Bikini & Boots

Written last night before the conection went down –

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Day 1 – Big poppat – the Lake iced over just few days back apparently, so could not paddle across the lake into the Boundary Waters area – basically means cannot enter the Boundary Waters area – since the only access from Ely is through paddle boat. Great that means I cannot hike in BWCA too – seeing that I am unable to enter BWCA.

Lodge owner (or his son?) says that there is a trail that sort of enters Boundary Waters State Park – spent my afternoon yesterday trying to find the trail – basically every turn on the road looks like a trail – I hastily exited two trails once half way up the trail – discovered “No trespassing” Signs. Just recently saw the crazy “Orion” Hunter on Law & Order, so had no interest in even remotely being chased by a dillusional hunter serial killer throughout the night and then being shot and beheaded at dawn. Long story short – I got back to my Cabin by 3:30 in the afternoon – very irritated – as I couldn’t find the damn trail.

Atleast the lodge is nice – I don’t feel like going back home because the cottage is larger than my apartment. I turned on my laptop to study some bit – and lo and behold ! I was wirelessly conected to the world wide web – the beloved internet !! What happened to “remote” and “wilderness” – well, I am not really complaining. And not really studuting anymore, either 🙂

Late in the evening – around 8 pm, headed back to Ely – again Lodge owner’s suggestion – said there is a Thanksgiving Sale going on – the downtown basically has 3-4 stores – mostly winter clothes and books. The Radio station is also on the main street – and the 2 guys who kept the radio “Live” could be seen by everybody on street. There was a book in the bookstore about the owner or some main head guy at the radio station – and his struggle with alcholism………..

Of the four restaurants – only two were open – both steakhouses. We were given a hearty Thanksgiving Dinner – complete with pie, at one of them – where later there would be some karaoke.

Day 2 turned out to be better – another advice from the lodge owner – go to the Water Falls on Bass Lake Trail, a simple 2 plus mile round trip hike. The end destination – the carrot – being the wonderful water fall. Here are some pictures – scroll down and tell me if you can spot the “Falls”

Alright – so much so for making fun – but I really need to tell these guys that their definition of “Water Falls” is flawed and is actualy quite different from the rest of the world.

Plan to leave back for Minneaplois tomorrow morning – have tickets for the Australian Pink Floyd show for the evening – will bid a strange farewell to Ely – by far not the most satisfying trip but shall be back, i fpossible, once in the winter – after Jan, to walk across the now strangely unfriendly lake – into BWCA for some skiing and maybe later next summer for a 3 day cannoe trip within the BWCA water channels. Meanwhile, I am going to miss my Log Cabin.

I finally figured out why I haven’t been able to write posts the past few months – I had been thinking of studying, and then the past month, finally set an exam date and started to study. Last weekend, I realized I am not scoring even close to what I want. SO….I now have a plan – whereas earlier I was plan-less. I am going to study not at breakneck speed as I was trying to the past month, but in a more organized fashion and take the exam in March.

Then what better way to Break Free from guilt than planning a trip to boundary waters and getting back to my blogging ways?….That was a rhetoric question. I know when I am back, I have my work cut out for me – and to be fair I am taking my laptop with me for the nights. But day time will be for Kayaking and Hiking. I have been warned by many of hypothermia but really, I want to scoff openly. I don’t, keeping in mind Minnessotan Nice – but I do chide gently – I have seen far worse winters in India and I very well know how to take care of myself. heck, I park my car out in the open just so I can feel the weather changing. I have recently also been getting pissed off at people who ride down the elevator grouchily – complaining about the cold weather. I really don’t know what they have to complain about. A – its not cold yet. B – The elevator takes them down the basement to the car, they drive in heated cars, and park cars in attached garages. And don’t get out of the house the rest of the evening. SO, when in the whole process, is Winter entering their lives, except notionally? But I want to leave my irritations back here so I can enjoy my Boundary Waters Trip.

The drive to Ely, Boundary Waters from Minneapolis is considered to be about 4 hrs. Leave at 3 pm Wed – get there by whenever – the cottage is booked for 3 nights. I am not a picture person but I have finally bought a camera. I just need to remember and not pull of an Alaska stunt where I forgot taking pictures, but carried the camera like a fool.

