Rishikesh exploration...

January 26th

Awoke this morning to the sound of kids yelling outside. Many, many kids. I guess that’s part of the celebration today. January 26th is Republic Day, kind of like India’s “4th of July”. It’s another sunny, nice day. Yesterday fooled me. I’ve been having restless traveler dreams the past few nights. Last night, I dreamt I couldn’t find my backpack, but decided to go on without it – I would just buy things when I got to wherever I was going…
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I saw a funeral procession today. They walked past the car on the way to the Ganges. The people in front carried the body on a wooden stretcher covered in white cloth and flowers. People behind them threw flowers and lots of people behind them carried wood and branches for the fire. No one cried. I took no pictures – it just didn’t feel right to.

I got the bright fuchsia lipstick again today – should have guessed, since I guess it goes a bit “better” with my purple outfit.

(I'd since wiped off the lipstick by the time this photo was taken...)

We went down to our “favorite” restaurant. I was happy to have the dal today instead of the beans of the last two days. We had chai, and then we drove down and across the river to just across from our hotel, in the Lakshman Jhula Bridge neighborhood, which is where we are staying, (just on the other side of the river). We stopped at a few of the shops there, and walked a bit.

There were LOTS of hippies walking around – and some fake Baba guy – I call him the Ganga Baba – stopped us to see Mike’s ears, and then offered us “Indian price for marijuana” – we politely declined.

We crossed the suspension bridge – jhula – (you can see the shadow of the bridge here) - it bounced as we walked, and people were riding their motorcycles and scooters across, so we had to keep getting out of the way. I pissed a monkey off posing underneath it – I thought it was going to jump on me and bite my face off…

There was a sign that said this suspension bridge was the first “jeepable” suspension bridge in the U.K. (well, the sign says U.P. – Uttar Pradesh – but I thought we were in Uttar Kand (?) – it really doesn’t look wide enough for a jeep, but who knows.

We went back to our restaurant and had chai, then went back to the hotel. Mike and I went out to use the internet (after I washed my face off ), and we stopped at a bookstore/yoga supply place and got a mat cover and two pillows – really nice.

-I finally got bananas and oranges today! 50 rupees for 4 of each. (No Yak cheese, though...)
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Hukam and Lata came back to our room – Sandy was back from Varanasi and wanted to talk with us. I was busted for washing off my makeup – but I’m glad that Sandy’s ok. She said Varanasi was great – like Venice, but more confusing.