Finding yourself in less than 72 hours

This morning Ale and I woke up early (930 am) to check out of The Unnamed Hotel and go to High Bank Peasants Cottage in The High Bank. We quickly acclimated to our new environment and enjoyed breakfast with our fellow hippy backpackers. Ale had to jet out early because she had signed up for a massage class the previous night. She really wanted to learn how to perform proper massages. When we were in the shop, the guy was trying to convince me I should also take the 2 day course, I kept saying no as he dropped the price lower and lower. Lets be honest, this girl loves getting massages, not giving them. So Ale headed off for her first class solo and just as I was leaning back a little farther into my chair, enjoying my chai and book (Life from Scratch), Ale comes back and asks me if I want to be the model for her massage teacher to show her how to massage.

The next hour consisted of me being massaged as Ale took notes. I'm a good friend, I know.

After my massage, Ale and I headed down to our favorite restaurant, The 60s Cafe, for some relaxing. Then we crossed the Laxhman Jhula pedestrian bridge and explored a whole new world! Ram Jhula is on the other side of the Ganges and I started to (almost) feel like I was in my zen zone. All it took was a couple shops playing Enya type music. We explored the next 3 km of shops and guest houses and realized that this side of the river (Ram Jhula) is where it is at. At this point, we decided that maybe we should stay in an ashram and really experience Rishikesh.

So, since apparently this side of the river was where the ashrams are at, we went searching. The first ashram we stopped into, was really dirty and men were smoking and I didn't think I could find my zen there. Ale and I discussed our expectations again and I told her about the happy, clean little yoga studio in Amelia Island that I frequent when I visit Marshall, that is decorated so pretty and plays pretty music and has pretty people teaching yoga. After once again realizing this was not what Rishikesh was about, we boiled it down. We were about to graduate medical school and we both wanted to find ourselves. You know, that whole "I'm finding myself" while doing yoga and meditating. Preferably in less than 72 hours.

So we continued on. Next, we found this really touristy (Parmath Niketan) ashram that I had read about that had good reviews. Except, have I mentioned that The International Yoga Festival starts March 1? Because this ashram was not accepting their normal crowd and instead had sold out their entire ashram to tourists who dropped $600 US dollars for a week. And it's not like we could sign up then or would have ever shelled out that much mula.

We then saw a sign for "Phool Chatti" ashram which also had decent tripadvisor reviews and called them. They had a 7 day retreat starting at 3 pm the next day that sounded like our best option yet. It was a little more than we wanted to spend at 8000 rupees($160) and we would have to miss a couple nonrefundable days because we needed to be back in Delhi for Norah (!!!) but it definitely sounded like what we wanted (over the phone.)

While we were perseverating about Phool ashram, we got a phone call from another ashram we had seen a sign for while we were walking. We had just briefly seen the sign. The ashram itself was up the hill and looked a little more secluded. The sign had said "by appointment only", so we had called. The lady on the phone was a little bit (aka totally) unfriendly and was asking what I wanted. I said we were interested in a 3-4 day retreat type stay and she said their minimum was one month. We had completely forgotten about this until she called back several hours later, saying she had been busy at the time we called and that we could come on over to see if we liked the ashram. Hmm.

So we headed back towards that ashram and found the random sign again, and made our way up to this really neat old building. First, we were greeted by a man dressed in a long orange robe. He asked us what we wanted and at this point, Ale and I realized we were being interviewed. He explained that this ashram is for experienced yogis who want a retreat. No cell phones or wifi, probably not even any books. This was about meditation and yoga. He talked with us for 20 minutes and then after possibly passing the test, he brought us to his daughter who then explained more to us about this ashram. She showed us photo books of his crazy yoga poses, letters from places he had studied across the world. Ale and I gave each other looks... Maybe we can find ourselves!!!

They eventually agreed to show us one room that was available and despite it not being exactly what I had envisioned (which is nonexistent), it was quite cozy (I'm being generous). They still were interviewing us, not convinced we were serious about this. Ale gave them a very good sob story about us graduating medical school soon and that we would working so much next year and we really want to come to grasps with this. It was quite beautiful.

So we agreed to come back again tomorrow at 3 pm to practice yoga with him. At this point we will all reassess and see if this will be a good fit for us both. It sounds quite possibly, exactly what we want. I'm almost positive I want to stay there, but Ale is a little unsure. So only time will tell...will we even pass the final interview? Are we flexible enough?

Pictures:
In the picture of me on the massage bed, please note the brown box in the background. This is the infamous steamer from my post in Kerala about our massages. Remember, I sat in one of those boxes with my head sticking out for 20 minutes? Also, the next two pictures are at Parmath Niketan. They have this touristy ceremony each night where they put flowers in the river as offerings to the gods and we happened upon it after being rejected from the International Yoga Festival.