Back to India

After completing my 7 days at the Panditarama Meditation Center I was off and on my way to the Indian border to begin making my way towards Delhi and Rishikesh. While making my way to the middle of Lumbini to pick up the local bus to take me to the necessary stops, including Bhairahawa and Sunauli, the town right at the border. I found out the local bus was of course on strike so I would have to resort to another way off making the 22 + km. back to. I was able to get a bicycle powered rickshaw driven by a scruffy and very lean Nepalese man who didn't look as though he'd have the power to bike myself and my over-stuffed baggage for more than 10 minutes. However him and his beaten down and rickety bike were able to cycle for over 2 hrs through the country side and villages of Nepal to the border. Its amazing the power and stamina these old skinny men possess, as they have probably been riding the rickshaw bikes for half their lives. Riding through the country was magical, with all the Nepalese kids running out of their humble homes, typically consisting of huts and makeshift shacks, to wave at me and yell hello. The country has some of the friendliest people I have ever seen living in such poverty.


My meditative calm from 7 days of meditation and the peaceful ride through the countryside was immediately disturbed upon crossing the border back into India. The crowds were immediately multiplied many times over and the madness and touts were instantly back in my face. Fortunately the busstop I need to get to wasn't too far off, not more than 100 meters, so I was able to get there and get myself onto the first bus to Gorakhpur, which took over 2 hrs and was absolutely jammed packed with Indians crammed into every last space.

In Gorakhpur I bought a train ticket for Delhi, a 13+ hr ride in a sleeper seat where I fortunately was able to lie back and relax during the overnight journey. Made it to Delhi and had to deal with the hassle of buying a bus ticket for Rishikesh, another 6 or 7 north. Its a real pain buying from the Indian ticket dealers as they are always quoting highly elevated prices for foreigners and trying to rip you off. The first place I went to inquire about tickets I was kicked out of as they didn't appreciate my calling them out about elevated prices for travelers. My patience was already a bit thin from the past 2 days, lack of sleep, and dealing with the madness of Delhi, India's capital and one of there biggest cities. Perhaps I provoked them a bit in being asked to leave, at any rate I didn't care. I checked out a few other ticket places and finally bought one. I just wanted to get out of the city and its crazy masses, insane pollution and piles of garbage, and onslaught of the overpresent touts trying to interest me in their services and goods. Maybe another time I will spent a day or two in Delhi, just not this time around. My bus left within an hr and I was on my way to Hardiwar and eventually Rishikesh, a supposed hr north of Hardiwar and considered the yoga capital of the world. The roads were floading along the way from the onslaught of the monsoon rains but eventually I made it to Rishikesh that evening, after nearly 27 hrs of almost non-stop sitting.