Back in Delhi again

I got back from Rishikesh last evening after spending 7 hours in a very confined space on a local bus. Although it wasn't too bad since I also had a travel companion for a change, Eric a Canadian guy, really nice and funny, was also heading to Delhi, so we arranged to go together. We passed most of the time listening to music. We also made a futile attempt to play Abalone, but after one bump in the road, all the balls got all jumbled up, so we dropped that idea :)

We got into Delhi about 6 pm I think. We then spend some minutes inhaling exhaust from the hundreds of buses passing by us while we tried to find a rickshaw that didn't try to rip us off.

In the end I think we just took one that kind of ripped us off anyway, but really when you look at it its not that much money after all. Eric was going to Pahar Ganj, so I shared the rickshaw with him till there. From there I walked up to Connought Place where I found another rickshaw who actually knew where South Extension, the place I live in at the moment, was. It is pretty far from the centre, so not everyone knows where it is. I have realized, even if they say they do they don't. I have had quite a few trips where we have spendt 20 minutes going in circles with the driver asking about 31 different people where south Extention is.

Well, Rishikesh was a really great place, although FULL of Israelis (if I hadn't known better I could just as well have been in Israel. So the first night (ah...I just got some birthday cake...mmmm..Im in Sonal's office and one of the women here has her birthday today and they made a surprise party - nice :)

ok..so about the Israelis. The first night in Rishikesh I think i ended up in the Jewish Quarter or something, everyone was speaking Hebrew around me. So the next morning I moved hotel and although there were still a lot of Israelis I could hear other tongues (not that I have anything against them, but they are usually in big groups and it can make you feel a little excluded if you are not extremely outgoing...as me:) I did talk to a few really nice Israelis though, its just a bit easier to approach people when they are alone or in smaller groups.

I also met Eric, from Canada and Kaz from New Zealand. One day we went for a hike up through a valley, following a stream. It was really beautiful and peaceful, but the hike was pretty steep and it was very hot, so after a couple of hours I was completely knackered. So we basically just sat down in the middle of this steep path. I was just totally empty of energy and about to overheat. So Eric ran (!?) (yes, that did make me feel very out of shape!!) further up the path to see if there was anywhere where the hill might flatten into a valley, but that didn't happen, instead the path just suddenly stopped. So since we appeared to be a bit off track we sat down had som water and nuts before we headed back down again.

It was a very good hike and it was great to see more than just the centre of Laxman Jhoola.
I also strolled up along the Ganges a few times, there are some nice sandy beaches along there.]]I didn't take a dip though, damn, I regret not doing that!! hm...well at least I got a good reason now to go back there sometime later ;)