North To Haridwar... (via very long bus ride on my last EVER sleeper bus!!) April 12th-13th

 Yes, I had said, "Never again!" after the last one, didn't I!??! Unfortunately, though, the sleeper bus was the ONLY means by which to travel north, from Pushkar to the next destination of Haridwar. Trains had a waiting list a mile long, and flying was too expensive... and not convenient (would have involved another grueling bus ride back to Jaipur!) So... I grinned and bore it. But barely. It was yet another night from hell. This time, 14 hours worth!!! The driver had these crazy, multi-colored flourescent lights on all night, which the curtains would not block out, so the sleeping mask stayed on my face for the duration. Being toward the back of the bus, the bouncing and jouncing was SO terrible that my body was flung about constantly on the bunk. I counted that I banged my head-- on the side of this coffin-sized compartment (and that is being generous!!!) or the top of it about 9 times! Yes, I actually started counting, it happened SO very frequently!!  He also was a horn junkie and blew his horn CONSTANTLY! Those bus air horns are SO very loud!!  I only know I slept a little because I remember dreaming...otherwise, I would have doubted it. It was sheer torture, utter misery... and this time really WAS the last time!!!

The only truly good thing about this journey was meeting a Brazilian woman by the name of Marilia. We spent a good deal of time chatting, and her company was most pleasant! She decided she would join our little party (consisting of the swami, Manakshi and myself) and tour Haridwar and beyond together. I was most pleased, as I never stopped feeling like a third wheel around the other two.

I somehow held it together enough to manage to mostly enjoy the touring we did once we got there.  However, the business of trying to find a decent place to stay for the one night there proved to be QUITE the nightmare, with one wonderful, humorous bit at the very end of the day. 

The story is as follows: 

The swami, who basically never makes plans but only has vague ideas about where he wants to go, what he wants to do there and where places are to stay, came up with the idea that we should stay in this particular ashram (let's call it ashram A, for my purposes here.) So he and Manakshi took one room; the Brazilian and I took an adjacent room. We weren't told the rate but were assured it would be cheap (as the barely tolerable places he finds always are!) The room was dingy, the sheets looked like they'd never been washed, the pillows were rock hard. In short, it was horrible. But...we were tired, hot and sweaty, and at least appreciated the (cold) bucket "showers" we each took. 

Then, the power went out... a quite frequent occurence in India, everywhere! There was little natural light that came into the room, so it was VERY hard to see what we were doing. Then came the real drama: We were told that, once again, we could NOT stay there as the ashram didn't allow foreigners!! Which begged the obvious questions of WHY the swami didn't know this ahead of time, AND why were we not informed of this fact BEFORE we started settling in, taking showers, etc?!? I personally was relieved, I must confess... I was thinking about finding my own hotel room anyhow.

After a frantic and hasty retreat, we piled ourselves-- and mounds of luggage--into a cramped rickshaw (the swami adamantly refuses to pay the slight extra fee for a larger vehicle or car). Off we went, into the countryside, to investigate staying at Ashram B! You may have a hard time believing this (I actually did not!), but this next option was MUCH worse that the first!!! The "sleeping quarters" consisted of a room with a concrete floor in one of those container type boxes, with a tin roof, broiling hot, no windows and great hordes of flies buzzing about everywhere!!! The swami, crazy person that he is, made a big to-do about how there were nice breezes flowing in from the surrounding green pastures and nearby river... how the (absolutely horrible!) bathroom stalls were a short walk away... how we could all bunk down cozily together on the paper-thin mattresses (probably totally infested as well!) and all for... what? free??! Who cares! you couldn't have PAID me enought to stay there!

Now, mind you, it was hot, I was exhausted, we had shlepped all over Haridwar visiting different ashrams, unpacked and packed again, had very uncomfortable rides in rikshaws and so forth...and this was the last straw. I declared I was going back to Haridwar by myself, and would find a nice, comfortable hotel room to myself!

I booked what looked like an acceptable enough place...the swami then told me I would have to walk to the main road--quite far!-- to try and find a rickshaw back to Haridwar, as they weren't available where we were, far out in this rural area! BUT! he said, IF his Guru across the road (in Ashram C) were in residence, and IF he were in a good mood, then PERHAPS the four of us might be able to stay in one of his guest rooms there!!! Seemed like a lot of "ifs" to me, and I adamantly stuck to my plan, avowing to go back even if I had to walk there! (too far, of course!) 

