keep exercising while you have altitude sickness. We managed to cook and eat some instant noodles that night and then slept fitfully, trying to get some strength for the 14 km hike back that we had to do the next morning.

The next morning, Leslie was a champ and was feeling quite a bit better. Unfortunately, I still felt like shit so it took me a while to get packed up and out. I decided to leave some stuff behind to lighten the load (all the food I brought, my pot, a book, sunscreen, etc) things that I didn't need and weren't too valuable. We started on the trail and as expected, it was extremely slow going. Fortunately, we were now going against the flow of traffic and it was either that fact or the look of extreme discontent on our faces that caused people to stop harassing us so much. Anyone who spoke to me I would either ignore or wave along down the trail. It didn't feel good to literally be angry at every person I walked by but it was my defense mechanism and it was working.

At one point we walked by two interesting looking fellows, but given my state my notice of them was cursory and suspicious as it was with everyone. We walked by them once, and they could obviously tell we were struggling. On our next break, they came by and offered us a handful of some plant that they picked off the side of the trail. One of them men was dressed as a sadhu (full beard, salmon robe, casual antler horn) and named Chetania but went by “baba” or “Guruji” and the other looked like he was upper middle class and spoke proficient English (usually a sign of higher education) and was named Rahul. They claimed that if you inhale through the plant that it helps get you oxygen. It sounded like bullshit to me but I tried it and the plant smelled very fragrant and at very least reminded me to take long deep inhales.

After that point, our two friends took it as their responsibility to see us safely back to Gangotri. They gave words of encouragement when needed but then got out of our way when we just needed to trudge. They had obviously dealt with westerners before and it felt more comfortable to be around them than it had for any other people on the trail. When we would stop, other guys would still be interested and would come join us but this time they took their cues from Rahul and Guruji and did not bother us much. They also had a guide with them who was carrying their smaller backpacks. About halfway through the trek they offered to have the porter carry my pack and I would carry one of theirs. The pack I got was way lighter and made all the difference for the rest of the hike.

Us with Guruji and the porter sitting behind

The porter pointing out his house from the trail

After about 6 hours we finally made it back to the temple, got some more prasad and then finally made it back to Gangotri. We got a place in the same hotel as Rahul and Guruji and I promptly passed out. The next morning we had tea with the two of them and one of their friends who had not stopped to baby us back. What I found out at this tea (and what Leslie had found out the night before at dinner) was that these three are actually kind of like religious zealots who follow Guruji around. They actually quoted the made up fact that we use only a few percent of our brain power but that Guruji, when he is meditating, uses all 100% of his and can leave his body and travel around the world. Each night Guruji will get revelations or visions or something that will tell the three of them where to go next and what to do. They think that they are at the beginning of some global awakening and reconciliation of all the people in the world. Guruji even said that he had a vision that he was going to meet a girl at Gaumukh and name her Gorrey (the wife of Shiva) which is the nickname he gave Leslie on the hike back. They told us that once they have a bigger following and more money, they will fly us out to india again to hang out some more. I'm not holding my breadth. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Rahul and Guruji smoke weed nine times a day, every day, to “stimulate the neural activity” in their brains. It was strange to see otherwise intelligent and kind-hearted individuals be so freaking crazy.

The crew minus Rahul who is taking the picture

Their assistance did not stop with the tea, however. They helped us work out a new plan to go to Jaipur instead of the high-altitude city of Leh (can you guess why we didn't want to go their?) and recommended a good hotel for us to stay at. Rahul also helped us find a good bus to take us down from Gangotri that morning. Around 9 am we parted ways with assurances from Guruji that we would meet again and then headed onto the bus.

There had been landslides the night before so it was slow going down out of the mountains and it took us a full two days to reach Rishikesh once again but we were oh so glad to be back.

