Feb. 21st: Heading North

A statue of Shiva in Haridwar, on the way to Rishikesh

In the morning we hired a car and driver to take us north to Rishikesh. The drive took us through the chaotic outskirts of Delhi and into the rural valley where the locals were in the middle of harvesting sugar cane. The road was packed with cars, trucks, motorcycles, cattle-driven wagons and bicycles all piled with cut sugar cane on its way to being processed. After a very long and dusty 7 hours (to drive 200 km!) we finally arrived in Rishikesh just before sunset.

The view from our new hotel room

Rishikesh sits on either side of the upper Ganges River in the foothills of the Himalayas. Some consider it the yoga capitol of the world, and it is also where the Beatles wrote most of the White Album (although Ringo left after 2 weeks because he didn’t like the food). Two huge suspension bridges connect one side of town with the other, and after a quick dinner at the hotel we headed to the other side of the river where we explored the shops, ashrams, and Hindu temples that line the opposite bank (and I finally found some safety pins for my sari). We went to bed early, but were woken in the middle of the night by a loud windstorm that fortunately died down by morning.

Temples on the other side of the Ganges

For those who remember my family's tibetan mastiffs - this guy lives next  door to the hotel