I am assuming there will be no internet in the Ely wilderness, so my next update will be once I am back ! Happy Thanksgiving ! In a wild moment of insanity, I almost bought a Tofu turkey and then thankfully did not. We will now be buying our turkey dinner in Ely. Drive Safely –

I don’t know why I am having a hard time writing about my Alaska trip – maybe because there was more to experience than to see – I need to sit down and really articulate my thoughts.

meanwhile, here is what I had written about Diwali two weeks back !
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I really missed Diwali this year – its one of those festivals that I miss periodically – once every few years the pangs hit hard. Diwali was last saturday in India. When I called home, I could hear the stacatto sound of fire crackers as if it was right outside my door. My mom had to yell loudly for me to hear her !

I have always loved Diwali – in India, a group of friends would collect with individual bag of fire crackers – and spend the night on the road near our houses. Then later at night retire to somebody’s large rooftop or balcony – rockets, chakri’s, anar’s. I have also loved the snakes and phooljhari’s 🙂 Kids and adults alike stuff themselves with sweets – friends, neighbors and families visit each other all day and overall its an extremely festive environment. Ofcourse, there are many who do the traditional Laxmi puja also – the godess of wealth is not to be ignored on this day – many also play cards and plan to win – coz if you win on Diwali, you will continue to have great cash flow for the year 🙂 How about that ?

I think Diwali also marks the onset of winters !

Mystic……..Adventerous !
http://www.travelwithsharmas.com/
Bed & Breakfast and custom travel packages for white water rafting, hiking, parasailing, in Shivpuri/Rishikesh/Mussorie, as well as Ashram visits and Maha Arti visits to Haridwar/Rishikesh/Mussoorie, Art of Living Classes, Yoga, Meditation Classes, Sanskrit classes.
ADVERTIZING family business !

Well, finally onto my second day in Alaska. Plan – Chill out in Seward in the morning, drive back to Anchorage in the afternoon the drive is considered, for good reason, the scenic highway, and fly out to Juneau by the late evening flight. However, in reality, we really couldn’t stick with the plan well.

After a successful day of Scuba diving / hiking, our plan was to chill a bit for a day before our flight to Juneau. The plan was to spend time hiking again but in Juneau. Seward is a delightful little place, which still retains its character of a small “port” town. The wooden roads are replaced by old style single lane roads. Apparently, during the gold rush days, Seward (then more or less a huddle of houses) is where the ship would dock and dispense its passenger with their bundle of clothes. And these fortune hunters would then hike for weeks in a sort of a human train over mountains and passes, falling and dying in the process, till a straggling train would reach Yukon and beyond.

I probably have the story a little warbled but that is more or less the gist of it. Right now, Seward is a nice homegrown sort of town, where our Mobby Dick accommodation was charmingly toy like and opposite somebody’s house, which later turned out to be the theater cum coffee house. Nice place to get coffee and buy hand printed T-shirts with Alaskan Jellyfishes and Puffins (Alaskan bird) on them.

One sign I liked “No-Puffin” for a smoke free environment 🙂

One half of the small city’s coast is a designated RV park – a walk along the coast of Seward shows crowds of people fishing, chillin’ outside the RV, grillin’ and watching the numerous salmons jump out and splat back into the sea. One place we avoided was the Seward Sea Life Center – I am sure it’s a good cause to support, but I was in no mood to see the inside of a fish tank when the world outside was so much more beautiful.

To tell you the truth, the day was so beautiful that before we knew it, it was around noon. Time for us to get back in our car. On our way back to Anchorage, we kind of played it by the ear. There is only one road and it goes straight to Anchorage – Seward Hwy 1. We passed Bear Creek, Kenai Lake, Muscwa village, Moose Pass, all along the Seward Hwy. But then but we took little detours just out of curiosity. When we came to a crossroad where left meant we would go to Whittier – we took it. Saw an mini vacant port from where ships no doubt go for the 26 glacier tour to Prince Williams Sound. Saw Portage glacier from a distance (this is one of the glaciers that the human train would cross, and many would be unsuccessful), drove back and forth through some nice little tunnel overlooking Portage Lake and some “Arm”. An arm by the way is a water body, more or less between two hills or mountains. It’s a water filled U shaper valley.

