3 November 2009 - Ganges River, Rishikesh, India. (this is the raft behind us so don't try to find me)
It was the day after the car ride from the ashram so I wasn’t sure I was up for anymore adventure, but [bxA] decided it’s a rare opportunity to raft down the Ganges with friends. I’ll be traveling alone again soon. For now Rishikesh is crawling with Sivananda TTCers, but everyday another one of us heads off onto the next leg of our respective journeys. Five of us from the TTC joined a raft of strangers that morning. It was a great day, beautiful and relaxing except for the occasional exhilarating rapids with names like Return to Sender, Roller Coaster, and my favorite, Cash Flow. The raft guide would shout orders, “paddle forward, paddle forward!” Then right before the rapids whisked us away, he’d yell, “relax! relax! relax!” The first time we heard that instruction, Alejandro joked, “i am relaxing my toes and my feet… my toes and my feet are completely relaxed,” which is part of the dialogue we’ve all learned to guide the relaxation at the end of each yoga class.
This is Tristan & Krista - they're from Houston! Krista was in my dorm with me.
Alejandro's from Mexico, Carlos is from Guatemala...we are all from the Americas;)
Tristan was jumping off the rock into yoga positions. I did not brave this part of the adventure, but now I wish I did. It was all I could do to jump off the little rock at the ashram.
The day was peaceful until we could see Laksman Jhula Bridge up ahead and hear the faint sound of cars honking, motorbikes revving and see the crowds of people crossing the pedestrian bridge by the giant temple. It reminded me how much I love approaching cities by boat. It’s been a long time. Alyssa and I have gotten word from Captain John of Millennium. He’s still in Africa but I haven’t had time to read the email. I miss Millennium. Maybe I can convince Alyssa to meet me in South Africa for the sea passage across the Atlantic?I am relaxing my brain, my brain is completely relaxed….
2 comments:
What ?!?!?!?! Was it not enough that you nearly got cliffed on THE road trip chauffered by the dude with the black crispy hair, you had to go and try not to drown yourself...shudder..shudder..the only good to come out from these hair raising adventures of yours is that they keep me entertained. Reading about your hilarious scrape escapes sure beats watching the moss grow on my kapok tree ! And your people descriptions, I just so love your people descriptions you little unripened watermelon you :o)
Me and the boyz (Ollie & Tex) aren't watermelons or rockmelons, we're pears because it rhymes with bears and we were once attached to trees (not vines) and when we got unattached it was a long drop to the bottom but we survived - downside was we've got flat bums (um, y'all call em fannies, yes?) whatever anyone calls them they are now flat. One thing you must never, ever do, is let your brain relax too much, we did that and brains leaked out of our ears and we were lucky that we plugged our ears up in time or would have no brains left and what to you call a bear without an ear? a B bahahahahahaha
toodles
Rex
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