Those in this city still devoutly call it Bombay.

Those elsewhere call it Mumbai.

Call it what you will, it’s the rock’n’roll capital of India – the centre of Bollywood – the glam city – with enormous wealth, enormous poverty, enormous charisma.

A whole different energy to all the other places we’ve been to.

We’re here for a huge festival tomorrow – Ganpati – when literally millions of people will take gigantic paper mâché statues of the Hindu elephant God Ganesh down to the Arabian Sea and immerse them in the waters off Bombay.

Some of these statues will be two or three stories high, and will take a dozen men or more to carry them.

This will be my third Ganpati. And I will be taking our group into the madness and hurly burly of it all.

Today Marie left us early to return home to France, for pressing work reasons. It was very sad to see her go.

After breakfast, we did some sightseeing of Bombay – the famous Gateway of India / the Colonial Victoria Railway Station / the massive, and fascinating, Crawford Markets /

We had lunch at one of Jennifer and my favourite haunts – The Tea Centre. We could have been back in the time of the British Raj!

In the late afternoon we headed off on foot to visit the famous Haji Ali mosque, situated on a tiny island about 300m off the beach, accessed by a raised concrete walkway.

On the way we found a small community that were preparing their Ganesh for the ceremony tomorrow –

Possibly because of Ganpati, there were hundreds of thousands of people there, everyone pushing and shoving to get to the mosque by sundown.

Even though it was at times uncomfortably crowded, it was beautiful nonetheless- and those of us that went inside the mosque were moved by its energy.

Today was a free day – nothing structured.
But it turned out to be extraordinary.

For most of our group, the morning was spent having Ayurvedic treatments of various kinds – massages, oil treatments, diagnostic session, and someone even had an Ayurvedic enema!

Afterwards, over lunch, she told us all about it…

A lot of us simply had the ashram’s Ayurvedic doctor determine what our “dosha” was – our Ayurvedic body type: Vata, Pitta or Kapha.

Here is a link to the various Ayurvedic doshas, and what they mean…
Ayurvedic doshas – 

Once you know your dosha, then according to Ayurvedic medicine, you should eat certain types of food, stay away from other types, same with drinks, and so forth.

Evidently I’m a Pitta dosha.
According to Deepak Chopra, that means I have these characteristics:

Pittas are usually of medium size and weight. They have excellent digestion, which sometimes leads them to believe they can eat anything. They have a warm body temperature. They sleep soundly for short periods of time and have a strong sex drive. When in balance, Pittas have a lustrous complexion, perfect digestion, abundant energy, and a strong appetite. 

Pittas have a powerful intellect and a strong ability to concentrate. When they’re in balance, they are good decision makers, teachers, and speakers. They are precise, sharp-witted, direct, and often outspoken. Out-of-balance pittas can be short-tempered and argumentative. When pittas are overstressed their typical response is, “What did you do wrong?”

Tick, tick, and more ticks.
Except for the short-tempered / argumentative bit.

Most of us on this tour spent some time in the Ayurvedic clinic, and all would say it was money and time well spent.

After lunch – which was spent in our regular cafe that is on the banks of the Ganges – we then split off to do various things. Some of the women had their hands henna-ed. Lynda though wanted to find the original ashram where the Beatles hung out in the late 60s.

Remember their Indian phase, when they all went off to meet their guru, Maharishi Mahesh? And the world was introduced to the sitar, and Transcendental Meditation? Well they went to Rishikesh, and to an ashram not far from where we’re currently staying.

So Dale, Lynda, Marie, Jill, Rachit and I headed off to find this ashram – now overgrown and abandoned. I took my iPad and played Magical Mystery Tour as we walked!

It was so cool.

Dale and I walked together for a while, and he recalled that he was in the armed services in Vietnam when all this happened, and the Beatles music was so important to the servicemen. He said they knew all the lyrics by heart.

After about 2kms walk we got to the ashram, and it was freaky.

It was overgrown and abandoned. It looked like Hobbit-town. We found the hut where George stayed – Hut Number 9. Remember that song on the White Album – Number 9? That’s where it comes from…

I had to leave early because I’d been seconded by the ashram to be their official photographer for the night’s aarti – a special occasion to celebrate the signing of an accord on pollution at the UN, in part instigated by the big boss of the ashram – Puja Swamiji Chidanand.

After I left with Jill, with Lynda following, Dale and Marie evidently went further into the ashram and discovered rooms where they painted, posted graffiti, wrote some of their lyrics on the walls etc.

Before I left though I took a photo of us all sitting on a bench outside the Number 9 hut – where the Beatles must have sat and played guitar and dreamt of the songs they were later to compose.

Incredible.

I then had to race back to begin photographing the aarti. Here are some shots as Official Parmarth Niketan Ashram Photographer!

I’ll have to put that on my CV!
Here are some shots…

And here are some shots I took after the ceremony was over –

I haven’t been able to post these past couple of days.

The ashram doesn’t have wifi.

