On the May 1st (Day 10) we made our way to Rishikesh. A five minute vikram journey to the bus station from our huts on the Ganges for about a pound followed by a one hour bus journey for about twenty five pence each! Clare was with us here for the first few days before making her way back home to Bury St Edmonds after her refreshing two week break from tending to the poorly, sick and bad. I think she has enjoyed her holiday in India. Am I envious of her returning to British food, normal bearable weather, easy access to a washing machine and clothes in a wardrobe and not a rucsac? Perhaps a bit. But hey I'm in this for the long haul and how much would I be missing out on if I threw in the towel now. Hotel Vashundara Palace, our home for the first few days, was a swish hotel with a bath and constant hot running water, well laundered bed sheets and lots of porters to help you with your luggage, room service and the like. My first bath since the my last in the UK was pure luxury. On the first night we wandered over to the large Parmarth ashram for their nightly 'Ganga Aarti' flame ceremony. It was distinctly different to the experience we had of the ceremony of the same name in Haridwar. Here we were not constantly pestered to buy things and were free to enjoy the goings on. They were far fewer flower baskets being offered into the water and more passing and wavings of the flame torches. We walked around the simple but pretty gardens of the ashram after the ceremony with big statues of the main Hindu gods in the centre and some hundred or so of the thousands of lesser known Hindu gods in glass fronted 'cupboards' in front of which numerous people were paying there respects. Liz thought it the Disneyland of Hinduism. An altogether peaceful and enlightening evening.A crazily early start greeted Liz and I the next morning as we had booked ourselves in for an hour of yoga. After all this is what Rishikesh is famous for. Claire stayed in bed. The locals do this at sunrise so by the time our teacher arrived to us in the hotels yoga hall at 7 o'clock he had already done a couple hours or so of yoga. Our teacher Ghopal, fortunately was a 'spiritual' type of yoga teacher which meant the yoga was not based around building muscles as lots of the western yoga teachers tend to do, in other words it wasn't too difficult! I can now salute to the sun,do the triangle pose, the cobra, tree pose, butterfly and some weird form of star jumps (though I'm sure that's not what they are called in Yoga speak). I really enjoyed it actually; Ghopal interspersed the Asanas(poses) with nuggets of his philosophy on life, which certainly gave us both food for thought. Yoga seems to be all about the breathing and the balancing of the body and the mind. I was super chilled after it; if that's a good enough comment for the happy sheet. Liz was poorly with delayed Delhi belly, apparently her first time despite this being her fourth trip to India, so left me to be sick, to endure some quite intense one-to-one tution with Ghopal! Needless to say we didn't do yoga the following day as Liz wasn't much better though felt healthy again soon after that.Rishikesh was our first real chill out place and the pace of life here was thankfully a lot slower. Claire left on day twelve. So upon taking down the taxi drivers number plate and wishing Claire a safe journey back to England leaving Liz and I to sweat it out in the blazing heat, we checked out of the more expensive Vashundara Palace for its cheaper sister hotel the Great Ganga ( reminiscent of Basil's Fawlty Towers!) Here, we planned the next portion of our trip, booking train tickets and hotels with the help of the ever keen head receptionist Siddarth. Two more early morning yoga sessions with Ghopal (at 8 o'clock here and not 7) we did much of the same and some extra tution on the breathing (called Pranayama). We took a packed out rickety old passenger boat across the Ganges for about five pence each. Oh, that afternoon whilst Liz had a pedicure with Sindhu in the massage hut on top of the hotel, I laid down to at first endure but then enjoy a full ayurvedic facial from Rajesh (a man!). My eyes watered at one point when he began what felt like scapelling the dirt and grime from my nose; apparently he removed blackheads! It was enjoyable after that and for the next week or so I was to look forward to being able to perspire freely. And did it work! I was beading within secs from leaving the air conditioned hotel. Yes it's still blistering hot and almost impossible to go out for any length of time in the midday sun. That evening, Sindhu, the lady who did Liz's pedicure took us to another local aarti cermony at Triveni Ghat. This was similar in style to Haridwar but with out the annoyance of swarms of flower sellers. Sindu then guided us round the food market and shops where Liz bought some earrings and hair clips she'll probably never wear and packets of bindis (the little jewels Hindi's wear on the foreheads) so as not to offend Sindhu. For all its frenetic activity, Rishikesh has been a ideal place in which to chill out.