Travel Along With Me

Today was my turn to be sick. I awoke with an awful sick stomach and a fever. I took Imodium and a small nap. Tilak was sweet and packed our bags for us. Our taxi arrived at 10:00a.m. to take us to Rishikesh. The drive to Rishikesh was about 2 hours. The roads were actually tree-filled and had monkeys everywhere. The kids loved watching and counting them. It was so refreshing to be around trees!!! I was getting tired of pollution and litter everywhere. By the time we got there (around 12:00) I was feeling much better.

We were dropped off by the Ganges River in Ram Jhula (Swarg Ashram). We crossed a large bridge that took us to the part of town that does not allow cars. There were ashrams, shops, restaurants, hotels, etc. It was fun to walk down the car-free roads. We stayed at a hotel called Hotel Green View. The room was simple but had what we needed. There was a queen size bed, a bathroom with buckets and a western toilet and a TV. It was only 500 rupees a night ($13 American dollars)! Of course there was no window in the room.

We put our stuff down and went out to explore! First we ate lunch at a cute restaurant called Little Italy. It was a far cry from real Italian food but it was something to eat. We talked with a woman who was staying at a near-by ashram. She was from Isreal. She was traveling alone. She had been to India 20+ years earlier and had always wanted to come back. She hoped for her husband to come with her but he was ill.

When we left the ashram we looked at some jewelry shops. Then we walked into the Gita Bhavan ashram. It had the Ramayana written on the walls. There was a beautiful garden. Then a magical thing happened. I came across two women who were sitting on the cement on burlap bags sifting something that looked like wheat. I came over to them to see what they were doing. They immediately made me feel welcome with them. I asked them if they spoke English. They said yes but I soon learned that they did not. They put down a burlap sack for me to sit with them. I asked if I could help. They showed me what to do. All the wheat had to have the rat poop, rocks and stalk taken out of it and then the wheat was placed in bags. They tried to communicate with me but their English was bad and my Hindi was horrible. Instead we were very content just being with each other. Kali came by soon after I was sitting there and she began to help us as well. We stayed until all the wheat they were sifting was done and we said good-bye. I am sure that that day will be a memory that sticks with me a long time.

Once we left the ashram we decided to sit along the ghats of the Ganges River. The river had much more of a current than I imagined it would. It was very peaceful to sit there and listen to the water and knowing that I was in a holy place – I could feel it. The kids were exploring around the ghats and a sadhu that lived there at the ghat showed them some puppies that he was taking care of. The kids were very excited to play with them and the sadhu was glad to share the joy of the puppies with them.

Tilak joined me near the river and told me the story of our friend Peter meeting his guru at the Ganges River. Peter was visiting India and sitting at the banks of the Ganges river here in Rishikesh playing his guitar. His guru showed up singing to the music that Peter was playing.

When we left the ghat we went to clean up and then came back to the Ganges for the nightly aarti led by the local school boys. It is a religious ceremony that gives thanks to the River Ganga for all that it gives to the people of India. There were lots of chants sung and a fire ceremony as well. We purchased flower bowls made of leaves to place into the river with a prayer during the ceremony. I took individual flowers out of my bowl and said prayers for each person in my family (Dad, Mom, Melissa, Matt, Mark, Tilak, Kali and Texil). Then I put my bowl in the water and said a prayer for PEACE.

Gathered for the aarti ceremony were people of all different cultures chanting and praying together and IT HAPPENS EVERY NIGHT! What spiritually dedicated people.

After we left the Ganges we got some fruit and chocolate and brought it to our room to snack on before we went to bed.

We woke around 7:00a.m. We had to give Texil fever medicine. He had a temperature of 103.8! The medicine took the fever down pretty quickly thank God. We ordered room service for breakfast. Texil and Kali were both still having some diarrhea but were feeling well enough to take a trip to Kempty Falls.

We left our room around 9:30a.m. We walked to the station to get our bus tickets and then walked to the bus stop. The bus was old but comfortable. It had high back, cloth chairs. There was a newly wed couple that sat behind us that spoke English. We chatted with them for awhile. The bus ride was about 30 minutes long. It was mountainous roads that we drove on. The bus had difficulty making the turns if there was another vehicle passing.