Then when we finally got over gallivanting in Whittier area, we ran into some roadside “zoo” ?? Okay, it is actually a drive through Alaska Wildlife conservation Center. It is a small place designed in the classic 8 shaped loop. We could drive through and saw through the fenced area a variety of animals including caribou, bison, and bears. My first black and brown bears in Alaska. Not that I wanted to see them within a fence but it was okay.

Then we stopped at few other Turnagain Arm lakes/viewpoints, and saw people ohhing and aahing over some “whales” that they though they saw through binoculars. Turns out it’s a mid size silver fish that belongs to the whale family. And I am not sure if it was what the lady with the binocular claimed it was ! Anyway, my idea of seeing a whale is seeing something upclose. Seeing it through a binocular is almost worse than seeing it on TV ! The fishes appeared distant even through the binoculars !

Anyway, this whole area comes under the chugah National Park/forest and you drive through the Chugah mountains and turnagain pass, which is again very very scenic. Can cause delays 🙂

By the time we entered Anchorage city, we were running against time as we were close to missing our flight. We were the last people to board 🙂

One word of caution, the Anchorage airport has a Chillis right after security clearance and I think most people assume that’s the only eating joint plus the lone starbucks at the airport. And not surprisingly, there is a loooong wait and exhorbitant prices. If you walk the opposite direction from the main boarding area, you will come across a Bi Mac 🙂 which I discovered while irritably running for my flight, and accidentally running in the opposite direction ! They gave me my burger and fries within 5 minutes.

I have a few of pics here from Seward, as well as Karan’s hiking photos. My diving photos are still not with me. I will be back shortly with our day 3 in Alaska: Juneau and the East Glacier Hike near Mendenhall Glacier. And then Sitka and the hilariously hairy kayaking encounter. PHOTOS

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Mystic……..Adventerous !
http://www.travelwithsharmas.com/
Bed & Breakfast and custom travel packages for white water rafting, hiking, parasailing, in Shivpuri/Rishikesh/Mussorie, as well as Ashram visits and Maha Arti visits to Haridwar/Rishikesh/Mussoorie, Art of Living Classes, Yoga, Meditation Classes, Sanskrit classes.
ADVERTIZING family business !

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You know why, ofcourse – its because of the great weather ! October to December is when the whole nation is getting married, more or less. Jan/Feb get to be too cold, March, April do not have as many holidays. And then you get to summer, which is not fun.

But Oct-Dec – Time to have some fun. If you are in India at this time, you will notice the whole nation has either celebrated Dushera / Durga Puja etc or is gearing up for Diwali and getting married in between. In Calcutta, this is the time to be visiting Victoria Palace, to eat chicken rolls after the puja. They are exhausted from all the clothes shopping, communal lunches and dinners, cultural shows and watching movies. In Delhi and other northern states, families are going to stores buying fire crackers, buying new clothes, and all. Dushera is over, ravan is burnt to the ground and its now time to plan for Diwali – the festival of lights. And start buying gifts for all the people getting married.

Weddings are times when parents blow a sizeable portion of their life’s savings. So, always seems like the whole town is invited, as well as most of neighboring states. Weddings are a week long festivities, more or less.

One interesting thing about Indian weddings is that anybody and everybody can gate crash a wedding. What are a couple of more people in a wedding ceremony 1000 people plus strong? Go, grab a plate and mingle in with the dinner crowd. You don’t have to even meet the bride/bride groom. Even if you do, they will think you are their parents guest. Or the friend of a guest 🙂 If you are a non-Indian, you might get a few inquisitive looks though.

I have been to very few wedding, but have on few occasions as a kid, when visiting cousins, enjoyed a plate of ice-cream here and there in weddings. gatecrashing 🙂 You see, we lived in Army bases, somewhat isolated from the weddings galore. So, visting family in the Oct – dec season had its added bonuses.

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Mystic……..Adventerous !
http://www.travelwithsharmas.com/
Bed & Breakfast and custom travel packages for white water rafting, hiking, parasailing, in Shivpuri/Rishikesh/Mussorie, as well as Ashram visits and Maha Arti visits to Haridwar/Rishikesh/Mussoorie, Art of Living Classes, Yoga, Meditation Classes, Sanskrit classes.
ADVERTIZING family business !

