Rishikesh - Life in an Ashram

After flying for an hour from New Delhi to Dehradun, a taxi picked me up and drove the 16 kms to Anand Prakash Ashram in Tapovan area. An hour later I was settled into my room and off to my first yoga class in the Ashram. Yogrishi Vishvketu is the guru here known also in Edmonton for his teacher training at Prana studio. He and the Ashram have a good reputation and I like the Akhanda yoga style.

The Ashram in Tapovan, Rishikesh

There is a nice schedule here - a 5:00 am bell, meditation 5:20 to 6am then the first yoga class 6 - 7:45, fire puja at 8,  breakfast at 8:30, lunch at 12:30pm, yoga class at 4pm and dinner at 6pm. Meals are all vegetarian, tasty and they use organic foods prepared safely. It is not as quiet here as I would like with construction, people, cars and motorbikes. I am sharing a room with a Mexican who gets up at 4:30am, has a shower and talks to himself, probably some mantra. My hips are aching from lots of yoga and sitting in Sukhasana (cross legged) for meditation, yoga and meals!

Fire Puja ceremony area

One of my favourite meditations is a coffee meditation! I walk quietly to the German Bakery near Laxman Jhula bridge for a latte - no stimulants at the Ashram - and walk quietly back, satisfied. Also, no meat, no alcohol, and silence from 9 pm until after breakfast. Students are in week 4 of their 300 hour Teacher Training as well as a few of us travellers dropping in. Mantras abound, it is relaxed and free time in between the scheduled items to wash clothes, clean the room, read or catch up on email.

Laxman Jhula bridge

Agra

We drove for about 5 hours from Jaipur to Agra today mostly on good roads which made my driver, Victor, go even faster. My life passed before me only a handful of times!! Cars, tractors, motorbikes and tuktuks often go into opposing traffic! We stopped about 40 kms from Agra and paid my 500 rupees to enter Fatehpur Sikri, a red sandstone Fort and palace on the way to Agra. A really good example of Mughal design. I can't believe the number of Muslims and mosques here in Rajasthan. I have heard calls to prayer for several days in Jaipur and today in Agra. Apparently the Mughal empires followed the Muslim faith. I get the feeling the Indians do not like them much. Must be some history of conflict or a caste issue.

The Taj Mahal

I finished the day by visiting the Taj Mahal at sunset. It is closed on Fridays so we went to a park on the back side...it is just as impressive from there and saved me a 5 am start in the morning!

Fatehpur Sikri

Amber Fort and Jaigarh Fort

As mentioned in the last post, we drove 11 kms out of Jaipur to see the Amber (Amer) Fort near the the town of Amer which was quite impressive. Many elephants were taking tourists up to the Fort which was quite a scene. A huge and well designed fortress with battlements, palace rooms and even Turkish baths.

About another half hour up past Amber is Jaigarh Fort. The views were great in spite of the heat haze. Finally we stopped to photo the Jal Mahal in the lake near Jaipur.

Jaipur

After a few relaxing days walking around Pushkar, we drove to Jaipur, stopping at a McDonald's on the way! After eating traditional Cambodian, Thai and Indian curries, a taste of home was welcome! They even made a decent coffee. After checking into the Heritage Palace hotel, my driver dropped me off for the afternoon at the City Palace - Pink City, a disappointing series of empty rooms.

I made my way to nearby Jantar Mantar, some huge celestial instruments for astronomy. Apparently they have amazing accuracy! Then on to the Hawa Mahal, a palace cooled by winds flowing through numerous windows. Probably the best one in the city.

The next day we went out early to hike up to the Amber Fort in Amer, about 11 kms out of Jaipur. Once completing the hike up and touring, I hiked the rest of the way to Jaigarh Fort further up the hill. It is another fortress the has an inner palace, armoury and a great view back to Jaipur city. Area hills have protection walls running up and down them similar to the Great Wall of China!

Pushkar

A 7 hour drive from Delhi brought me to Pushkar in eastern Rajasthan. It is on the edge of a desert and is hot during the day and cools to 16 at night. It is built around a small holy lake which is totally surrounded by temples and their bathing ghats. Pilgrims come from all over India to bathe in the holy waters especially the Brahma Temple, apparently the only one in the world. The lake is peaceful and all of the temples reflect the sun! There is an old, relaxed but busy feel to Pushkar. Some rules: no shoes, no leather, no meat, no eggs, no alcohol...oddly many shops sell leather goods and you can still buy beer quietly from certain hotels! I am happy, there is one good coffee shop - Sunset cafe.

