Rishikesh-Beatles Ashram

Posted November 7, 2015

November 7^th 2015

Ok so I’ve decided that writing posts everyday is a bit mad and that sometimes I need to go out and have some fun. So let’s do a recap of this past week. So after I met Maya we figured out how to add each other to Facebook. In the morning she messaged me and asked if I was still up for going to the ashram where the Beatles stayed and wrote one of their hit albums. I thought it would be cool to check it out so I agreed. The ashram is called the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram. We ended up spending the day doing random site seeing and never went to visit the ashram. The next day because I had two beds in my room I offered one of them to Maya since she was looking to stay on this side of the Rishikesh. She had gotten the exact opposite experience of me while staying with “Westerners” on the other side and I had received the extreme opposite uber “Religious” side of Rishikesh. From my place we headed along the river side and checked out one beautiful and peaceful ashram that isn’t advertised on websites. Maya and I thought it would be great to stay at this new ashram and have some peace. We asked about rates which seemed reasonable but I had my heart on staying in a place with an obstructed view of the Ganga, especially since my bday was coming up. We spent another day relaxing and later we went to the Beatles Café later which has a beautiful view of Rishikesh and relaxed. There we met a British guy named Dom and exchanged stories with him. He told us he was staying in a beautiful brand new room in a hotel and asked us if we wanted to check it out. We went to his place and decided as beautiful as it was, it wasn’t worth double the price we were paying. The power had gone out and Dom offered to walk us across the bridge to the taxi stand. We got there and oh boy, the taxi’s stopped operating at 8pm and it was 9:30. Now what we thought? We weren’t going to walk by ourselves alone in the dark through the forest. Dom said he’d walk us the 25 min walk back but I kept my pepper spray in hand incase of an attack. Dom seemed a bit uneasy too but we managed to get back to the ashram. Dom walked back to his hotel on his own in the dark. What a stupid thing to do Maya and I thought. How could we have gotten ourselves in this position and why do the taxi’s stop running at 8pm?

The next morning Maya and I decided enough is enough and we are going to the Beatles ashram. We asked a few people where the Beatles ashram was and we headed in that direction. We stumbled upon what looked like an old decrepit entrance to a construction site. A young guy started shouting at us and told us he would show us where the ashram was. We ran into a Spanish couple and asked them but they weren’t sure either. We decided to continue to walk up the path and ignore the young fella. He shouted, “tigers and elephants” to scare us but I just came back from Africa and know better than random large cats attacking and elephants going crazy. We got to the top of a main road and asked some people at a taxi stand and they point back to the direction we just came from. The Spanish couple was getting directions now from this younger guy and we walked with them. He told us how he has 2 children and a wife, how he is telling the truth, and it’s safe to use him a tour guide. Maya and I got the front of the gates and he said this is the Beatles ashram. The Spanish couple said screw this and walked back. We decided to take the risk and go in. We had to pay a 100 rupee fee ($2) which they claimed was for construction. You see, the ashram closed in 1995 when Maharishi had passed away and had too many children to inherit the entire place so everyone walked away from it. The place was now being maintained by the forest department so that’s why they needed the money for it’s upkeep. We walked inside skeptical of this entire operation and of this guy but decided it was going to be ok. He ended up being an excellent guide and showed us every building and hut. This was probably the largest ashram in Rishikesh and in it’s time probably a stunning operation. But now the forests have overgrown on the entire site and wildlife has taken over. Especially GIANT orb spiders. Me being terrified of spiders, absolutely terrified was wondering what the f*** we were doing there. I managed to get a hold of myself to not run like a 3 year old child and kind of admire these massive nets they had spun and were sitting in the middle of. Maya had bigger kahunas than me and took an excellent pic with one. We saw the shrine that was made for the Beatles and heard stories about them. The tour guide after said he would take us to a beautiful temple on top of the mountain. We asked how? He said his scooter. We laughed. The three of us were going to fit on his tiny scooter? Well, we did it and realized after they cram 4-5 people onto the back of scooters here in India. The temple was stunning, quite a lot of stairs, but definitely worth it with a gorgeous view of Rishikesh from up top. We met up with Dom the British guy and grabbed some lunch at the ashram I was staying at. We decided we’d
spend the day relaxing in the various restaurants since we were pretty tired from our morning site seeing adventures. By night fall, we said good bye to Dom and wished him good luck on his journey back home. Maya and I grabbed a jeep taxi back home and fell asleep.