Hello Mcleodganj

I have finally left Rishikesh after spending most of my time there since late August. I will return in 2-weeks though. My guest house manager who has been so sweet took me and my luggage by motorcycle across the Laxsman Julia suspension bridge. It was wild! The bridges are about 4-feet wide with lots of human foot traffic. Cows camp out on the bridge and it is impossible to get by. They should really not allow motorbikes. My luggage kept knocking people over due to narrowness of the path. There was a troop of monkeys on each side of the bridge at about eye level traveling in the opposite direction as us so I had a clear view of their eyes. Many were moms with their babies on their backs. The babies hang onto the mother's belly.

I took a 10-hour train ride in the night, then a 3-hour private taxi ride to Mcleodganj. It is not a good idea to arrive anywhere without a reservation at 5:30 in the morning! The train ride was good, thanks to Tylenol PM! The only place open was a dive with a not so friendly guest house host. I crashed for a few hours and just woke up and had a delicious breakfast next door. I'll explore the town shortly. So far I don't see any cows,(probably won't see many, not sure what the Hindu population is here). But I see lots of dogs, mostly Tibetans and some tourists.

My last few days in Rishikesh were nice. I was a bad girl and drank vodka tonics on my deck with an American neighbor I have seen several times for dinner. I pulled out the laptop and we listened to "The Police", while drinking and viewing the holy Ganga River!

A highlight was a crowded yoga class. During the relaxing portion of the class, at then end where you lie in Shivastana, corpse pose, the instructor starts playing the Sitar. It was priceless!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my classmates from Italy, was also taking additional classes in Indian Relaxing Massage. She wanted to practice on me. My first time to get massaged outdoors and on concrete! I had brought my laptop, but you couldn't hear any of the music because of the loudness of the taxi stand across the street! But I enjoy just about any massage and for free is even better. She did a good job for her first ever massage!

My last night in town I went to the Ganga Aarti Ceremony (religious Hindi ceremony held nightly on the river) with the American lady who takes care of the animals. There was free entertainment after the ceremony by a Colombian Sikh who was here for the expensive Kundalini Festival. He was playing his guitar and singing about 4-people away from us. All the sudden my friend yells, "Toni give me some biscuits". I looked down, and some how a dog she had tried to find earlier to give medicine to sneaks past security and finds her sitting in the crowd. Security guards come over and pull out a stick to beat the dog. She gets in the middle of them so they can't. She starts yelling at them and we get the dog to follow us out with the biscuits as a ploy. I thought we were going to have an international incident over it! But thankfully the dog will be okay. His ear was almost bitten off my another dog in a fight and she is giving him antibiotics. I saw him in the road asleep earlier and he looked pretty pitiful.