There is a familiarity to Pushkar...like Kathmandu, the same goods for sale, the same little shops, same dirty streets, motorbikes, people, many cows, birds, pigs roaming everywhere, and touts at every temple entrance to try to rip you off.  Perhaps due to the desert proximity, there are camels for hire, all for tourists of course. It is a small town and one day would be enough. Off to Jaipur shortly!

Hello Delhi

Covered a few kilometres over the past few days...we boarded the bus to Phnom Penh and caught our flight back to Bangkok. This was the finale for our fun group! All going separate ways with great memories of Cambodia....except the incredible humidity and heat. Even +30 C in Bangkok was a bit more bearable as it is a dry heat. I made my way to the Bangkok airport and caught a Thai Air flight to Delhi. Met up with my agent Rishi, who set me up with a hotel room, a car and driver.

Visited three of the top sights in Delhi - the Red Fort, a former residence of Mughal emperors completed in 1648; Humayun's Tomb, built in the 1560's and final resting place for the emperor Humayun; and the Lotus Temple, the Baha'i temple built of marble in the shape of a lotus flower.

Highlights of Cambodia

It is hard to believe it has been almost two weeks touring Cambodia with the G Adventure group. We have seen so much and had some good exposure to what Cambodia is all about. Here are some highlights -



Sunrise at Angkor Wat in Siem Reap

Eating fish amok, a traditional fish dish cooked and served in a banana leaf in a private home

Rice fields everywhere

Water festival with fireworks, The Blue Pumpkin Bakery, and cycle tour in Phnom Penh

Cockroaches in some rooms, not many mosquitoes,

Boating on the Mekong river to see the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins

Rare super moon - closest to earth in 80 years at Full Moon

The Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, the prison, now genocide museum

Boat trip to Rabbit Island

Low lights... the continual heat +32C (+38C with the humidity, +24 overnight),

The Killing Fields of Cambodia

Today is November 13 in Cambodia. We remember our First and Second World wars on November 11. It somehow seemed timely today to visit Cambodia's Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng, the Genocide museum - the prison where countless prisoners were tortured under Pol Pot's Communist regime. The most poignant moment was meeting one of the 5 children who survived by hiding in the kitchen of the prison when liberated by Vietnamese soldiers... he was born in 1970 and with tears in his eyes described the loss of his Mom and family except for one brother in this prison of torture. Pol Pot killed 3 million between 1975 and 1979. It was a sad, emotional visit to one of the worst genocides in recent history.

Cambodia

I joined a G Adventure tour and left Thailand a few days ago by minibus for Cambodia. Fortunately we had an air conditioned van as the heat outside just got hotter as we approached the border. The guide helped us through a very interesting process of leaving Thailand, walking across the border, through Cambodia immigration (having paid our $45 USD), took a 5 minute bus ride to join our new bus, waited for porters to bring our luggage and then be on our way again arriving in Battambang for our first night. We rode on a bamboo railway, saw how rice paper and rice noodles are made in the old way.

Yesterday we toured a local heritage home and were treated to a delicious Cambodian lunch of fish, rice, and veggies. Again it was hot when we arrived in Siem Reap. A nice hotel with limited wifi. Thank goodness for air con in the rooms!

This morning we got up at 4:30 am to catch the bus to see sunrise on the legendary Angkor Wat. We had a wee breakfast and the toured 3 different temple complexes in the stifling heat. It rained while we walked through which only increased the humidity. We are all drinking 3 - 4 bottles of water each day.

Bangkok, Thailand

Two days ago I left Tokyo Haneda for a 7 hour flight to Bangkok via Singapore. Just made the Singapore connection and another 2 hour flight and making my way to the hotel in Bangkok on the Bangkok Airport express - all in a 14 hour day!

Bangkok is all about shopping malls and their Wats - impressive Buddhist temples. I visited 3 temples in one day taking the Metro, tuktuk's and BTS trains...Wat Saket (The Golden Mount), Wat Su That, a very peaceful, quiet place away from the crowds, and then took the boat across the Chao Phraya river to Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn. Nearly all temples are under some repair or renovation so scaffolding everywhere. It is quite warm and humid +32C, far warmer than I like.

Wat Su That 

Wat Arun, Temple of Dawn

Wat Saket

Japan Rail travel

Some brief highlights of the past couple of days were riding the Shinkansen, seeing Osaka castle and the Daibutsu, the Big Buddha in Kamakura.

Edmonton LRT could learn a few things about minimal traffic disruption, efficient timing and co-ordination of systems. Here in Japan, as in Europe, China, etc the rail systems work like clock work.

JR rail pass is a great way to travel around. In the past few days I have taken the super fast Shinkansen (up to 200 kilometres per hour) to Nagano and Osaka. Many other trains to Asakusa, Tokyo, Kamakura and Zushi.

Shinkansen bullet train