Hare Om and the Nevil

I won't lie. I'm uninspired to blog right now but if I don't do it now...we'll I'll probably never do it and that might make you sad... maybe even cry which would probably upset me more than just pounding out a blog right now.

After arriving in Rishikesh late in the evening we didn't get off to a great start with a visit to the Ashram we had in mind. The lackey, beatle-head guy working the reception was a total asshole to say the least and didn't give us a great impression of what it was all about. We decided to hold off as he was asking for all the money up front and instead to a crappy hotel room for the night. The following morning we bummed around somewhat disappointed in the whole ashram scene which we found to be overly religious for us and have too many rules such as silent hours, no talking during meals, no games/music, no soap, no worldly discussion (?) etc etc etc... it was definitely the whole saving our souls vibe that we got that didn't quite suit, so we wandered down the Gages river to the other end of town. Not only did we find little Israel but also some more homey and less religious ashrams for the white people who don't want to wake up at six for yoga and be bombarded by dancing Shiva statues while reading in the courtyard. Sant Swea ashram had beginner yoga classes held twice daily which you could drop in on and pay when you like and it also had clean comfortable rooms with lots of windows. We were sold.

The next five days passed quickly with few major events. We did some classes with Yogi VJ who often confused the term "beginner" with "expert" in the poses he chose for us to try. It was pretty funny and I did learn a lot but the way he asked us to "ccccccooooooooonceeeeeeeennntraaaaatte oooooooooon yooooooooooooouuuuuur nevil!" was sometimes a little too much and I had to suppress the giggles. We ate and read and did yoga. I got a bit of a cold and Aaron bonked his head and that's about it. We wandered around town and took in the sites of cows and religious beggars and once the sundown ceremony which involved a lot of chanting and fire and I even put my feet in the Ganges!