When I wake up I feel like a new person. I slept a good 10 hours and feel refreshed and relaxed. Last night I did a one-week beauty regimen, so hopefully I’m looking a little better, too. Took a hot shower and shaved (well, up to my knees), tweezed my eyebrows, filed my nails, put on some teeth whitening strips and wiped down my pack. After doing laundry today I will have washed the last week out of my wardrobe and hopefully cleansed my mood a bit, too. I have decided that I am not going to let my emotions get the best of me again; I am done crying because while this is hard, I am going to appreciate it in the end and I will never have to go through this again. Case closed.
After accidentally sleeping through the morning yoga class (which turned out to be canceled, anyway), I meet a nice British guy at breakfast, Bhavesh, and we decide to walk the path to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram (where the Beatles met him and wrote the White Album). He’s here for the yoga course starting next week, and I think again about how it might be nice to stay for that. Rishikesh really is fairly peaceful when you aren’t having an emotional meltdown, and between him and Holly and the others I’m sure I could meet here, it might be nice to stay a while where I have friends. And I confess I would be very interested to really dig in and study hatha yoga and meditation. I’m going to have to give this more thought.
The Maharishi’s ashram is pretty well in ruins; it was taken over by the government 40 years ago when there was a land dispute between them and the yogi and they haven’t maintained it. The guard wants Rs50 from each of us to go in and see it, but that’s not going to happen. Bhavesh thinks he could have gotten us in for much less if he had walked up speaking Hindi (he’s of Indian heritage), but we remember not to let that happen again as we deal with vendors and touts.
So we turn the other way and follow the same path around Rishikesh I trekked yesterday. We talk about relationships (his crazy ex-girlfriend is Lauren, oops) and traveling India, the same topics I’ve talked about with everyone else I’ve met that never seem to get old. As we loop around Rishikesh, we find we have a lot in common: first time traveling India extensively, first time traveling alone, same age and conundrum about more school vs work and interested in learning more about ourselves through the challenge of our travels. He’s nice company and thinks I should stay for the course he’s taking.
Well, here’s my conundrum: the yoga course is quite long, 10 days, so I would have to miss at least 3 cities on my itinerary altogether in order to take it. I think that after even a couple more days in Rishikesh I would be feeling recharged and ready to tackle the second portion of my trip (and I have managed to meet people in every city so far, so I have no reason to believe this trend wouldn’t continue). I don’t think I would return to India just to go to Jodhpur, so skipping some places would probably mean I don’t ever see them, if we’re looking at this pessimistically.On the other hand, there are some great reasons to stay. Obviously, knowing other people here has been a big boost to my morale and overall mood. I would really like to learn more about yoga and meditation in an authentic setting, and my day would be pretty well devoted to studying and practicing, which sounds heavenly. I could certainly save a lot of money by staying here rather than moving from place to place. And Rishikesh truly can be a very relaxing city, despite my turbulent first day here, and I can picture myself walking up the river with a book and spending a lazy hour or two reading on a rock with my feet in the water.
I devote most of the afternoon to flipping through my guidebook and looking at my itinerary. I can hear Holly in the back of my head saying that I need to just stick to my plan and go for it, but I can also hear Oke saying that I should only do that if I’m totally sure I can handle more days like yesterday. They’ve both got a good point, and like a good Indian Buddhist I think I’m going to follow the middle road: skip Orchha and Lucknow and give myself 4 extra days in Rishikesh. This will be enough for the first 3 days of the course, and while I feel a bit like I’m cheating, I’m just not willing to miss my chance to see the blue and pink cities of Jodhpur and Jaipur (no matter how insane they’re rumored to be). I hope this is a wise decision!!
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