John Stucky's Page

Any research on travel in India seems to indicate that travel there is sometimes a scarey proposition. The advantage to traveling with Sally is that she has taken all the hastles out of the travel part of the trip leaving you with the enjoyment aspect uncompromised, that is, as much as possible. (An excellent website addressing all things related to travel in India is www.indiamike.com, it is a question and answer forum)
After the 15 hour plane trip, you arrive in New Delhi in the middle of the night. Inside the airport, with a crush of people, you encounter your first smell of India. Not unpleasant, somehow familiar. After getting your luggage, you head out of the airport and see hundreds of people waiting to "be of service" to you. But Sally has arranged to have you met, and you are packed off to your hotel. When you are first escorted from the airport, India hits you like a brick. It's 88 degrees, 1,000% humidity. The dark night air is foggy with a mixture of diesel fumes and wood smoke. It is then when you begin to understand that India is a living thing as much as it is a destination. And in the middle of the night, India is awake.
After a short and fitful stay at the hotel, we were delivered to the train station, in the pre-dawn hours (I believe the offical time was zero dark thirty). The train trip, from Delhi to Hardiwar at dawn is magical. Every 15 minutes (it seems), someone on the train feeds you, or tea's you, or water's you, or snack's you. Just a hint, if you miss breakfast before leaving the hotel, DON'T PANIC!!!
The trip to Hardiwar passes through a lot of sugar cane fields. You can see women working in the fields and driving ox carts loaded high with the cut cane, that you will see again in Rishikesh. Arrival at Hardiwar, has you leaving the train station and being met again by people Sally has found who load you up (after the mandatory picture in front of the big Shiva head) and wisk you off towards Rishikesh.
There is a simple rule of driving in India. If I am a driver in India, it is my duty to pass every person, bicycle, tuc-tuc, cart, car, truck or bus God has seen fit to put in front of me. If this means passing on the left, so be it, or the right, or on the grass next to the road, or over the narrow bridge over the river. But it all seems to work somehow and, at length, you are deposited at the gates of the Ashram in Rishikesh.
I have no idea whether the Parmarth Niketan Ashram is the biggest ashram in town (or towns I should say since "Rishikesh" is a collection of 5 smaller villages), but they say it has 1000 rooms. The grounds are massive so no matter how crowded you have been so far, once you get to the ashram you get to exhale. It is a beautiful location, right on the Ganga. Rishikesh is really the first town of any serious size on Mother Ganga, so the water is "relatively" clean. Batheing away your sins is less risky here then it would be further downstream, but if I dipped, I'd keep my mouth closed, if I were you! I bathed away my sins, up to my knee-caps. I've not heard of anyone in our group who had a problem from their dips either.
Just outside the ashram grounds the SwagAshram area is filled with shops. Books are INCREDIBLY cheap in India. Most of the yoga people in our group pursched a yoga text that sells here in the US for $85.00, for 1,000RS (about $25). Clothes and cloth like shawls, are dirt cheap. You won't have any problem outfilling yourself for yoga classes for just pennies. For instance, printed tee shirts are 50-100RS., a buck or two. What you need to do is buy much more stuff then you think you will ever need, because when you return to the US these will be hugely well received gifts (especially the shawls) for everyone you know!! Also available in Rishikesh in abdunce are malas made from Rudrakesh. Rudrakesh (tears of Shiva) are seeds from a tree. Using these malas to say your japa (prayers) is said to infinitely increase the power of your prayers. The seeds get darker with age/use. Very cheap-60/100RS each.
As for money, most of the local merchants (especially in the big jewelry shops) are just as happy to take dollars as they are Rupees. Some of them will change money for you. There are banks in town but money changing should be the last of your worries. Most large shops take visa or mastercard. and there are several ATM's close to the ashram.
If you tire of the food at the ashram, there are two competing restraunts in town. We ate there one night. Six adults. Ate all we could. Total bill, including a good tip to the waiter, was under $10. Rishikesh is totally vegetarian and you won't find any liquor there either. There are a few places that sell "foreign" food, but it's clearly cooked with an Indian accent. For example, I had lunch one afternoon in an "Italian" cafe. I had pizza. Indian flat bread, with Tomate sause, and tomates, with a very few strands of some sort of cheese stuff. I also had, on another occasion, "Chinese" hot and sour soup. It had cauliflower in it. and was sort of sweet. Indians do HOT well, but they have a problem with sour, which is not, it appears, an especially favored flavor.
During your stay, perhaps the central objective of the trip is working with the orphans. The Rishikumars (orphans at the ashram) are studying to become monks. They are bright and pretty normal boys between the ages of 5-14ish. I suspect they can be a real handful. You will also work/visit another orphanage. This one run by an American lady. She takes in and educates those children who are absolutely helpless/hopeless and she changes their lives for the better. It is a remarkable experience and you will be the better for you work with her.
So forget any negative thought you might have about traveling to a third world country. Sally has made the trip a wonderful introduction to a deeply rich world.