As it transpired, we met his guru--one certain "Hanuman Baba"-- who sat on his bed smoking a cigarette, while a handful of his devotees sat below him on the floor. He was in his 80's...for a smoker, seemed to be in reasonable shape, but was unremarkable otherwise. He didn't speak a lick of English, so the swami translated for him. 

The upshot was that I had to beg for some food and water (I was given a small portion of their lunch leftovers of rice and dahl, and one of those stupid, two-swallows bottle of water) and then beg the (emotionally cold and pissed off) swami to help me get a ride back to town. He very grudgingly did so, berating me all the while, telling me that of COURSE we could stay in his guru's ashram in nice beds, and why hadn't I just believed him/trusted this when he told me it was so?!?! (Yes, gas lighted for the umpteenth time, as all of it was a big MAYBE, but he spoke as if it had been a definite, and he NEVER intended for us to stay in Ashram B, but only just to store our luggage there!!!) 

Having to cancel yet another online English lesson (this has happened countless times when I have traveled with him and Manakshi, because of the craziness, dramas and lack of sufficient planning), I was relieved when I was told a rickshaw was coming for me, but then HORRIFIED when I saw what came:  a vehicle already packed with 3 women and their babies!!! Beyond belief. I protested loudly, but was told I had no other choice, so take it or leave it!! I took it, of course, crammed in again and miserable... with yet another driver who didn't speak a lick of English.  

It was a great relief when he finally dropped me at the hotel, but the relief was short-lived. It turned out that the hotel was on a very major, very noisy, road... AND very near the train tracks! In short, unacceptable. So I had to then scramble to find another, that would hopefully be in a quiet area, and grab another rickshaw driver. I did so... and we proceeded to drive all over Haridwar over the next hour or so, because he was simply incapable of locating this hotel! He must have stopped a half-dozen times, solicited at least twice that many people for help...all to no avail. The phantom hotel was NOT to be found!! In exasperation, I finally said take me to ANY hotel!!! But he didn't understand, and instead called the police!!! Yes, much to my horror! I thought that HE thought I wouldn't pay him, or get out of his rickshaw, or who-knows-what he could possibly have been thinking! The police DID come, and they spoke English, thankfully...and one of them was quite a nice fellow!  What happened next was that they gave me a motorcycle escort to three different hotels, in the hopes that one would be acceptable. 

The first had only one room available...but was a smoking room, so not possible. The second one had no vacancy. The third--the "charm", as it were-- seemed reasonable and I grabbed it, without looking very carefully, as it was a good price, seemed decent enough, and I was so exhausted (being 10:00 at night by then) as to be beyond caring. 

I SHOULD have cared! The room was filthy (didn't look like they had bothered cleaning it at all!!), the owner, a crazy drunk, who shouted in the hallways... I had to ask for it to be cleaned, given new sheets (the ones on the bed were stained and disgusting, as were the pillow cases), etc. 

Finally, in a stupor, I fell into bed and slept. It truly was a night and day from hell, and I was SO glad when it was over!!   (The only redeeming features of the day being shown in photographs below!) 

At the hotel, after being escorted there by Haridwar's finest! The officer to the left of me was the nice one, as you can tell. The other guy next to me was my determined, conscientious rickshaw driver! The fellow just in back of me was the drunk hotel owner!

Earlier in the day: we paid visits to a few ashrams. We met this first guru (first photo you see below), whose name I don't recall, but was a very interesting, appealing man who spoke excellent English and had been to California. 

The third ashram we visited served us a great lunch! Everyone else wolfed down their food... I ate at my usual pace and savored the food until they kicked me out--to allow in the next wave--with only half of it finished. Most distressingly, I had to feed the remainder to the cows!!!

Taken at the ashram where we ate: Marilia with a sadhu who resided there. Very friendly fellow!

Lovely temple at this ashram

Cute little girl hanging out there with her mother. 

Temple interior

At the ashram feast: the swami, Minakshi, Marilia

Yours truly, followed by a long line of sadhus to my left! 

The wonderful food we were fed, half of which I was, most distressingly, forced to leave to the cows!!!

The nice-looking lobby of the hotel I finally landed at, thanks to my police escort and the perseverance of my rickshaw driver! But that was the nicest aspect of the hotel... the room was a dump, and the drunk owner was fairly nasty to me the following morning...