Windsor...the Snake

Ben decided he would spend a Saturday morning clearing the forest up at Flag Hill in order for his bouldering area to be more accessible. He happened to find a baby russels viper while he was working away. He also decided that he would bring it home to show me.

I of course didn't want it in the house, so Ben made him a little house to spend the afternoon chilling in.

Ben also decided to name him Windsor due to the prenamed container. We later released the snake down from our house, and yes I mean "we", I also got up the courage to poke it with a stick, and it did try to attack us with one of those pouncing moves!

Rishikesh by the quarter

This month has been filled with many exciting adventures and visitors, so much that we have been too busy to update the blog. In my search for the first of the adventures, Rishikesh comes to mind. For our hard deserved quarter break (a 4 day holiday) we ventured to Rishikesh with our dear colleague and friend Paul. We left on the Friday after lunch and caught a taxi to the Dehradun bus station with two other Woodstock staff. Below is a picture of Emerald waiting eagerly for the taxi to arrive at school.

 After finally reaching Dehradun we made our way through the hussle and bussle to the local bus station. We made our way through the crowds to purchase our tickets for the bus to Rishikesh, but we were informed that we must purchase them once we are onboard the bus. So we made our way to the allocated platform and boarded the bus, it was surprising to see that we were three of about ten other passengers - this didn't last long. As we pulled out of the station we were bombarded with what almost represented street riots with a mass of people running towards the bus with great haste. At any moment that the bus would slow down, there would be two or three more passengers jumping on board. The ticket Walla made his way through the bus and asked us to pay. We were shocked to find that the ticket for the 1.5 hour bus ride cost us a mear 33 rupees each ($1NZD). 

At the bus depot

The ride was pleasant with a beautiful forest section where we passed an array of monkeys and ant-hills along the road. Upon reaching our destination we were given the task of haggling down the local vikram drivers which drive a hard bargin. Thankfully Ben was able to use some of his Hindi to drop the price from the inflated joke that it was. We had been recommended to stay at the Bhandari Swiss Cottages by some long term staff at WS. We were a bit disappointed with our rooms to say the least. The next morning we were looking around the nearby property and found the guest house just next door was almost the same but much cleaner and 50 rupees less a night, we ended up checking out of the cottages that morning. We still enjoyed the Cottage's cafe which served delicious lemon, ginger and honey drinks as well as yummy banana pancakes.

Chilling in the warm Rishikesh heat outside our rooms at the cottages

Us happy to be out on the first night in Rishikesh

Ben mimicking Lord Hanuman

The following morning we started the day with some yoga at a near by school. It was great to be in a class with a young yogi whom was keen to share his knowledge with us. Fortunately for us we were the only participants which meant the class was more personalised and we were able to get adjusted and realigned easily. At the end of the class the teacher showed us his most popular and entertaining pose which included has legs crossed around the back of his neck, a similar pose to the picture I found on the internet below. 

 

Ben and I have a running joke which comes from the class we took, the instructor kept reiterating how if we practice yoga for a life time we will become "sparkling", however the instructor couldn't really pronounce the letter l, so we shall become sparking...

Below is a collection of images which speak for themselves

A trio of cows on the road side sunbaking                                 The view from our room

Conversing with one of the many retailers

        

A view of the monkey gauntlet

Chilling with the Sadhus

 

Posing for a photo

A veiw of the ganges from laxmanjula

 

On the laxmanjula bridge

Luxman Jula Temple

 

Incense burns in front of the Shiva tribute

Statues everywhere

The Ganges

Ben and our new singing bowl

Sadhu

Ben on a boulder on the shore of the Ganga 

Artee

Paul with his collection of flowers and candle light ready to release into the Ganga

Lord Shiva and his friends

Food

Amazing dinner at the Oasis Cafe - highly recommended

 Ghatts

The chariot down near the bathing ghatts

The dreaded ganga beach yoga

Yes just an hour before sunset we had to walk along the boulders for 2 KMs to reach the beach

Night time head stands all around

Visiting Savitri

John made a visit to Rishikesh to pick us up, on the way home to Mussoorie we stopped at his childhood maid's residence to say hi. It was so nice to see such a lovely and caring woman. Although she has terrible arthritus she came to the door and walked to the end of her property to see us off.

John with his childhood ayah

Namaste