Day 8 - Rishikesh

Another day, another futile search for an elusive place mentioned in lonely planet.

I started off the day by visiting the Hotel Great Ganga, aall the way over the river, for breakfast in their posh, air conditioned cafe with views of the rushing Ganga.
Unfortunately the day was sunny, and I had forgotton to put on suncream, so my face erupted in freckles (niiice).

Afterward I bought a cheap camera and, slightly embarrassed by my touristness, I wondered back to the hotel, taking a few snaps as I went. I chickened out of asking the crazy snakelady for a picture, although the poor thing was probably doped out on opium (the snake, not the lady). Luckily I have found picture on t'internet for your viewing pleasure (left)

Anyway, after I got bored of taking pictues I decided to attempt to find the ashram the beatles stayed in. It was not, as I've originally been told, the swarg ashram, but in fact the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram. The ashram of pebble-dashed huts and buildings is abandoned and decaying after the organisation decamped to Holland, so it's location was not mentioned in the lonely planet. However I asked one of the crazy american ladies, who said I had to "walk about a km along the ganges" but didn't say which way before doddering off - it's needless to say that I spent half an hour walking in the wrong direction! Sigh - try again tomorrow.

And, to complete my cycle of dopishness (these things come in threes you know), I returned to my room to discover that I had dyed my favourite white top light blue after leaving it in to soak it with a new scarf. Rats. However this did have the side effect of making the existing splodges of pink (achieved by walking in the rain with a new maroon wrap on) a more attractive shade of violet.