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Mystic……..Adventerous !
http://www.travelwithsharmas.com/

While I am looking for my lost Alaska posts and writing about the second day, I just wanted to quickly pop back here and say that based on my wonderful trip to see my parents in the Himalayan foothills – I have here a real nice package for you. I bought a domain for my mom/dad as a gift and have been helping them put together this website. They are close to retirement and being still very much young at heart, have started a Bed & Breakfast and have put together custom travel packages for white water rafting, hiking, parasailing, in Shivpuri/Rishikesh/Mussorie, as well as Ashram visits and Maha Arti visits to Haridwar/Rishikesh/Mussoorie. You will love the packages they have here plus you have the option of customizing your trip. I know they will love their time with their guests – they are fun people, and very well traveled in India, so if you want, you could gets great tips to travel in other parts of India.

I will be promoting their site on and off, coz I love them 🙂 so bear with me. While you are at their website, also check out the Album. Some nice photos there. Also check out the Activities page – if you are interested in Yoga Classes, meditation classes, that’s the page to check as it will have announcements there. The website also has maps you can play with 🙂

So here goes:
http://www.travelwithsharmas.com/

Its “Travel With Sharmas” coz their last name is Sharma 🙂

The previous two posts on Alaska I had have disappeared !! I did not delete them, so where have they gone ! September archives with the two posts have disappeared !!

Funny that this should happen with the Alaskan posts – its almost like somebody wants to keep Alaska as undocumented as possible 🙂 Hang on while I hunt around for my posts. I will be back with the events from our second day in Alaska – as fun as the first !!

Dear God, I cannot Believe its already been 2 weeks plus since I got back from Alaska ! Trying to catch up with work the past weeks has been rough but regardless of how long its been since Alaska, that trip was something and it will always always stay with me. If I have the opportunity, I will definitely head that way again.

The trip was so activity intensive, that its impossible to write about everything in one post. I will have to go day by day ! So, stay with me if you want to live through my experiences.

I will start with the night we flew into Anchorage and right from the airport, drove over to Seward. You know you are in Alaska, because, right away at the airport, none of our “Emerald Club Member Privileges” with National Car Rental were recognized. There was this huge line, and we ran around quite a bit trying to find the Emerald Club lot, where you can just walk up and pick whatever car you want, and drive of. But NOO, not here. We had to finally accept defeat and march up to the tail end of the line. The people who had been standing there the past 15 minutes were indulgently smiling at us – newbies. We had to wait a looong time before we got our car. The distance from Anchorage to Seward for some reason comes up at 4.5 hours on Mapquest. But in reality, its only 2.5 hrs plus minus 15 minutes. But since it was past 10 pm by the time we got out of the airport, it was around 12:30 at night by the time we got to Seward. We were on an excitement overdrive as we neared Seward. Half an hour out of Anchorage – the road started following “Turnaround Arm” and in the semi darkness, we could see the shimmering water in the moonlight snaking between the rocky hillside. That first glimpse of Alaska for me is the essence of Alaskan landscape near the coast – mountain and water – two pf my most favorite elements all together.

