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Here we are, our last day in Rishikesh. Time has flown by and I can't believe our trip is almost over. At first I hated, wait that's a too strong word.. hm.. disliked being here and thought I'd be relieved to be back on the plane and wondered to myself why the heck did I choose to come here? Luckily that feeling very quickly subsided and I ended up loving the country. Now I feel a bit blue about being back on the plane so soon and can't wait to return. It's been a wonderful experience and these last days in Rishikesh have been superb.
Rishikesh is said to be the world capital of yoga, so that's what we've been doing here. Every day we do yoga classes in the morning and evening and I could easily be doing this for at least a couple months more. Basically the day is very simple. You get up, do yoga for 2 hours, have breakfast, chill (read a book, get a massage, go for a walk, take a nap, play cards), have lunch, chill again, do yoga again for 2 hours and have dinner, chill and have an early night. Perfect. I've really enjoyed the yoga classes. The teacher's good, the group is nice and small, so our teacher has time to help everyone, when we do the difficult asanas (different yoga poses). I'm pretty pleased with myself that I managed to do the headstand, which is called the king of asanas. At the beginnig and end of all the classes we do chanting, like the typical om mantra, then om shanti and a third longer one. The teacher also instructs us by chanting, which at first I found funny, but now think it will be weird to do yoga in Finland, where it is more physical and less spiritual.
It's nice and peaceful at the mountains and I'm enjoying the simple life, but getting here wasn't that simple.. It took us about 17 hours to reach Rishikesh from Jaipur. First we had to wait for ages, since the first bus had been in an accident (never a good sign), then the other bus finally got there and we managed to get seats, or sleeperseats as they call those seats here (it's almost like a normal bus, but on top of the seats there are beds, which makes the ceiling really low in both parts, so either your sitting at the normal seats or lying at the top bunks, but either way the ceiling is pretty close and you get well acquainted with it on these bumpy roads). I was quite pleased that I hit my head only a couple of times on this long journey, because this other bus journey we took, we were right at the back of the bus and it was constant head banging.
I've read loads here which has been great since I never seem to have time in Finland. It's not necessarily that I don't have time, I just always get stuck in front of the tv, even though most of my books (but not all, I'll be the first to admit) are far better than anything on tv. I've read books about travelling and living in India and Gabriel Garcia Marqueses short stories (which I've found more strange than magical) and then I've squeezed in two Nicholas Sparks novels. I know they are chhesy and repeat themselves, but they're my guilty pleasure.. I'm on holiday after all. We've also taken to playing cards almost nightly and it's always the same game.Obviosly we are not very imaginative but it's also a highly addicitve game. It's called Canasta and I keep beating Liina in it. She keeps on defending herself, by saying that always when they are a team with dad they win, but that just means that dad has to be really really good at the game then..
One thing funny about India is that it feels like it's inhabited by men only. Everywhere you go it's only men. The shops, restaurants (also in the kitchen), cafes, massage centers, yoga classes, travel agencies, anything basically. And there's always so many of them and they seem to be doing nothing. (Except when the soaps are on, then they are glued to the tv). You walk into a tiny travel agency and there are five men sitting around or last night, as we got back to the hotel there was a group of 10 men sitting on the stairs, they looked like somekind of welcoming committee. In the beginning it took some time to get used to it and at first it felt a bit intimidating. Like this one time I walked past a shop with ten men lingering around and inside the shop, so I really wasn't that tempeted to go in, but then I saw this cute dress hanging there, which I just had to have, so there wasn't a choice, just had to brace yourself and step inside. And prepare to answer the questions "what is your good name?" "are you married?". Everyone seems to be in a shock when they find out that I'm 25 and not married. Note to self: Must do something about that before I return to India. The only time I've really had any contat with Indian women was at the cooking class. Of course you see them around town, but not as much as men.
Our last weekend we'll be spending in Delhi and I'm confident that this time we'll enjoy it more. I'm also really looking forward to meeting the daughters of dads Indian professor friend, so it'll be great to spend some time with the locals.
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