The Yoga Capital Of The World

Tearing ourselves away from beautiful Manali and the guesthouse we so loved we booked seats on the local bus for Rishikesh (via Shimla). Of all the places in India we've visited so far, Shimla is definitely the most British, with mock tudor buildings left behind by the British Raj and a total traffic ban in the main mall (total heaven) leaving behind a touch of (Indian) England.

After a quick one day stop another mammouth bus journey has taken us to Rishikesh.... the Yoga capital of the world! Even the Beatles came here to meditate (and write some songs). Rishikesh is set beautifully around the holy Ganges and is located quite near it's source, so it's possible to swim off the small sandy beaches. Being at the end of our journey, we're being extremely lazy and have taken part in no activities other than eating, reading and sleeping in a bid to be slightly with

it for our return to normality.

The last stop is back to the crazyness and heat (42C!) that is Delhi..... has anyone got an ice cream?

The Real India Part 4 - Public Gayness

Given the strict religious practices that the average Indian person will obide by it was a bit of a shock to see men walking around large cities hand in hand, and often with arms fully around each other in a similar way couples do back home. After reading that it is in fact illegal to be openly gay in Inida we have come to the conclusion that general hand holding amongst men is typical all over Inida and has no homosexual overtones whatsoever.

Unfortunatley (and totally bizarrely) it's frowned upon for a man and woman to show any affection in public.... including general hand holding, India is definitely a mans world!

The Real India Part 3 - Horn OK Please!

From the moment you leave Delhi International airport to be accosted by taxi drivers you can hear the crazyness of the traffic even before you get near the road. The main highway from Delhi airport is your standard 3 lane motorway type of affair with the main exception that there are anywhere between 5 and 8 lanes of traffic all jammed into a tiny horizontal space. Cycle rickshaws, taxi's, auto rickshaws, pedestrians, motor bikes, busses, suicidal bicyclists, trucks, and of course the lengendary holy cows occupy every square inch of tarmac (and indeed most of the muddy hard shoulder). And they love their horns.

Man do they love their horns. In fact, printed on the back of the majority of rickshaws, trucks and busses is a huge sign that reads 'HORN OK PLEASE!', which of course is rigourously obeyed by everyone (even the suicidal bicyclists). In fact the only thing that is'nt making a racket on the road is the holy cow who just tends to hang out, usually on the busier sections of the road, idly chewing the cud whilst a freighter truck blasts a musical horn just 1m away.... the cow does'nt even blink, let alone move.

A Week In Manali

After another nightmare 12 hour bus ride where the seats are spaced perfectly for the optimum position of discomfort we arrived in the Himalayan town of Manali in Northern India. Nestled in a large valley full of tiny villages and apple orchards we found ourselves a beautiful guest house away from the road set in the middle of an orchard.

For the past week we've been living the easy life, sitting out on the balcony (see photo bleow) reading, eating and generally taking in the scenery while apple blossom rains down in the spring breeze.... paradise. The Apple View Guesthouse is a pretty simple affair, but he owner and people we have met are so nice it would be possible to stay a month or more (many people do just this!). We are pretty much coming to the end of our Inidan adventure and it's becoming every more difficult to travel around and see the sights as we did in the beginning, it's all too easy to find a quiet place to relax and chill out before facing the opposite culture shock of returning to Europe.

With just one more destination (Rishikesh) to travel to before returning to Delhi we are difinitley loooking forward to returning to the civilised world.

Return To The Melting Pot

After dragging ourselves away from the relative seclusion of the Nepaese Himalaya, we fought our way through the busy Inida/Nepal border post and embarked upon another mammouth 35 hour journey through the melting pot that is India. It seems that the re-adjustment has been even more difficult then when we first arrived in Delhi.

Arriving in the busy city of Amritsar in the North of india in the middle of the middle of the night, all seemed quite peaceful until the onslaught of traffic noise, beeping horns, barking dogs and people shouting into their mobile phones in ear piercing Hindi. There has been a total explosion of mobile phones here with a shop on every corner and every other person having one in their hip pocket. Unfortunatley, nobody seems to have told them how to use them properly. Instead of holding it to their ear like normal people, Indians tend to hold it in front of them and shout at the top of their voices to be heard by the person at the other end (who has to hold the phone away from the ear in case of being deafened).

After a few hours sleep we made our way to the Golden Temple, where basic rooms and even food is totally free! The only price you pay is having to step over the hundreds of people outside the door who are sleeping literally everywhere in the temple grounds. The temple itself is pretty sunning, with a colonnade running around a holy lake with an impressive temple sitting in the middle (which is reputed to have over 650kg of solid gold throughout).

We have since made a quick escape from the crazyness of a large Indian city to the relative peace and quiet of Dharamsala and nearby McLoud Ganj in the foothills of the Indian Himalaya. McLoud Ganj is the home of many Tibetan people in excile, including the Dalai Lama himself. It's very chilled out here by Indian standards, I think we'll stay a few days to recouperate.