Seward is a small place – and very safe probably. We stayed at Moby Dick hostel – the lady who charmingly told us on the phone, with a heavy accent, the “private room is very basic, just a room with a twin bed” also said she would leave a note for us on the window. So, we looked around for Mobby Dick in the darkness, slowly cruising in the darkness and stopping at houses to peer at the numbers. There were few people on the road and for the 1st week of sep, it was pleasantly chilly. The hostel came upon us suddenly. We parked the car and couldn’t find the note on the office window. So, we opened the door to the hostel and stepped inside – our boots clumped loudly on the stairs as we climbed upstairs. The whole hostel is tiny and we felt like giants, like Alice in wonderland ! As we opened and closed doors, somehow the bunk beds of sleeping folks weren’t disturbed. ( we were to sleep as deeply in the next 9 days – exhausted after an exciting day) Finally, we clumped back to the office in search of our note – and this time we found it taped to the window of the DOOR. Well, the note was cute – Hello Rupa, welcome to Mobby Dick. Your room is in a different building, number 436. Its 2 blocks further. To unlock the door – first press the 3rd button, then the last button and then turn the knob to your right. You can check-in in the morning.
So back to the car, and down two blocks – fiddling with the lock and we were in the house – apparently, there were two rooms (who was in the second?), one shared bath and one shared kitchen. There was “free food” on the kitchen counter as well as in the fridge. I loved this place already. Our room turned out to be insanely tiny and lovely. The lady had been right, it had a single lampshade hanging from the top, cute window curtains, one queen bed and unbelievably, one bunk bed against the wall. We unpacked quickly. I forgot to tell – we had bought only one medium suitcase and one overnight – the overnight was filled with energy bars, instant mashed potatoes, instant rice, tinned potatoes, soup packets and instant oatmeal !. Laugh as you want but this foresight was to come real handy over the next 9 days. We had also brought some beef casserole, which we ate on our drive down to Seward. So now, we were all ready for next day. I pulled out my snorkel, mask and fins – I was going scuba diving in the cold waters of Alaska and Karan was going to hike upto Hardings Ice-field – a 6 hr hike.

We slept like babies that night – happy with the anticipation of the next day. In the morning, we drove back to Mobby Dick at 7 in the morning – and left a note back saying we would be cak in the evening to check in as I was going scuba diving and karan was going hiking to the glacier. Karan drove the 7 blocks to the harbor to drop me off, before he drove off the 30 minute drive to the base of Hardings.

My Scuba instructions told me to come with a subway sandwich and look around the harbor for the Dancing Queen – a small boat. I found my team fairly quickly – the scuba gear gave them away J I was going with Scott and his group from Dive Alaska. They are based in Anchorage but drive down for the dive to Resurrection Bay in Seward. Our boat took off for the hour plus ride in the Resurrection Bay, dodging islands as we gawked at the beauty that was Alaska – cold waters, Beautiful hills, bases plunging in the waters. We were navigating our way to the dive spot. I was hoping to see some Sea lions if not whales during the dive – regretfully – Scott took us wall diving because this was our first dive plus we all were inexperienced enough to avoid such sea monsters. Despite missing sea lions and whales, the dive was a lot of fun. I was overweighed in the beginning, so overturned on my back, face skywards, the minute I hit the water and try as I might, I couldn’t straighten up. ( I was wearing a dry suit – the water wasn’t that cold but was still cold at 60 F) Plus, the minute I would deflate my suit, instead of sinking slowly to the bottom, I sank like a ball of lead. Not withstanding the pain in my ear as I shot 20 ft down to the bottom, I tried to scramble away from the HUGE arms and fronds that I seemed to be falling on top of. Were these arms of octopuses? I was frenzied ! A second later calmed down, realizing that nothing was wrapping itself around me and infact, those long leafy looking this were infact beautiful. I don’t know how much damage I did ecologically to the Kelp Forest that day but I did destroy their beautiful serenity by alternately crashing down and shooting up legs first to the surface several times. Once you have had some dry suit training, you will realize how hilarious but frustrating it is to control leg first ascent – that too 20 ft. Anyway, by the time I got weighted right, I had come to realize that these waters had some of the most beautiful invertebrates that I had seen close up. My instructor got stung by a jelly fish, but I was lucky enough to evade them. I saw forests of purple star fishes, star fish on star fish slapped ontop of each other, like they were out on a crowded beach, sunning themselves – fishes darting behind rocks, and tons of sea anemones. As I caught my breath, hovering over yet another group of star fishes, I saw a HUGE sea anemone – larger than my head, pump its way towards me, as it came close to my face, it turned over and opened up – did this beautiful thing plan to eat me ? Impossible since I just had to swat my hand. Was it playing with me? I don’t know because at that moment my buddy came up on me and the sea anemone quickly flipped over and quickly pumped away.

