Delhi, Agra, and around

Such a busy life - all of this travelling - hardly time to fit it all in (average travel speed on train or bus is 40 - 50 km/hr.). You blast along at unbelieveable speed and then you get stuck in little traffic jams or the train waits for a train going in the opposite direction. Mind you, one doesn't have to travel very far to see major differences and very different things!
Nov. has been wedding month and we hear music from weddings every night - and they go all night. Today is supposed to be the best day of the year to get married - two equal partners and it will last forever - know anyone tying the knot today? To start the actual ceremony, we see the groom on a mare following a noise making brass band of some description all wearing fancy uniforms (not unlike what we see at the Stampede). Then they stop at a hotel or whatever that has lots of Xmas type lights and then the party goes inside. They definitely are loud and we have even got up in the morning hearing the end of the loud disco-type music starting to die down. Thousands of weddings happened in Delhi today (3,000?) - they are expecting major traffic problems.

We enjoyed our stay in Agra (some called it Agro) but since we have been travelling a while, we did not feel harassed and thoroughly enjoyed our experience. A bit of a pity that the pollution and smog is so thick - the great change of light reportedly at sunrise on the Taj mahal is not so evident any more.

We went to a National Park to see birds - it was fantastic - and we didn't know until we met birders from all over the world that this is a prime site. What you stumble upon!! Lots of storks, cranes, egrets, herons, ducks and anything that you can think of were there. People had cameras with lens about 12 inches in diameter and packed their cameras in suitcases. Well, we enjoyed the birds as non-birders and cycled along. There were so many to see and so many species. They used to shoot them and in the 50's this water that fills up in the monsoon was left and it became a park. Since then more birds - and as luck would have it this is the first good monsoon in the past five years so the birders have descended here. ...so we enjoyed.

Spent the last two nights in a small guesthouse with a family who are way ahead of their time into reclycling, solar hot water, and organic farming. We enjoyed the town and their guesthouse (a central courtyard where the car is parked and a big area to sit on the marble floors (without shoes) and cushions and enjoy the atmosphere.

Now we have rejoined the tourist trail.

Hardiwar

Just a quick note - we are now 20 km from Rishikesh at Hardiwar- an hour by taxi to get here. Now we have spent a few hours today booking a way to Delhi. We have found out the joys of trying to book trains from a small centre - queues, papers, language barrier, etc. It took a while and we managed to get some kind of train for thursday am - lots of trains are already booked - so we will book several when we get to the Delhi reservation system. Meantime, we may or may not get to the National Park - it is a holiday here and information is rather scanty. Anyways, we will see a local temple and watch the pilgrims bathe in the Ganges later this p[m.

Take care, tons of love, Susan and Clive

PS Still vegetarian and no beer and no problem!

Rishikesh

Hi to each one of you,

We have settled into a nice little easy life on the banks of the Ganges (hard g's when you pronounce it). The water is aqua-green and quite fast flowing. Apparentlty at other seasons it is not so clean looking and of course downstream one can only imagine as it gets more and more polluted. People drink, bathe, wash clothes, shit and everything else that you can possibly think of by or in the river. Still it has a Hindu context and a pilgrimmage to the source one in a lifetime is the aim of most Hindus.

Two weeks of yoga twice a day, every day has nearly saturated me. From chakras, focussing, stretching, etc. I am loving it but it is nearly time to move on. We visit familiar restaurants and go on walks every day. We know where to get pasta, apple pie and coffee. The book stores are totally filled with books on spiritualism so that hasn't caught Clive's fancy. He is on his last novel so he would probably like a place with a better selection of reading material. In our busy days of relax, we have checked out nearly every book shop!

This pm. there is a concert here withIndian music. We will go along and see how long it catches our fancy. We can also enjoy the sun and the people watching.

There is a ceremony every night at the river's edge (on the polished steps) and at different points it is bigger or smaller. Near where we are staying there is quite a large ashram (place for people to stay and worship or mediatate). At sunset each day, live music is broadcast and people gather. There is singing of prayers, a fire where mustard seeds are thrown in the fire to forgive you of your sins and flowers are put in the river. Don't quite understand it all, but it is wonderful to see all the people gather at sunset and enjoy it all in such community and peace.

Well, its off to coffee via the cows, monkeys, people, motor scooters and general busi-ness that makes everything so colorful each day.

Love to all

Rishikesh 2

We left Amritsar last week after three good days wandering the temple, the local bazaars and visiting the border with Pakistan about 20 kms away, where every night they have a big ceremony to close the border. The Indians and Pakistan army guys try to outdo each other in stamping around and on the Indian side there is a huge crowd which cheers and shout presumably patriotic slogans and chants. A bit over the top after a while but I guess shouting slogans is better than war.

We caught a night train to Rishikesh a few hundred kms away - the yoga capital of India! We thought we had learned how to book and catch trains but found we are still novices. At the station the train was late - which we only found out by talking to other passengers - no announcements. Then when it arrived we had to track down our compartment with no railway staff to help. We had to go up and down the train twice before we found it! A first class sleeper ticket turned out to be not the top choice - the top is a First Class Air Conditioned sleeper! There they apparently supply bedding. In our compartment we had a bed but had to supply our own blankets. It was pretty comfortable though and we slept on the journey and arrived in good shape.

Rishikesh is a very peaceful interesting town. A yoga centre so lots of westerners taking courses on Yoga, Meditatition etc. Susan is taking a yoga course and enjoying it greatly. The course had a break yesterday and today so we went on a white water rafting trip on the Ganges. They took us about 27 km upstream from Rishikesh and we paddled and drifted down the river into the town. We went over about sixteen sets of rapids - more white water than we were expecting and were on the river for about fours hours. A good day and good deal for us - there were only two other tourists on the raft but not a very high income living for the professionals - one British guy and two Indians. Too much competition so prices are pretty low. But a nice life style for the Brit - he is off to Austria in week or so to ski intruct for the winter season Then back here for trekking and rafting in the summer!

So we are here for a while, Susan taking yoga, me sunning myself and drinking coffee. We will stay here for another week until a game park near here - Corbett National Park opens on the 15th November. We can hopefully see some wild life there befire heading down to see the sights in Rajistan - the Taj Mahal, numerous Palaces etc.