Hitch-Hiker’s Travel Blog of India

I felt I’d had enough of wandering on the small roads and the countryside, and the road towards Lucknow was the easiest to find, so I ended up heading from Lakhimpur to Lucknow and bypassing the big city by the ring road. In the night I ended up in some small village, with no place to stay, night falling and a crowd of curious people gathering around me. It didn’t take long for the local police to take interest in me too - the policeman was kind enough to put me on the local India Oil petrol station and telling the workers there to ‘take care of me’. I ended up sleeping on a bed brought specially for me on the front yard of the gas station, after having a dinner of a few mangos and some dahi (=curd, a youghurt-like indian milk preparation, a favorite of Lord Krishna). I also took a shower with the garden hose right on the front yard of the gas station in the night :D. I’ve slept around plenty of gas stations before (while hitching in Europe), but never was I treated this kindly by the workers - they would give me the office for preparing and offering the foodstuffs for the Lord and in general looked after all of my needs :).

A bit after Lucknow I saw two of the most amazing old temples I’ve seen on this trip. It was a Vishnu temple built about 120 years ago, and next to it a Shiva temple, appearing a bit older. Both were practically abandonded, there seemed to be a few devotees living in the Vishnu temple, but clearly the days of their glory were long gone for both of the temples. It was an amazing oppoturnity to feel the vibes in these deserted temples and take some great photos (will post later).

The next day I went on in the direction of Varanasi, going direct and skipping Allahabad (wich I’ve heard also has strong spiritual energy). The day was full of sweating in the roadside and sitting on motorbikes - somehow I felt a bit more uncomfortable with it than usual, maybe because I didn’t do my usual sadhana (=spiritual practices) in the morning since I had no suitable place in the gas station. The following night I ended up sleeping at a roadside dhaba (=restaurant, with a few beds too, but no rooms) and taking a bath from the water tank. I’ll post a photo of one of these public bathing facilities wich you see all around india - basically it’s a concrete tank full of water and you take a cup and pour the water on yourself while standing near the tank. Sometimes there would be a half a dozen people washing up at the tank simultaneously (and everybody would show amazement to see a foreigner among them).

Today I started from the dhaba, hitched for around 4 hours (starting at around 6, arriving at ten) and ended up in Varanasi, a big city, without a clue where to go or how to find accomodation or anything. I felt that time it would be a good idea to go for the train station and at the station I met some fellow travellers, four backpackers from Spain looking to stay in Varanasi for 3 days. After two of them went through some of the ticket-office bureucracy while I chatted with the other two, we shared a autorickshaw and set off in a search of a good guest house. After checking out three, wich all were turned down by them (being too expensive or not comfortable) we found the perfect place, on a quiet alley, with a courtyard garden and reasonable prices (100 rupees for me, 300 for them).

I’ve been on a fruit fast for the past couple of days and I feel it slowly taking effect, feeling more ‘ethereal’ than usual and more sensitive to movements of Prana(the life energy, also called Chi by the chinese). Taking only fruits and Dahi also keeps me more energetic in the extremely hot (30-35 degrees Celsius) weather - and I have the feeling taking anything heavier would cause trouble with my stomach. The good side about this ‘fast’ is that I can go on virtually as long as I will - there’s a great variety of delicious fruits and combined with Dahi they’ll contain all the nutrients necessary for me. I still wonder about salt - I lose a lot of salt by sweating, and I’m not sure if I get enough of it from the fruits and dahi to replenish.

Now it’ll be only a few more days in India, as on 2th of July my visa to India will be finished and I’ll have to head for Nepal before that. I have a wish of going from Nepal to Tibet, to visit mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva, but it really depends on the mercy of the Lord. Sometimes it’s a lot of red tape before getting a visa to Tibet - although I heard some babas (=religious renunciates) cross the border illegally on their pilgrimages and the chinese government isn’t apparently really interested… Well, I’ll soon find out all about that :D.

I plan to stay in Varanasi for about a week to visit all the most important temples and ghats and get few days of good concentration on my Sadhana. I’m so happy the Lord provided me with this guest house (I could’ve just ended up not finding any nice place, it’s a BIG city and hard to find the few good and affordable guesthouses) wich is excellent facilities for recovering from the few rough days of travelling and doing some sadhana.

Hari Om!

I had a tempting offer while still in Rishikesh, but already packed and resolved to go on that day - a tourist cab driver gave me a ride and on hearing that I travel around by hitchhiking, he offered his hospitality at Rudrapryag, a small town between Badrinath and Rishikesh. I had to say no, since I was decided on heading towards Varanasi. He also told me of some religious community in Rishikesh where he knows the Swamiji running it and told me I could probably stay there for free - another tempting offer. I took his contact info, just in case I’ll be heading back to Rishikesh later :).

I left Rishikesh in the direction of Haridwar and ended up sitting on a motorbike for most of the day. A bit after Haridwar a real estate broker from the countryside offered his hospitality to me and I ended up going a few kilometers from the main road to his village, crossing through beautiful and peaceful dense forest area. It was nice to make a little detour to the countryside.