The day ended far too quickly – I could not believe 5 hours had already passed away. (I don’t have any pictures as yet – Scott will e-mail me some pics later.) By the time we got back to the harbor – it was close to 6 pm. Karan was in the harbor, looking at the ships. As I called out to him – he looked surprised to see me. He still claims that he did not come there looking for me but was just checking out the boats. His hike had been fantastic and over in 4 hours – he had found an Australian hiker and saw lots of bears close to the trail. The Hardings trail ascends 2,300 ft in 2 hours! Half way through the trail he said, the trees give away and its just rocks and one place – a valley of flowers. When they came upon the ice field, karan tried to walk on the snow but his companion stopped him – some of the places there are “holes” right under the snow, that fall 50 feet sometimes. If you fall, the bodies are flushed out 3 and sometimes 5 days later at the base of the mountain. I was glad he was back safe. His Australian friend took some pics, which he will e-mail in a few days. I will post them then.

Anyway, we got an ice-cream with the other divers and agreed to meet two later in the bars – to tell you the truth, there are only two in the downtown, but they were nice. I like the Alaskans that were in there – rugged, lean, jeans tucked in rubber boots, and happy. The evening was nice – some locals singing nice folk song, nice beer and we were nodding off. For the next day, our plan was to explore Seward, drive back to Anchorage to catch our flight to Juneau.

That’s all for today – this is a pretty long post – shall share more in the next post !

White water rafing and yoga/meditation – seems like an unusual combination – but thats what you get if you visit Rishikesh.

We again drove over the weekend from home in Roorkee for a 3 plus hour ride to Rishikesh and then to Shivpuri (half an hour past Rishikesh). Rishikesh is actually in the foothills. Whereas Shivpuri is a steady climb into the lower Himalayas, at 7,000 ft plus, along Ganga. But this is not the wide, deep and (deceptively) serene ganga of Rishikesh or Hardwar. No, this Ganga has rapids. It dances between the hills, frothy and maybe dangerous.

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Mystic……..Adventerous !
http://www.travelwithsharmas.com/
Bed & Breakfast and custom travel packages for white water rafting, hiking, parasailing, in Shivpuri/Rishikesh/Mussorie, as well as Ashram visits and Maha Arti visits to Haridwar/Rishikesh/Mussoorie, Art of Living Classes, Yoga, Meditation Classes, Sanskrit classes.
ADVERTIZING family business !

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Since I visited India during the monsoons, I got to Shivpuri a week after rafting was closed for the season (closes in July). The monsoons had made the river full , not navigable and dangerous. However, I did catch purely by chance, these violators on a dangerous trip. Since I had to come back to a new job within two days of flying back, I was not about to risk my neck with either an accident or the Law.

So, I went about to check out the outfits that had the rafts. There are basically two deals you can get (but ofcourse !): either you go for a day rafting or you join a hiking/rafting camp, who will take you for a 2-3 days adventure. All at reasonable prices. Ofcourse, if you have a good enough group, you could get your trip customized/longer. Hiking in the lower Himalayas is an exciting adventure. A lot of these trips are organized by ex-army officers and/or members of the Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Association. My father is a member, is in the Army, is commanding officer of Boys Sports Battalion and yes, is setting up additional kayaking sites on the Ganges 🙂 So, its interesting that we caught these people on the river illegally. And quite a determined group of defecters by the looks of it – I counted a total of 18.

We planned to spend the weekend at “Glass House by the Ganges” a moderately priced place for the kind of beauty and serenity it offered. It is a “Nimrana Group” boutique hotel, unlike Kasmanda, which is a hertiage group botique hotel. Our room was in the middle of the hills, right on the Ganges. My mother was so pleased that she got up early the next morning especially to sit outside and do Yoga, just like the ancient Rishi Munis (holy men). I went out with my Dad’s binoculors to zoom into the smal 5-6 dwelling villages that spotted the nearby and far off hills. My mom was a little self concious at first with her yoga and wouldn’t let me take a pic but I think she got going after my dad and myself left to explore the nearby area. ganga outside our rooms. Click here for all Shivpuri & Glass house on the Ganges Photos:

Dad and I ofcourse first of all ran into the violaters that I mentioned earlier. We went about and got some food from the local market. The roads this side are quite narrow and its exciting to be driving on them. There are two bridges and both single lane. Somehow, they add to the reclusive nature of the area. Not to say that there are no people around. But given the number of people in one of the most populated country in the world, Shivpuri seems remote. If you continue to drive along the Shivpuri road, in 8 more hours, you will reach Gangotri, where Ganga originates from. You will also cross Badrinath and Kedarnath. (A long rigorous hike from Gangotri, and some spectacular sights, you will reach Gomukh, the actual origin of the ganges.) However, I didn’t have that much time, so we stayed put at Shivpuri.