Landslide view from the bus

Rishikesh

Sunday July 6^th – Wednesday July 9^th

Rishikesh is one of three Hindu holy cities along the Ganges (Haridwar and Varanasi are the others) but it is much smaller and quieter than the other two. Rishikesh lies further upstream in the low foothills of the Himalayas. The town is built so it straddles the river which runs North-South. Along the river, especially upstream, the banks and surrounding hills are very steep which gives the city a feeling of being wrapped up by the hills with the river in the middle. This layout also has the effect of channeling all the wind that comes down from the mountains through the river-valley. We experienced that effect in full force as we crossed one of the two suspension bridges just after a storm was passing through. These bridges are for walking or motorbikes only and are about 50 feet above the river. Plenty of monkeys hang out on the bridges and cows like to walk on them also. The monkeys steel food from people or accept it when offered. The cows eat whatever the monkeys don't get first.

The suspension bridge

He probably stole that mango

Cow on the bridge

Monkey on the bridge

Different kind of monkey on the bridge

Being enlightened or discovering gravity?

Rishikesh is relatively well-known in the western world for two major reasons. The first is that it is the yoga-capital of the world and hosts the annual international yoga festival. There are also many yoga ashrams where you can stay and do yoga for as many days as you like. There are also classes for meditation, massage and rekei healing for those who are so inclined. The second reason it is well known is that Rishikesh is where the Beatles stayed at the Maharishi Mahesh ashram during the '60s and wrote a majority of the white album. That ashram is closed but still remains, overgrown by forest, for anyone who wants to check it out.

When we arrived in Rishikesh we found our way to the Sri Sant Seva yoga Ashram where a three person room cost us 400 rupees ($6.70) per night. The Ashram is a large complex that sits right on the banks of the Ganges, very close to one of the suspension bridges that takes us to the side of the river where there are many restaurants. When we arrived it was a Sunday (which apparently is a holiday) so no yoga classes were taking place. We decided to relax and shower and enjoy the view of the river that the ashram has.

Communal area in the ashram

The Sri Sant Seva ashram. view from the bridge

View from just outside our room

The next morning, we took our first Yoga class at 7:30 AM. The class was Hatha yoga and was instructed by a young yogi by the name of Mohan. Mohan is short, thin, and extremely flexible. He has been doing yoga for five years and has been teaching classes for the past two. He starts every class with a series of “warmup exercises” which involve rotating your wrists hands, shoulders, waist and knees. Each exercise is done first in the “clockwise” direction and then we switch to “counter clock”. Those directions are used even when they have no real meaning such as swinging both arms in circles like we are swimming freestyle or backstroke. When the exercise is started, Mohan will encourage us by saying “keep continue” and he will keep continue the exercise with such vigor that it looks like he may hurt himself. The next part of the class is a series of 4-6 sun salutations where we count our breaths, 1-12. Next, Mohan takes us through a series of poses first on our back, then on our stomach, then sitting poses, and finally standing poses. Between each pose, we “make the relaxation pose” which is Shivasana on our backs (laying down with arms and legs spread, eyes closed), on the stomach you put your hands under you cheek, spread your legs with heels pointed in, eyes closed), and standing you spread your legs, hold your arms six inches from your hips, eyes closed. Many of the poses are just glorified ab exercises and Mohan will tell us to “make deep feeling in your naval muscles” but to “not cross the limit, you can come back at any times”. About one hour in to the hour and fifteen minute class, we do one final Shivasana, and then we come to a sitting position where we welcome “the new....energy, the positive.....energy” into our bodies and then “bring a smile onto our face and be happy”. Lastly we chant “Om” Three times and then have one round of “Om Shanti Shanti Shanti”. Shanti means peace so the first Shanti is for me, the second is for my family and the third is for the world. The classes happen twice each day and we attended both of them for three days in a row. Each class has the same form but Mohan chooses different postures to focus on each time, sometimes coming back to the ones that he thinks we have struggled with.

Yogi Mohan's business card

The yoga hall

On the second morning of our stay I felt it was time to get wet in the Ganges. I had been told many times to not swim in the rivers in India because they are so polluted but I had seen so many other people doing it and I felt we were high enough upstream that I threw caution to the wind and woke up extra early to take a dip. The Ganges is glacial melt from the Gaumukh glacier and Rishikesh is only about 100 km from the source so the silty water was very cold. It was really refreshing, however, and I felt it was a perfect way to start the day. I showered with soap right after to make sure I didn't get a rash or anything and so far there have been no problems.

