Himalayas or Bust

Travel can be hard, exhausting at times.  Some people come back from their vacation saying, “now I need a vacation from my vacation”.  

I’ve experienced most types of travel: solo, family of 4 camping trip, traveling with your friend to some remote 3^rd world country, girls’ trips, travel with my nephew, travel as a group, you name it, many combos.  

My friend Sue from the UK called me this morning.  We work together and over the past 15 years of traveling together for work, we have become great friends.  She was prompted to call because we were FAMOUS, again!

For years, we joked about wanting to be Bollywood stars (for anyone that does not know Bollywood is India’s version of Hollywood) when we were in India. Friends of friends are actors in Bollywood, so naturally, one thing led to another and before you knew it, we were doing takes for a public service announcement.  Topic: SPITTING.  Yes, in India spitting is a problem and apart from being gross can cause health issues.  So apparently, they released OUR video again.  

2 SECONDS OF FAME, MILLIONS OF VIEWS, SIGN THE CONTRACT

Sue said to me, “I think I’ve done more on trips with you than anyone else I know”.  We began to list some of the things we have done and places we’ve visited over the past decade and a half.  Snowmobiling in Iceland (Her husband came along too), Sweden, London, Camel Safari, backwater boat trip in Kerala, Andaman Islands, Kashmir (I do not recommend especially now) and of course a few Indian weddings.  Our trips certainly have not been mainstream.

Just before the pandemic I was in India for work and added on a 4 day vacation. Sue and I headed for the Himalayas.  I had been dreaming of visiting the factory that makes my skin care products, Forest Essentials 

We had it all planned, visit the factory, do yoga, spa treatments, shop and chill.  Now neither of us had been to this far corner in North East India, so we didn’t know what to expect.  

Rishikesh is the YOGA capital of the world.  Now one thing about traveling in India, you can get very luxurious accommodations for a fraction of what you pay in the states and the service is generally amazing.  We were staying on the Ganges (holiest river in India) which flows from the Himalayas, past the Taj Mahal and dumps out into the sea in the south. To get to our hotel it would be an hour-long ride on some of the most “interesting roads” (don’t worry we hired an expert driver).  Dirt roads on the side of mountains.  Hair pin turns. Goats, Cows, Landslide, oh my god that bus is headed right for us!  There was a lot of road construction and you literally looked down a cliff when you pulled off to the side, so a large transport could pass.  There were many times we would just lean either left or right, doing our bit to try and help the car not go off the side of the road.  

The hotel was lovely, but slowly all the activities we had planned like the factory tour went bust. Not allowed. The Forrest Essentials Spa was open though, and it was lovely. So, we took part in an Aarti (HIndu Prayer) on the Ganges, the service was great, had the most amazing ginger honey tea and biscuits and just chilled.  

But you know, it’s Rishikesh, THE yoga capital of the WORLD.  Hello, we need to do yoga!  After arranging with the hotel “BEGINNER YOGA”, our teacher came to the deck near our room for our lesson.  Idyllic, overlooking the Ganges, yoga, I mean really!  This should be a scene in Eat, Pray, Love. We began, breathe.  I can handle this; breathing is one yoga move I can do. Well it quickly escalated to let’s stand on one’s head and twist yourself into a pretzel.  Um, I think something is lost in translation, what happened to the beginner breathing part?  Sue gave it the old college try because she hasn’t taken many yoga classes, I sat there and refused and laughed at our situation.  Laughing and trying to do yoga, not a good combo.

Still we tried and had the experience.  

I guess the point of my blog is, GO ON THE ADVENTURE say YES to new experiences. Say YES to WOMENTS either solo or with a friend.  Whether it’s in India on the Ganges or in your own back yard it doesn’t really matter.  You will LOVE IT and if not, you will have experienced something new!

Namaste!