I GOT IN!!! One of the things I really wanted to do in India was to get into the holy river Ganges. I am not a Hindu but I think their beliefs and rituals with mother Ganga are beautiful. When I was in Varanasi, it was pretty easy to change my mind about getting in, as it's basically a giant Petri dish! However, up here in Rishikesh, very near the origin of the river in the Himalayas, the water is much more clean (and extremely cold!) I had an opportunity to...

There are so many wonderful things about coming to a beautiful spa retreat in the mountains. During the past month, I have questioned the wisdom of being here during the monsoon. I have not been able to enjoy lazy afternoons poolside/beachside as it's either been WAY too hot or raining . So I'm basically as white as when I left home in March, instead of coming home brown as I had expected. The trade off is having afternoon spa treatments, listening to the rai...

Coming down from Ananda to Rishikesh and the Dehradun airport, I was treated to a wonderful monkey turnout. At every turn of the road, there were families of monkeys, mostly resus macaques although there were some groups of common langurs too. It was as though they were all coming out to say goodbye to me!! Driving through the national park, I was scanning the forest for the elephants that live there, although, due to the heat, there were none out in the day. ...

The peacock is India's national bird and I've seen several in the wild in both India and Nepal. They are stunningly beautiful and most incredibly noisy!! There is one here at Ananda that likes to prance around on the lawn below my balcony. His calls are so loud and very constant. It seems perhaps he's looking for a mate but I think it's late in the year for that, and I haven't seen him with his tail all fanned out so maybe he just likes being noisy!!

Day 2 began with a 5am wake up so I could join a hike to the local Kunjapuri temple (lord Shiva). I have been missing the mountains and the beautiful scenery I enjoyed during the earlier trekking portion of my trip. When I signed up yesterday, they were very insistent on explaining this was a TREK not a HIKE, so to be prepared. I thought, yeah, right. Compared to "Nepali Flat" I'm sure this will be a breeze! I won't even be last to finish!! Famous last word...