Glass House on the Ganges is a definite recommendation, it was away from the crazy hustle bustel. It was beautiful. It fitted in with my romanticized idea of living by the Ganges, in the Himalayas. Breathing in “pure” air, being one with the elements. The water in the shower too is from the river, put through the treatement plant they have and pumped up. the river outside was roaring as it flowed past our rooms down the hills. If you visit in the non-monsoon season, you will have the priveledge of rafting, even if the roar outside your window is muted. We did splash around in the water quite a bit.

Also, I should mention here that although Rishikesh is a religious town, even if very touristy, Shivpuri for me was any day preferable for the kind of “breather” and adventure I was looking for. But we did stop in Rishikesh on our way to Shivpuri. My father’s Art of Living Teacher lives in Rishikesh (he is in Roorkee often to take classes, sometimes stays with us and is actually the head of the Uttranchal State) . He took us to a nice restaurant – Madras cafe – for a Himalayan pulao and I have to tell you this, it is a great (non-spicy, spicy versions available) meal. It was a heathy but tasty meal – an anomoly 🙂 Also, I may not need to mention this, but rigth outside the cafe is a haven for shoppers, rishikesh clothes, sufficiently spiritual looking to entice the visitors into buying them :), prayer beads, spiritual and meditation books, aromatic stuff, everything.

After lunch, as we drove around, I also took some pictures of these facades that kind of assaulted my senses but did intrigue me enough to see what it was about. To view more images, click on the picture. Rishikesk was full of such places. Bharat Mata Mandir is supposedly the largest temple as it has an elevator but the long line was enough to turn me away. Same reason why I haven’t been to the top of Empire State Building or Sears Tower. I didn’t take any pictures of Laxman Jhula (bridge) but I am very fond of the bridge, as I saw a baby monkey upclose there as a teenager, even if its mother bit me in a rage.

Then we also visited some ashrams. To be clear, there are several different kind of ashrams: some have meditation classes only, some have yoga classes, some have short courses on health, meditative revivals etc. Some also do research. Here are the ones that we visited in Rishikesh:
1. Shivananda Ashram- it is known for research, meditation as well as yoga courses. Click on photo for more on the different ashrams we visited.
2. Shanti Kunj – Known mostly for research and meditation.
3. Some more smaller ashrams.
4. We also visited the Sanskrit Vishwavidyala, where courses in Sanskrit are offered – i.e, you can study science and literature and the medium of instruction is Sanskrit.

On our way back, about 30 minutes from home, we stopped at the following:
1. Swami Ramdev’s Divya Yog Mandir – a raging favorite with the Indians. His brand of Yoga – called Pranayam is right now the national fever. I have tried three of his techniques and actually like doing them – it refreshes me in the morning. Divya Yog mandir also run a “public” hospital and treates thousands of patients everyday with alternative and “cheap” medicine. I was a little awed to be visiting. Click on image for Yog Mandir complex (including healthy menu) and Sanskrit Academy photos.
2. Sanskrit Academy, which is affiliated with the Gurukul Kangri University. You can take short courses or a whole semester here . Or enroll for the Bachelor’s or Master’s program.

After all these visits, we headed home i.e. Roorkee. This trip marked the end of my 2nd week (of the 3 week trip) and in a few days, I was to head back to New Delhi for my flight back to Minneapolis.

I realized last post I forgot to add the pictures ! So, here we go: Click on the pic for the whole lot :

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Mystic……..Adventerous !
http://www.travelwithsharmas.com/
Bed & Breakfast and custom travel packages for white water rafting, hiking, parasailing, in Shivpuri/Rishikesh/Mussorie, as well as Ashram visits and Maha Arti visits to Haridwar/Rishikesh/Mussoorie, Art of Living Classes, Yoga, Meditation Classes, Sanskrit classes.
ADVERTIZING family business !

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