Rishikesh Continued

Posted November 5, 2015

November 5^th 2015

I woke up at 5am today and it was pretty dark outside. I got ready and headed out determined that today would be a much better today then yesterday. I did a quick round of the ashram facilities and decided it was still too dark out to roam around by myself. Around 5:50 I made my way to the yoga hall and found a note at the front of the door “No Yoga class until Sunday”. OH MY GOD, ARE YOU SERIOUS?! It was really the only thing I was looking forward to since meditation classes here was definitely out the window. I decided to go to “The Office” and grab something to eat while I collected my thoughts of what I’ll do next. When I arrived I was the only one there so I ordered some porridge, fruit, and chai. I told myself, today I would not be scared and I would go ask someone where I could locate a sim card. An older gentleman walked in and I turned to him to say hello. He was quite pleasant and mentioned he was from Australia and had been living in Rishikesh for 15 years now and loves it. I was shocked, I wondered how he loved all this chaos? I chatted with him for a bit and he told me the convenience shop a few doors down would sell me a sim card. I needed a photocopy of my passport, a small picture id, and the shop keeper would fill out the rest. I was over the moon with joy. That meant I could communicate with people! I headed to the shop right after breakfast and was greeted by the extremely friendly owner. He told me he’d help me and directed me to get an IDEA phone card. He asked me how I was liking Rishikesh and I told him I was afraid of walking any where etc. He told me that was non sense and that no man in India would harm me and that people know women are Durga matha (a goddess) and to hold my head up high walking the streets. Ok, so he gave me a bit more confidence that day. I said ok, I’m going to walk to the other side of Rishikesh and not be scared. So I gathered my things and set off for my walk. I again had to dodge cows, dung, and hundreds of people in the market but told myself to stay positive. I reached the Ram Jula bridge and continued onwards. I wasn’t sure where I was going but told myself to push forward. I made it to a forest area and got a little concerned but kept walking. Then I met Maya, thank the heavens I met Maya, she changed everything! She looked lost, so I thought, why don’t you ask her to walk with you and then that way you’d both be ok. So I asked her, she said ok and decided to walk with me. Maya’s from Israel and super friendly. She brought me to the Lakshman Jhula side of Rishikesh. She asked if I was hungry and I said yes. She told me she knew the perfect place called the Freedom Café. We sat down on these cute cushions on the floor and she proceeded to tell me how everyone in Rishikesh is from Israel. I was shocked, she seemed to know everyone. She had only been there for 2 days like me but seemed like she had covered a ton of ground. After breakfast we were determined to head to a waterfall but as we walked along the path we came across a couple Mike from Calgary and Needie from Tibet. They were looking to get down to the beach area so we joined them. We spent the afternoon laying on a white sandy beach in an isolated forest area watching rafters go by us on the Ganga river. What a lovely moment I thought. Later in the evening we split from the couple as they wanted to go across the river and have dinner. Maya and I decided to go and eat a 40 rupee (80 cents) thali plate of food from a street vendor. After we walked around a bit but it was starting to get late and super dark so I had to jump into a Jeep taxi to get back to the other side where the ashram I’m staying at was. I was a bit worried but got back “home” safe and thought wow, what a great day today was compared to yesterday! I’m glad I didn’t give up on myself and lay in bed all day long.