After our yoga session that morning, we grabbed breakfast and decided to go check out the Beatles ashram. We walked downstream from our ashram for a few kilometers and made it to a long alley way that had some shops and a ton of Sadhus. Sadhus are Hindu holy men who travel around the country mostly praying and begging money from people. This time of year, Haridwar and Rishikesh are popular destinations for the hairy, bearded, tan men who come to bathe in the Ganges (possibly the only time they bathe all year, or so it seems). Sadhus wear saffron (bright orange, and the holiest of Hindu colors) lungis (man-skirts that can be adjusted to become pants or shorts and may be the most versatile and comfortable of all clothing options) and often carry staffs. Most have not trimmed their hair or beards in many years but are quick to greet you with a smile and a “namaste” but then often ask for money.

A sadhu bathing in the Ganges

A particularly explicit sadhu around a bunch of white people

When we followed the river downstream for anther kilometer or so, we came across a walled compound that had about 50 sadhus hanging around. We asked them where the Beatles ashram was and one of them pointed down this path to an old looking gate. There was a sign that said it was a protected area for the national forest and no entry was allowed. The same sign was outside of the compound that had so many holy men and after talking to a few more of them we felt it was safe enough to go inside anyway. A sadhu told us the place had been closed for three years which was contradictory to what the Lonely Planet guidebook said but either way we didn't think any security would show up. The fine would have been 5000 rupees or ~$80 so we weren't too worried. We hopped the wall surrounding the ancient-looking ashram like three brightly colored ninjas. We landed on the other side in a wooded area by the main path through the compound. We walked up the path and checked out some of the abandoned rooms and what looked like possible a yoga hall. All of the roofs were made of river rocks and had weeds growing out of them, giving the place a natural but surreal feel. We saw an open gate at the back of the ashram and we thought that it might be the real entrance to the place. Not wanting to get caught sneaking in, we went back down the way we came, over the fence, and back to safety.

The front gate of the Beatles ashram

The main pathway with one of the rooms up on the right

Creeeeeeeepin

Like a ninja

A little less like a ninja

One of the rooms

Later that day, during our 4:30 yoga class, a storm came out of nowhere. In the middle of the class we heard a few thunder claps and rain started coming down in sheets. The power quickly went out and we did the rest of the class in the semi darkness of dusk with the windows open and the rain pounding outside. We waited for it to stop and when it did, walked across the suspension bridge to get dinner. On the way back, the wind picked up while we were on the bridge and we took a harrowing walk across with the bridge swaying with the gusts. It seemed safe enough but it was still humbling to feel that power.

Sagar left the next morning (Wednesday) to head back to Delhi for the night and then to Bangalore. I will see him again on August 7^th when I head down that way but it was goodbye between him and Leslie. For the first time in our trip, Leslie and I were without a guide and free to go where we pleased. The next stop we will take will be to the source of the mighty Ganges, which will be a 12 hour bus ride and a two day hike away.

Three things I learned:

1) These monkeys store food in their cheeks for later (or for other monkeys) when they eat.

2) Ringo hated India and left after only three weeks because he didn't like the vegetarian food

3) Only people in Holy places seem to say “namaste” as a general greeting. Everywhere else people just say “hallo”.

Haridwar

Saturday July 5^th – Sunday July 6^th

We left the Mustache hostel early in the morning to start the long trip up to the holy Hindu city of Haridwar. The bus station, where we were to get our transport, was a far cry from the efficient and modern New Delhi metro. We started getting harassed as soon as we exited the metro and it didn't really stop until we made it to Haridwar. Women kept grabbing our arms and trying to pin little Indian flags to our shirt sleeves. No doubt they would have insisted on payment if they had succeeded. The bus station was hot and full of people. There were about 12-15 bus stands with drivers yelling out where they were headed. There is no discernible schedule and the buses seem to leave when they have enough people. After asking around we found that the air-conditioned bus was full so we had to opt for the cheaper, but far less comfortable, non-AC bus. We all had our big packs so it was a battle to get on the bus and our bags but into the overhead compartment. As I was waiting my turn to load my bag, I turned around and saw that two women had entered the bus behind me. On closer inspection I suspected the one in back was actually a man and when I turned my attention to the one right behind me I felt pretty sure they both were. The closer one grabbed my forearm and gave me what he thought was a seductive smile. I yanked my arm away and jerked my head towards the door. They ran off giggling.

