G’bye Rajasthan, heading North and Rishikesh.

The last five days have been an absolute whirlwind to say the least, figuratively and literally.

We left Rajasthan, and heading to Agra to see the Taj Mahal on the 2nd, and then hightailed it across Delhi and upwards to the northern town of Rishikesh for the 3rd.

We arrived here at about 6am, to grey flat skies and everywhere sodden. The rain coupled with the heat and dense fog creates a different kind of wet, permiating, inpenetrible and unrelenting. After an actually luxurious ten hour night bus to Rishikesh bus station, we took a dubious rickshaw to our hostel, Bhanderi Swiss Cottage on the left side of the river in the High Bank area of town. Our lack of blog posts has duly been the fault of major power outtages, the monsoon rains cuts the electric for the most part of the day and in turn, no internet.

The sky silhouetted the loomingly green jungled mountains that backdrop Rishikesh, this town being the gateway for many travels into the Himalayas, or for others a recharge point after the hectic to-ing and fro-ing of the rest of India. Known for its Ashrams, yoga classes and adventure sports, the perfect spot for us to take a breath and re-connect the frazzled wires in both our brains.

‘Go travelling in India’ – they said, ‘it’ll be fun’, they said.

Well f**ck me sideways, this country is most definetly not one for the faint hearted, unless your into tucking down into a resort and staying put, be prepared for a variety of ‘what the actual F**K?’ , alot of ‘OH MY god, SAVE me now’ and a more than usual amount of conversations regarding how your bowel movements are going. If I could put a flat mouthed emoticon right now I completely would.

Don’t get me wrong, this place is fascinating and completely indescribable (no matter how hard I try). But, India makes you work for the good bits .. its trying, and testing. If your normal travel conists of an all inclusive two week jaunt to Magaluf, I somehow implore you to get your arse over here, or really, really just don’t.

Anyway, as the day creeped on in this super sleepy place, the mist lifted from the peaks around us and the palm tree lined views of the Ganges came into view from the balcony of our guesthouse. Warm, fuzzy feels ensued!

So overall, the last few days have been spent on the recharge, sleeping, reading, yoga’ing (for me anyway), jungle treks and swimming in waterfalls. Our hostel being up and out of the way of beeping horns, our door balcony full of sleeping puppies, the occasional monkey and the yoga studio being ten minutes up the little green hill.

Originally our vague outlined plan was to stay here for a week, maybe two, for me to work on some Ashtanga and the lovely studio we had found but after a bit of deliberation we are joining forces with two lads we next door from Suffolk and heading up to Manali today. After bit of googling, and some encouraging words regarding bouldering from other travellers we decided to move on after an overall wicked time in Rishikesh.

Massive apologise with the lack of photographs, we are struggling with Wi-Fi so much and uploading is basically impossible!