rishikesh

last weekend we took another excruciatingly long train ride, this time we went north to rishikesh - the yoga capital of the world. it is a beautiful city divided by the ganges river, united by a couple narrow, over-crowded bridges. the first thing we did when we got there was walk down to dip in the ganges (to purify our souls). it was absolutely freezing so we settled for dipping our hands in. that was all the purification any of us needed :)



while the three gents of the group did their own thing, the six of us ladies walked around and shopped. i found myself spending a large part of the afternoon in a jewelry store getting my palm read. he started out with some lame statements that could apply to just about anyone, but then he started saying things that were so true it was creepy. like that i can't drink wine (i'm allergic to sulfites in wine), and that i shouldn't smoke because i might get asthma like my mother. now i'm fascinated by palmistry.



we all met back up again at five to go to a yoga class right by our hotel, in a floor to ceiling window-paned room overlooking the ganges. our teacher was unbelievable- even the boys enjoyed the class. actually, i think they liked it more than the girls did.

at night there was a wedding party going on right in front of our hotel, so we got to see the groom ride in on a white horse and all.
on sunday rachel and i did more exploring while most of the rest of the group got massages. then we had a lovely seven hour "express" train ride home..