When we got to Kempty Falls I was surprised how large it was. The top of the waterfall was above the road several stories high and the bottom of the falls you had to take a cable car down to it. We first hiked up to the top of the Falls and took some pictures. We hiked back down and took the cable car to the lower part of the falls which I thought was the most beautiful. Near the lower part of the falls was several hotels, shops and tourist attractions.

We let the kids paddle boat in a man-made pool of water and play in the falls. We saw one of the largest bee hives hanging in a tree nearby. We also had some snacks from a local vendor.

On our way back to the bus Texil began to walk like a cowboy (legs apart and shuffling side to side) and said “uh oh mom!” I knew right away what he was going to tell me. He had to go diarrhea. We hurried to the public bathroom (which you had to pay for). The Indian gentleman who took care of the bathroom was tickled at watching us. He watched as Texil would holler to me what he needed and I would give it to him (toilet paper, underwear, etc). Finally I just tried to squeeze into the bathroom with him to help him. When we left the man just smiled at us. I am sure that he had seen several foreigners with stomach problems while there.

The drive back to the hotel was beautiful! I enjoyed looking out the window at the beautiful mountain scenery and the different people that we saw. The living conditions constantly baffled me. It was hard to wrap my mind around all the poverty I saw.

When we got back to the bus station we began to walk back to our hotel. The kids were tired and not feeling the best (though they did have a good time on the trip). Tilak to them on back to the hotel and I stopped at a market to buy some fresh fruit, nuts and veggies for the kids, Tilak and I to have.

The kids laid down for a short nap. Tilak went to town to exchange some of our money to rupees for our trip to Rishikesh tomorrow. I sat down and read. When the kids woke I assisted them with some of their homework. We then watched some National Geographic (in English)! We ordered Domino’s Pizza for supper. We all enjoyed some familiar food.

My stomach began hurting that evening and I went to bed early.

We all woke around 7:00am. Kali was feeling a lot better but then I began to feel badly – stuffy and achy probably from all the pollution my body was taking in. We ordered room service and ate in the sun room of our room. The hotel had corn flakes that they served with warm milk. After breakfast the kids and Tilak left to ride the cable car to Gun Hill and I decided to spend the morning in bed.

At Gun Hill there were more beautiful mountain views to see. There were also man-powered kid rides. Texil found several magic stores there as well and Texil found himself some “treasures” there. When they returned to the room they were thrilled about their magic toys they had bought and we spent a couple hours playing in the hotel with them.

We decided to eat a late lunch. We all left the hotel to find a place that we would hopefully all like. We actually found a Domino’s Pizza! We were thrilled about that. Above the Domino’s Pizza was an American-looking coffee shop called Café Coffee that we decided to check out. It was the cleanest restaurant that we had been in and the furniture was modern. They even had a western toilet with toilet paper!!! We decided to eat there. They had French fries and the kids were thrilled about that. The food was good.

We rode on some cycle rickshaws around town after we ate. When we returned to the room the kids played with the magic toys and Tilak and I went to the sunroom. He read to me. It was relaxing.

I then decided to walk to the market and buy some fruits and vegetables (apples, bananas, carrots, nuts) for us to snack on when we needed something to eat between meals. When I returned we took the kids to play on the hotel’s playground and Tilak and I walked around the gardens. The hotel owner came outside with a small puppy and the kids and I cuddled it for awhile. We decided to eat in the Dining room of the hotel that night. They don’t serve supper until 8:00pm though. We went back to the room to wait until supper and the kids fell asleep. It was too late to cancel the meal and so we woke them and had them come to the dining room with us. Kali slept through dinner and Texil was too tired to eat and so once again we had a lot of food that was going to be wasted. Tilak and I were embarrassed about this. We put some of the food in some napkins and put them in our jacket pockets so that it looked like we ate more than we did.

We went to bed shortly after returning from supper. Texil soon woke with a fever and so I gave him medicine and sent him back to bed.