How to get a bad back.

After a good nights sleep, and breakfast, got a tuk tuk into Rishikesh. Off for a bit of exploring and orientation. Got down to the banks of the Ganges and followed it from ghat to ghat. 

A ghat is a sort of platform and steps that go down to the river. All sorts of ceremonies take place from these ghats throughout the year, including funeral pyres. Had a paddle in the Ganges. Got mobbed by kids who wanted us to buy flowers in  small baskets to float down the river as some kind of offering (Puja). Took all my 10 rupee notes (80p worth). Ended up with 8 baskets!! We floated one and gave them the rest back.

Enqired and researched for white water rafting. Hmmm, looking at equipment, helmets, life jackets, rafts (much patchwork repairs), and series of pictures portraying terrified rafters, decided on health and safety grounds, and shear common sense to leave our rafting until New Zealand, yo ho ho. Also Ganges not the purist of rivers...

Did a bit of shopping. Yvonne brought a scarf. You can't have too many scarf's!! 

Arrived back at High bank. Yvonne convinced me that a massage is what was needed. Good move!!?  Well let me tell you all about it... Ayurveda Massage. I think they use it in Guantanamo Bay as an 'enhanced' interrogation technique.
Some parts were OK, like when I wasn't being massaged. Some parts weren't too bad, and other parts were just painful. I began to regret the whole thing when the masseur started to slap me around the head and use his fingers to separate individual muscle groups in my neck and shoulders!! At one point I was about to confess to being a jihadist. The interrogation lasted an hour.
Yvonne enjoyed hers ' oh I feel all relaxed'. Ha!!

Went to Mama's guest house for dinner, just across the way. No place set aside for dinners, Mama just asks if you've come for dinner? A table and chairs are produced on the veranda, you sit and a vegetarian thali is placed in front of you, (3 different dishes, plus rice, chapatti, water followed by a glass of marsala tea), 70 rupees each, plus a little extra for the bottle of water. (1 rupee = 1p)

Leave you with a picture of Yvonne in the Ganges. Mike being mobbed.

Next post 'Agra'.