Rishikesh

A couple weekends ago i travelled to a city called Rishikesh which is built near the mouth of the Ganges River. Really an amazing place, everything seemed worthy of a photo. Also supposedly a really holy place..no liquor stores open, no smoking in public etc..Went down with a small crew of people (we were only 5) which was a nice change of pace from the huge groups ive been travelling in...got in pretty late friday evening so we just did a quick tour around, got some chow and headed to bed nice and early...saturday morning me and the other dude i was with David got up at the crack of dawn to snap photos...the town is amazing in that there are two bridges that connect the city across the Ganga, with mountains in behind so we wanted to get shots of the sun hitting one side in the morning and then the other in the afternoon...Rishikesh had monkeys all over the place! Theyre really cute at first then you see them running after people, stealing food and staring you in the eyes plotting to strip you down to nothing haha

Saw the Best incorrect spelling of my stay so far. I am beyond mature. Me and David were sitting in a roadside restaurant eating breakfast and hed just put back a bottle of Coke. He looks at me and says - look at the Cold Drinks section - the menu was painted on the wall...I read - Cold Drinks (Fanta, Cock, Limca, etc.) 12 Rupees. haha still kills me, when will i ever grow up haha

Highlight of this trip was definitely the Beatles Ashram. We were cruising around this wicked little area that housed a free school, place for homeless to eat, gardens, yoga centers blah blah when a random little man came up to us and offered to take us to this place. Werent sure whether or not to trust him but it sounded great so we followed. Apparently the Beatles went to this place in the 80s to chill. Some background on the place - it was created in the early 80s i think as a yoga and meditation retreat. The places that you would stay (which look like stone igloos in the photos) were very minimal having a small room below and a hollow top where you would meditate but the surroundings were beautiful. There was also a great hotel kind of place. Anyway the place became really posh with europeans flying in via helicopter all the time. The local government hated what it was doing to the city and closed the place down. for hte last twenty years it has been illegal to go into this place. After getting there and bribing the security guy at the gate we went into this place. Amazing amazing. It was completely apocalyptic. Covering a huge land area there were these 84 little stone igloo looking things strewn about with grass and vines growing all over. We got to what used to be the hotel part and the place looked like Chernobyl - no windows, paint peeling off walls, stone breaking everywhere it was so cool. Climbing up to the roof there were monkeys everywhere and 4 huge igloo things (what they call Beatles) and you could look out over the landscape. Really a great experience - something that no one else ive talked to had done when going to this place. Check the photos now that youve got some background!

To everyone that has emailed me i promise ill get back to you this week..Its been nuts emailing, posting on blog, writing in my travel journal, talking to people at night - and im gone every weekend and only have a couple hours at night after work to take a load off. Keep em coming ill be much better i promise!!

lots of love