Nor does it have alcohol.

Nor does it have sausages.
Or any kind of meat.

In fact there’s a law that decrees that alcohol and meat are banned within a 15km radius of Rishikesh.

Which means no egg and bacon breakfasts – and no beer of an evening…

That’s ok.
This is a holy town.

It’s been a full couple of days since I posted last.

Yesterday we went on a walk from one suspension bridge across the Ganges to another – a trek of about 2kms – and along the way we explored Rishikesh.

The ladies also spent a good deal of yesterday having Ayurvedic treatments – and came out fairly glowing.

And yesterday afternoon we attended the Parmarth Aarti ceremony, which happens every day, and is renown throughout the world.

It involves singing chants to various deities, and lighting of lamps and fires as offerings to these deities, and to eliminate darkness.

Here is some information on the Aarti ceremony –

Aarti ceremony / wiki

Because Jennifer and I filmed at Parmarth last year, we were given VIP treatment last night – thanks to Laurie Larson, who is Sadhvuji’s assistant. Sadhvuji and Swamiji are in NY at the moment, at the invitation of the United Nations to formalise an agreement concerning pollution.

These folk don’t just sit in their ashram and chant mantras – they get out and change the world. I noticed this sign on my walk yesterday, and it summed it up…

At the culmination of aarti last night our group was handed the lamp, the diya, which they swung in time to the very rousing music.

Here are some shots I took yesterday…

We are now at Rishikesh, in our ashram. 

That sounds pretty cool huh? 

After a week and a half of five star luxury, the creme-de-la-creme being the Taj at Chandigarth, which was  over the top opulent, we are now in ascetic digs. 

Real ashram living. 

But, the rooms have AC, ensuite bathroom with a proper western toilet, and a view of the Ganges! 

What more could someone on a spiritual tour want? 

But – gasp – NO WI FI!!!!

Oh well…  Luckily I have a local SIM card for this iPad so that’s how I’m posting. But I can’t post any of the shots I’ve taken with my camera – only very ordinary shots taken with this lousy iPad camera…

Rishikesh is a dry, vegetarian town. At least where we are. No booze of any kind, and the restaurants don’t serve meat, or even eggs. Some don’t even sell diary. Black tea folks! 

The ashram itself is beautiful. 

And so too the very powerful energies coming off Mother Ganga. 

Right at the moment Jennifer is having a full Ayruvedic massage and therapy treatment – 90 minutes for Rs2100 – which is like US$32. The other ladies are lined up to have a session too. 

The rest of us are going for a walk following the banks of the Ganges back towards the town of Rishikesh. 

Should be fun. 

Will post more later. 

Edited with BlogPad Pro

It was a longish drive today to Chandigarh.

We stopped for morning tea in a small joint – while they made genuine chai for us, with the spices and all –

Marie and Britta, finding themselves both dressed in white and blue, being the colours of Greece, then proceeded to do a Zorba the Greek dance out on the terrace!

After morning tea and before we got on the bus I lined everyone up for a “The Usual Suspects” shot.

We drove a few more hours, then stopped for lunch at a dhaba – which is kind of like an Indian roadside diner.

We had a glorious meal of tandoori naan, dhal, roasted curried vegetables, biryani rice, and paneer in a sauce that I’d not had before, and was truly delicious. 

More food than we could eat came to Rs2000 – for 8 of us, that came out to Rs250 each, which is like US$3. That’s also including mineral water and tea.

We kept driving and came to Chandigarh mid afternoon. Jennifer wanted to go see a very famous Rose Garden straight after check in – it’s 40 acres, and it was situated right opposite the hotel, so we walked over.

Three women on a bench caught my eye. Principally because they bookended the bench – with a young lass on the left on her mobile, while an old woman sat in a wheelchair on the right.

I asked them if I could take their picture and they agreed.

It turned out the old lady WAS old – in fact she was one hundred years old. I took her photo and she told me I was a handsome man.

I later told this to Marie. She laughed and said that’s why she’s lived so long – because she loves life!

(This post is only halfway done – and it’s late, because the internet at the hotel in Dharamsala is not working sufficiently well for me to post photos… sorry!) 

Today we ventured outside of Dharamsala –

Firstly, we visited the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, which includes a museum of Tibetan religious artefacts and works of cultural significance.

Some of us walked down the long steep hill to the library.

Marie wanted to buy an umbrella from a Buddhist monk, who didn’t want to sell it to her because he said it was old and broken. Marie was insistent, not because it was likely to rain (it never rains on my tour! 🙂 ) but because she wanted it as a walking stick.

She offered him five hundred rupees (Rs500), for the umbrella, which you could probably buy in a market for Rs100. The monk didn’t want to take that much money, insisting that it was old and broken. But Marie was insistent. And those that know Marie know that when she is insistent, she gets what she wants!

She bought the umbrella, for Rs500, telling the monk that it was a donation to the community. Five minutes later, she tried to open the umbrella and it broke. Which delighted her because she could then strip the umbrella part off and use the stem as her walking stick!