At each stop, young men come on to the bus and try to sell everything from coconuts to fans to popcorn and water. They all hop off before we get moving again. At one point we heard a loud noise and then a periodic thumping sound as the bus began to slow down. We thought it was a blown tire but it turned out that the buses re-tread the tires with rubber stuck to the outside of them. A large junk had ripped off so the driver just whipped out a knife and cut off the flap and we were on the road in no time.

After the long, and sweaty six-hour ride we came into Haridwar. The city is holy to Hindus for a number of reasons. It is the spot where the holy Ganges river (which flows from the hair of the god Shiva) emerges from the Himalayas out into the plains. There is also a section of the river that is separated from the rest in a small, fast-flowing canal, known as Har-ki-pairi which means the footstep of god and is the place in Hindu mythology where some god dropped some divine nector and left a footprint. The spot on the Ganges is also one of three places where you can dump the ashes of the deceased and not be obligated to do annual death rituals for that person. There are many other reasons as well but these are the only ones that I know of.

The streets of Haridwar are filled with vendors selling all sorts of religious items such as brass pots to hold water from the river, ground up red powder to mark a tilak on your forehead, and thousands of different statues of the many Hindu gods. People were also selling toys for all the little kids that come with their families on this holy pilgrimage. The atmosphere is similar to that of a carnival with a lot of music noise and street food. In the evening as the day begins to cool off, nearly everyone in the city starts to head toward the river bank at Har-ki-pairi to sing devotional prayers and to bath themselves in the holy river.

We grabbed an auto rickshaw and made it to an island that is in the middle of the Ganges on one side of the Har-ki-pairi. It was dusk, and as the sun began to set, a number of priests on the far bank began lighting large torches and chanting the devotional prayers. There were thousands of people on either side of the canal with many of the people chanting along, singing their devotions. Being in the crowd felt like standing at a concert at a music festival. It was crowded and everyone was trying to get the best view of the river. A lot of people had their phones out, recording the holy seen. On the far bank people began to bath in the river. The men remove clothes down to their underwear while women bath wearing their entire saris (nudity is very frowned upon in modern India). We grabbed a vantage point on a bridge that crossed the canal and witnessed all the hundreds of people bathing and getting blessed by the many holy men.

Sagar looking fresh before heading to the footstep of god

In the auto on our way

This is the island that acted as our vantage point. The canal that everyone bathes in is on the left and you can see a giant statue of Shiva in the distance on the right.

Chains hanging under the bridge downstream of the bathing spot. They are there so people can grab them if they get swept away by the river.

The holy bathing spot, Har-Ki-Prairi. The holy men were just starting to light their fires.

When the sun had finally set, the chanting ceased but people continued to bath in the river. Everyone began to disperse back on to the main road which was alive with sights and sounds. We passed temple of Hanuman, the monkey god, which had monkeys running around the power lines and going in and out of the temple. There is a story in Hinduism where Hanuman raised an army of monkeys to build a bridge to Sri Lanka to assist in a war raised by the god, Ram. Ever since this army, monkeys have always stayed near the temples of Hanuman. It is true that every shrine to Hanuman we have seen so far has had monkeys living around it, but my guess is that they show up because people feed them at these temples. We ate some dinner and crashed for the night.

