Rainbows in Rishikesh

Udaipur and everything I saw of the desert state of Rajasthan was fabulous. Udaipur is such a beautiful jewel of a city. Our hotel was situated on Lake Pichola and from our balconies we could see the Lake Palace used in Octopussy, as well as a marvellous city view at all hours of the day. Mamaji had a difficult time to pull us away from our balconies for sightseeing or meals. It was all nice and walkable - so long as you kept the Gypsy children out of your purse. It's all pretty palaces and havelis surrounding a beautiful lake. It was a highlight of our centre trip.

Still, I am a mountain goat at heart so C, N & I took 19 train hours to reach Rishikesh, back in the Himalayas. It was a rainy, thundery, sleepy morning surrounded by misty mountains with the glittery green Ganga at our feet so we lazed and wrote. We are congratulating ourselves on picking some of the most beautiful part of the country to be in for rainy days. The grimy Paharganj market area of Delhi with its backed up gutters would not our choice for R & R in the rain. This is our vacation from our structured vacation and we want yoga, massage, clean air and mountains. Did shopping get missed from that list? Oh, and shopping. I might even see an Ayurvedic doctor for a health consultation or see Sri Mooji again or, heaven forbid, get up at 5:30 for yoga with Vishva.

We did have a bit of Rishikesh magic: after gorging ourselves on momos, soup and salad at Little Buddha Cafè, the sun decided to rejoin us and brought with it a rainbow.