Rishikesh

So I'm still in Rishikesh, the world capital of Yoga. I discover new Ashrams every day, there must be hundreds around here. But for Yoga-class I stick to mine. Opposite my guest house there's an Ashram that offers classes in the morning and the afternoon. I try to go twice a day, but 7:30 in the morning is some days a little too early. It's amazing though how fast your body seems to adapt to the stretching and after 3 days I'm almost able to put my hands flat on the floor when bending over... if that means anything to you. Well, it basically means I'm getting pretty lean! ;-)
The Yogi (= Yoga-teacher) is funny and very energetic. He's very small and skinny, with a long beard. This sounds old, but he's actually younger than me. He wants us to smile all the time and I do, because watching him and hearing his funny accent makes me laugh. And now he thinks Belgians are happy people! He doesn't learn names, he gives us numbers. I was number three, but he calls me 'Belgium'. For some reason it is the only country he can remember and so I guess that's better than being a number.
Apart from Yoga and meditation there is not a lot to see here. I visited all parts of the city and also some of the temples. Rishikesh is an important city for pilgrims. And so every day from 6 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon (that's when it's light) hundreds of pilgrims pass through Rishikesh. All going to the temples. But for some the highlight of their visit to Rishikesh is seeing Westerners. The Pilgrims come from all over India and some from pretty remote places. They have never seen Whites before, so they tend to spend more time staring at us than looking at the temple. When I visited the temple yesterday, I was the only White there and so all the Pilgrims asked to take pictures. It's not allowed to take pictures in the Temple, but the guards gave them permission to use their camera's because it was for taking pictures of me. Hilarious situation!
And I have breakfast near the taxi stand and sometimes when there are a lot of Pilgrims waiting for a taxi they stare at me drinking coffee. I think this is how animals in the Zoo must feel; dozens of people standing around in a circle watching your every move, taking pictures and today even feeding me! A little boy came to give me popcorn...yep, just like in a Zoo! :-)
I'll be staying here one more day and then I'm ready for the next step. I used this week to heal from my cold and to get my eating and sleeping pattern in order. Now that I have and my body is lean enough, I will be trying to get to Mumbai. But it's not as easy as I thought it would be. All the trains are full, so I'll have to put myself on a waiting list and hope people don't show up. Anyway... I'll go back to Delhi first and then see what my options are. But everything in India has a way of working out, so I'm not worried. And if I really can't get to Mumbai... I'll have to stay here and live in an Ashram! Haha!