Some people observing the festivities

The sunset bathing coming to an end. Photo cred: Leslie

Getting the holy blessing

The next morning we wanted to check out one of the Oldest Hindu temples in the area. We walked 2 km to the base of a large hill that had the temple at the top. We took the 20 min walk up an incredibly steep path and were all drenched in sweat by the time we made it. The temple was small and relatively unimpressive, but one of the rock-carved shrines to the wish-fulfilling goddess, Mans Devi, was supposedly several thousand years old. There were many monkeys at the top of the temple who steel food from tourists. I took a picture of one right before he hissed at me and scared me off. We took the cable cars down and grabbed an autorickshaw back to the hotel and another to go upstream another 25 km to the second holy city of Rishikesh.

The temple atop the hill

This mean bastard, right before he hissed at me. You can see the anger in his eyes

The cable car

Three things that I learned

1) Haridwar is an entirely vegetarian city, that includes eggs.

2) Hindus believe that the Ganges river is self-cleaning which is counterproductive for combating the pollution problem it has.

3) Rooms with AC are significantly more expensive, even though the power is out about half the time.

Delhi

Wednesday July 2^nd 2014 – Friday July 4^th

Day 1:

When we landed in the afternoon in Delhi I expected to be greeted by two things: heat and people. It was surprising then, when we got off the train and walked to the metro station and it was deserted. Air-conditioned and deserted. The other surprising fact is that the metro link from the airport to the city center is the most futuristic metro I've ever been on. There were flat screen displays showing our progress down the line and everything looked brand new and clean.

When we connected to the main city metro, we got a little taste of the heat and there were far more people on the metro but I was still impressed by how new and well-functioning the metro system is. The cars come every five minutes, they are clean and air conditioned and you can get to almost anywhere in the city without changing lines too many times. Apparently the Delhi metro is only a few years old and it has done a great job of transfopiecerming public transport in the city, making it easier, more affordable and safer. The metros stations use these little plastic tokens that have an rfid or something. So you just scan them on entry and drop them in a little slot on exit. They are reused so it reduces the paper waste of the metro.

We checked into the mustache hostel which claims to be the only real “backpackers” in Delhi. As such, it has attracted many of the other foreign tourists that are staying in or stopping through Delhi. The hostel was gated and had a friendly guard who lets you in or out. The front desk was run by a young man named M.D. who was all smiles and gave us great suggestions for food and drink. Inside, the hostel has a couple dorm rooms with about 8 beds each as well has some single and double rooms. The walls are all very colorful and all the tables were some form of game board including chess, monopoly and scrabble. They had wifi and computers as well as a complimentary breakfast. All in all it was the best accommodation we've had so far.

The mustache hostel common room

A map of Delhi they had on display

We had two other tourists staying in our room. One was an Israeli named Yoni who just got out of the Israeli army after a five year stint as an officer. Yoni is traveling around the world until his money runs out and has already been to New Zealand, the Phillipines and is heading to Mongolia next. He's mostly been traveling alone so he has developed the skills of being independent and making friends quickly. He was an excellent haggler, card player and all three of us took to him quickly. The second was an English girl named Katria. She had been living in Goa for the past month homeschooling some children in English, Math and science. She had a few week break to travel before heading back to the beaches for more schooling. While Yoni was simply enjoying the companionship of other people, Katria seemed to fear solitude. She was plenty nice, however, and all five of us (Me, Leslie, Sagar, Yoni and Katria) headed out the next day to check out Delhi.

Thats Yoni

That's Katria on the left

Day 2:

As my father has often told me, the difficulty of logistics of traveling with a group of people does not increase linear with the number of people in the group. I would guess that the relationship is actually more like exponential. When we had five people we constantly had to make sure everyone was together on the metro, and it made finding an autorickshaw incredibly difficult. Fortunately no one was whiny or strongly opinionated so everyone got along just fine.

The first stop we took was to India's largest mosque called Jama Masjid. To enter, the boys needed to where cloth around our waist like a skirt because shorts are not allowed. The girls had to wear night-gown shaped clothes to cover both their arms and legs. The mosque has three main domes made out of red standstone and white marble and a courtyard which can hold up to 25,000 people. We got a lot of stares and were asked numerous times for money. The mosque is in Old Delhi which is a more impoverished area according to Sagar.