The next day I went on and yet again the Lord would shower his mercy on me - A steel dealer gave me a ride from where I started to Sitarganj. This ride was exceptionally full of mercy since the distance covered was a few hunder kilometers, MUCH longer than I would usually go in one ride in India. As he was a business representative he was also busy getting from one place to another as fast as possible, wich made me cover much more distance on this day. On top of that, the car had _air_conditioning_, something I almost never see in India (and also something I’m really aching for on the hot days :D). From Sitarganj I turned south, heading for Pilibhit and stopped for the night in a small Gurudwara (Sikh temple).

Day after that I went on until Lakhimpur, a bit bigger town, from wich there’s a bigger road to Lucknow (major city in the area, with direct highway connection to Varanasi). I had left the major highways when I took the steel dealer’s ride all the way to Sitarganj and went on the smaller roads from there on. Right now I’m still in Lakhimpur, as I ended up staying here (in a Gurudwara, again) for two nights and spending yesterday fixing my backpack.

In here the Gurudwara is right next door to a Mataji (Mother Goddess, Durga, Kali) temple and last night I went for the Arati ceremony there. Mataji is one of the major deities in the Hindu religion, the giver and taker of life and the shakti (the energy or power) of the Lord. Also Kundalini, the potential power of humans normally residing at the lower end of the spine, is seen as feminine, and raising her through the six Chakras (=energy centers of the body) along the spine to the top of the head, to the seat of Sadasiva, is seen as the goal of Yogic practices and perfection in some schools of Yoga. I’ve just started to read a good book on Kundalini Yoga (Yoga aiming to raise the Kundalini) by Swami Sivananda. Later I’ll post some links for all of the ebooks I’ve read on this trip.

Today I’ll be leaving Lakhimpur, but I’m still a bit undecided on the direction - and also I haven’t got any idea where to find a spot for hitching, a common challenge for a hitchhiker trying to get out of a bigger town. I guess I’ll go in the direction towards wich I’ll find the spot :D.

I absolutely loved Rishikesh. Many things for wich I was longing in Badrinath were easily available - such as fresh, juicy and affordable fruits, internet cafes and a well-stocked general store, all just around the corner from where I was staying. I could also get a couple of more hard to find things, a tripod for my camera and a proper yoga mat (believe it or not, a good yoga mat is hard to find in most places in India! The rare locals who do yoga usually do it on a blanket). I stayed in Lakshmanjhula, near Tapovan, on the same side of Ganga as the center of Rishikesh. Most of the foreigners - and therefore also most of the shopping inferno and hawkers - are situated on the other side of the river in Lakshmanjhula, not far away to visit but just far enough to give me a peace of my own :). I absolutely loved the family with whom I was staying, they were kind and helping me out in every way. The mother of the family was happy to cook for as she was cooking for the family, so I would get indian home-made food whenever I liked.

Later I discovered there’s also an Iskcon temple called Madhuban in Rishikesh, about 1km from the center, between the center and Ramjhula. Iskcon also has Govinda’s (restaurant), serving a great buffet for 150 rupees (about 2,5 euros). I was super happy about this - the Lord really knows my heart and fulfills all my wishes :). When I was leaving Badrinath the Lord did one of his lilas (plays) on me, as my trousers ‘disappeared’ when I was bathing in the Tapta Kund (holy thermal pond in Badrinath) and with the trousers went my Japa Mala (=prayer beads). Madhuban also had an answer to this trouble of mine, being the only place in Rishikesh where you can get big size original Vrindavan Tulsi (=a holy tree) beads.

One of my favorite places in Rishikesh was a small and quiet beach on the Ganga, also quite near to the place where I was staying. Near to this beach in the forest - or should I say the bushes - there was a Kutir (=small shack or cottage) of a baba (=a religious renunciate) and I ended up going to the beach just about every day and also visiting the babaji often. Near the beach there was also a sweet small island on the Ganga, close enough to cross over to by swimming and with a big cliff, ideal for jumping to Ganga.

I also had a couple of amazing, relaxing ayurvedic massages at Rishikesh. Generally Rishikesh seems to be a ‘wellness’ destination of India, having all sorts of ayurvedic treatments and a good selection yoga classes available. On the Ganga I saw some not so wellness-oriented tourists also - it’s popular to go rafting or kayaking on the Ganga or trekking around Rishikesh.

One day I took a small hike to a nearby waterfall, under wich there’s a water tank in wich you can go swimming. It was a nice walk and a nice place to swim, the surroundings of the waterfall being beautifully green and the water being nice and warm for even a longer stay in the pond under the fall.

One of the most profound experiences in Rishikesh came through a couple of books. Firsty I read Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahamsa Yogananda. His autobiography inspired me to do more vigorous sadhana (=spiritual practice) and also gave me a good amount of knowledge of the astral body and the astral world. I truly recommend this book to everyone, even if you’re not of spiritual bend, it’ll read like a thriller, full of wonders.

The other book was even more profound and enlightening, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Eckhart Tolle has made an amazingly simple and powerful representation of God-consiciousness and God-realisation. This also I would recommend to everyone, even those not interested in spirituality, as Tolle doesn’t much speak about God and even less of religion, just about how to be more present in where you are right now and how to be more consicious of everything.

I’m sorry there’s no photos from Rishikesh. It’s a beautiful place, but I was more concentrated on experiencing the beauty rather than documenting it.