We had previously filmed at the Library last year, and luckily the monk in charge remembered me, so he opened up the Archive stack which contains all the scriptures and religious and philosophical writings – some of which date back more than two thousand years.

He kindly opened up a manuscript that was 1700 years old. These scriptures were sneaked out of Tibet after the Chinese invasion in 1959. The Chinese were determined to destroy all things religious – and tragically they destroyed Buddhist monuments and temples that had stood for many centuries.

Upstairs from the stacks there’s the museum, which houses items of cultural significance that were smuggled out by monks during the invasion, and carried across the Himalayas in secret to Dharamsala.

In the afternoon we went to a Buddhist Temple out of Dharamsala – the magnificent Gyuto Karmapa Temple.

Janet found it to be a place for contemplation –

So too Marie & Jennifer –

Later we went to another temple, which is also a showcase for Tibetan Arts & Crafts – the Norbulinka Temple complex..

Tomorrow we have a “free” day – a day just to wander around Dharamsala, do some shopping. go back to the Dalai Lama Temple, and just allow time to absorb all that we’ve experienced so far.

The tour tomorrow will be half way through, and already it’s been quite amazing, and very affecting for some of our guests. But there’s more to come!!

Today we hopped our bus and drove five hours into the foothills of the Himalayas – to Dharamsala, and the Dalai Lama Temple.

After a hair-raising trip at times up steep mountain switchbacks, narrowing missing oncoming vehicles hell bent on self destruction and taking someone with them, we finally arrived at our beautiful hotel, then proceeded to quickly head off on foot to His Holiness’s temple.

On the way we met two Tibetan Buddhist nuns – elderly ladies – who stopped and greeted us warmly, each one of us. We were touched by their act of grace.

The Dalai Lama is not in residence at the moment – we think he’s in London – but it made the visit to the temple no less profound.

There were some young monks chanting in the forecourt, and we sat and listened.

It was mesmerising.

On the way out we found gigantic prayer wheel in a small room decorated with handprinted mandalas, hundreds of years old.

Janet and Britta in particular found the whole experience really moving…

Most of us had a late breakfast, then we trundled down in tuk tuks to the Golden Temple.

The Golden Temple is perhaps the most sacred site for the Sikh community possibly throughout the world, and to enter the complex you’re required to cover your head with a turban or scarf.

I would not profess to be an expert on the Sikh religion, by any means, but I like what little I know of it. It’s a very inclusive religion, in that they respect all over religions. It’s also a relatively new religion, instituted in the mid 1500s by a Guru who laid down the principles by which Sikhs should live.

They are a proud, strong people, known for their honesty and bravery, and their fiscal expertise. They make good soldiers and warriors, and because they handle money well,  you often find Sikhs in banking and finance or CFOs.

After the Golden Temple, it was lunch time and Jennifer and I took the group to a cool little joint that we’d discovered on our scout – a fabulous place that only the locals know, which specialises in Punjabi food.

That’s us down the back –

I wandered into the kitchen, and I could have stepped back a hundred years… It’s no wonder the food is so good, because it’s all made the traditional way.

After lunch some of the girls did some shopping, some rested, until it was time to go to the crazy Wagah Border ceremony. on the Indian / Pakistan border.

The ceremony is done every day two hours before sunset – and both Indian and Pakistani border security forces strut their stuff and huff and puff at each other as the sun goes down and they lower their respective flags for the night.

The crowds are huge, even for a mid week ceremony –

After dinner, it was shoe shopping for Jennifer and Janet – in Jennifer’s favourite Punjabi store, selling the traditional jutis.

It was a good, but exhausting, day!

Got in late last night – didn’t hit the sack till 1:30am (writing up blog, reading, working…)

Woke up at 6:30am and went straight down to the Golden Temple.

Had to see it in early light…

Today we go to the temple again with everyone, then there’s some shopping for uniquely Punjabi cloths, shawls, and shoes! – and then this arvo we go to the Wagah Border ceremony. on the India / Pakistan border. It’s insane!!

More later, but here’s one of the shots I took this morning…

Today was all about the Taj Mahal.

We woke up early and were down in the hotel lobby by 5:30am. Shortly after 6am we were standing in line at security to get into the Palace of Love. Our aim was to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.

And it was sublime.

Although in this picture it looks more like the Leaning Tower of Taj …

Nothing can prepare you for your first sight of the Taj Mahal.

To see it “for real,” after seeing it in so many photos and tourist posters and in magazines, well – no photo does it justice.

That’s why I took a photo of a dog.

Here are a series of shots I took of our group. Everyone was slightly intoxicated by the sheer beauty and magnificence of the place.

Marie loved it –

She even did some yoga there!

Jill fancied her footwear, which she thought was very chic…

I sat down and watched the sun come up over the outer buildings…

We took the mandatory group shot before heading back to the hotel –

Now we’re on a train to Amritsar, and tomorrow is The Golden Temple.