Doing the tourist thing

A man offered to take a picture for us and then demanded payment. It was a nice picture so I payed him.

From there we went to one of Delhi's famous Bazaars/Streets called Chandni Chowk. As we walked, the stalls went from selling clothes, to books, to appliances. It was interesting to see how each section of the street sold its own type of goods kind, of like a gigantic mall.

The mosque from the streets surrounding it.

Every pole had a crazy mess of wires as bad or worse than this. Its not a surprise that the power regularly goes out here.

Around Chandni Chowk we came across a Sikh temple called Sisganj Gudwara. Sikhism is one of the minority religions in India but still has a good number of followers. You can tell someone is a Sikh by the turban that they wear to cover their hair in front of god as well as the fantastic beards they all seem to sport. The Sikhs come from an old warrior caste so some still wear special daggers or hold spears while in the temple. Unlike the Mosque we felt very welcome to go inside and see what an active temple was like. We had to take off our shoes, cover our heads, and wash our feet before entering but what we found inside was a lot of happy music and chanting and people came and went as they pleased.

Inside the Sikh temple. The sikhs worship a holly book which was housed on a golden podium.

Our next stop on our tour of Delhi was to another, much larger Sikh temple called the Gurdwara Bangla Sahib (The Sikhs are all subjects of teachers or “gurus” and gudwara means “place of the guru”). Again the atmosphere was welcoming, and they even had a foreign tourist office which provided a free guide who told us a little about Sikhism but mostly just showed us how to be respectful while inside the temple which meant paying our respects to the holy book each time we walked by it. 

The Gudwara from the outside

There was a large pool just outside of the temple. It was filled with thousands of koi fish

There was beautiful tilework all around the temple. I particularly liked this escher-like design

Our final stop of the day was to the National Museum which has relics of the civilizations that have occupied India over the past 5000 years. We saw sculptures, paintings, and treasures from many of the rich rulers of the past.

Hindu god of wealth. He is fat because he is so bountiful

Gold-plated Buddha

Buddha's life depicted in ivory

A Peacock, apparently

Crazy ivory carving of animals

Sagar with a giant wooden chariot

Jade hookah

A pillar with all the laws of an ancient civilaztion carved into it

That night we met up with another Mudder, Mitul, who lives just outside of the city. We got some beers near the Mustache hostel and caught up a little bit. Mitul was leaving the following day to spend a week in Nepal working at an orphanage. After that, his plan is to make his way to Brazil to play music (he plays the classical Indian flute) with locals of the area. Its amazing how refreshing it is to see a familiar face when you are so far from home. We got some late night kebabs, Mitul headed home, and we called it a night.

Day 3:

We were exhausted from our extensive exploration from the day before so Leslie, Sagar and I decided to choose just one attraction to go see. Katria had met two other Americans who were happy to show her around and Yoni was bedridden all day from a bout of food poisoning so it was back to just us three.

The place we chose to visit is a gigantic Hindu complex that was built in 2005 called Akshradam. It was built in honor of a famous spiritual leader who wanted to build a large temple on the banks of the holy Yamuna river. He was unable to realize his dream before his death so it was completed by his successor who was able to acquire the land from the government and gather volunteers to design and build the temple. The whole thing is made using ancient building methods and mostly uses marble and sandstone. The exterior is all hand carved. The designs are incredibly intricate and it is amazing that the whole project was completed in five years. In the 9 years since it has been open to the public, though, it has seen significant deterioration. Many of the more intricate carvings have clearly broken and been glued back together as evidenced by the many grout-filled seams found around the place. It seems like ancient building methods and modern haste don't mix well together. It remains to be seen how well the temple will hold up but for now, it is very impressive.

They don't allow pictures in the temple but I grabbed one off the internet for those who are interested.

Three things I learned:

1) According to some signs, more than 99.5% of people return their plastic tokens when exiting the stations and more than 70% of people stand behind the yellow line at the metro

2) The drinking age in Delhi is 25, but they rarely card

3) A common insult in Hindi is to call someone your brother-in-law. Can you figure out why?