Yoga and the Mountains
After a train and bus trip to Rishikesh- where we wanted to look into a Yoga retreat- It wasnt till we got there and we didnt like what we saw we headed onwards and got a overnight bus to Dharamsala- the home town of the Dalai Lama living in exile! We rocked up into town along with Katie from Wales (who we met along the way and convinced her to come too), at the unearthly hour of 5.30am (and the air was so cool- no humidity at all!) then had the trouble of finding a room. It seemed that the whole place was packed as we were turned away at evey guesthouse! The Dalai Lama was doing some teachings at his temple, and it seemed like everyone was there to hear them! We chose a place with a restaurant and grabbed brekkie while we waited for people to check out.
So we spent the next week here basically chilling out with friends we had made along the way (Mel from our rafting trip in Nepal, Tuti & Eileen from the trek) aswell as new friends (Katie, Jase, Simmo and Haidee) made in Dharamsala. And chilling out was easy to do. We basically only had to worry about where we were going to eat next and to make sure we were at our Yoga class at 4.30pm each day! Our Yoga classes were a classic- the last two classes I had the giggles as our teacher chants at the beginning with whats sounds exactly like 'boring'!! It was funny times. Tuti and Eileen went missing for 5 days- in a Holistic Retreat Centre and came out feeling all 'healthy, energetic and light'- aswell as full of tips on what to eat- and what not to! My favourite tip is to chew 32 times before swallowing your food.
The feel of Dharamsala was very much like a little community, with Monks walking the streets amongst the travellers and Tibetans. It was great to get our hands on some tasty Momos again! In a way I felt like I was cheating by being here as it was no way at all like the 'real' India. It was not hot, crowded, full of tuk tuks and thier drivers, or many Indians at all for that matter. All the shopkeepers were Tibetan. It was full of Yoga and Meditiation reatreats, had many volunteer opportunities and other classes such as Reiki and cooking. You could honestly stay there for months.
Before we knew it a week had passed so it was time to head to Delhi. We said goodbye to all our mates (Tuti, Eileen and Mel- see you in Thailand!) especially Katie who I found a really good friend in. Your a legend, girl! And off we went of our 'deluxe' (yeah right!!) bus to Delhi...
