Alan Brown

New town. New yoga teacher. From Yorkshire funnily enough. I found him a bit English. Remote. Discouraged questions. And it was reflected in the group of students. Not as warm - or maybe I had lost the urge to integrate myself with everyone after 2 months of travelling. However I learnt a lot from him. He was particularly aware of his own chest and shoulders and brought a new awareness to that area of my own body. We also did some gentle pranayama - breathing exercises - in the evenings, some of which I will carry into my meditation practice.

Surrogate family

Bumped into Julie - with whom I did the 10 day buddhism retreat - and Kaya (left), whom we had met in Amritsar. (India is a very small place if you're a tourist.) Then Edwin (right) rejoined us, and a couple of Julie’s mates from England - Pete (middle) and Sally. My surrogate family. Allowed me to be very lazy. After yoga from 6.30 to 9.30am, would spend the days like this, playing dominos, eating, reading, sleeping.

And pigs

Sunbathing

No monkeys here for some reason. But cows still. Who all hang out on the beach all day sunbathing. Occasionally fighting.

Good sunsets

Life's a beach

Arrived in Goa with an excess of bacteria in my gut after a day of planes, trains and taxis. But nice to be by the ocean. Rishikesh is probably as far as I’ve ever been from the sea.

Portrait

Serious business, having your photo taken. Hooray for squidgital cameras.

Wedding procession

The bridegroom being paraded in a wedding ceremony. Lights, speakers and hi-fi are carried above the heads of the crowd, with cables trailing past the heads of the young men dancing to the music. Any excuse. And no drugs/ alcohol in sight.

Taj Mahal

Arrived at 6.30am to beat the crowds. Discovered that both my camera batteries were flat. Finally persuaded one battery to take this photo.

Dryer

Washing machine

Wednesday, 13 December 2006

Waterbuffalo

Beautiful creatures. I love their big rangy pelvic bones and placid demeanour. Heads always craning forwards to the fullest extent of their necks.

Agra

View from the rooftop of my hotel. Not bad, eh?

Happy Birthday

Happy birthday to me. Put on my birthday suit, which I had had made for me in Rishikesh, drank a couple of beers - my first in six weeks, so got pissed very quickly - turned 42. As you can see I behaved with appropriate gravitas.

Moradabad

Went to see about my butterfly table. These men are busy polishing my table. They get paid the national minimum wage (about £1/day) plus a bit extra. And there is a pension and disability scheme. The factory owners take holidays in Europe, drive flash cars and spunked about £25 taking me out to a 5* hotel for dinner. It was my birthday, but you have to try really hard to spend that much money on a meal for three in India. And they lied about issuing their workers with masks. What to do?

Moradabad, by the way, is a city of 1 million inhabitants, which appears in no guide books. Funny how prescriptive guide books are.

Pilgrims

Ate sweets with this old guy and his grandson. Admired the view. Let them daub my forehead with red paint. Drove home for more yoga.

Temple

Found this temple at the top of a hill.

Upstream

Last day in Rishikesh. Hired a motorbike for the afternoon and drove upstream. Magic.

Bullshit

Got to meet the cow that can do this!

Dung. Dried and used for fuel.

Yoga teachers

The sign says: “Please do not marry our yoga teachers. They are in short supply.”

Ginger bread boy

One of the many ingenious ways Indians find to make money. This little boy is baking biscuits in a mobile oven and selling them for a penny each.

Guruji

Had to go get some spiritual wisdom while I was in this place of worship. And I got it from Swami Damananda. Like a lot of gurus, he did love himself. But I got food for thought.

Basically it’s like this. .... ..

Laxmanjhula at dusk

Beatle's ashram

This ashram on the outskirts of Rishikesh was made famous by the Beatles, who visited their guru for a couple of months and wrote the White Album here. Abandoned and overgrown, it looks like a cross between the set for Aliens and Sleeping Beauty’s mausoleum. Fantasize and you can see the flower children tripping between the meditation pods.

Bathers

And more monkeys

These ones are much more docile. Fortunate really, because they are much larger.

And monkeys

These ones are cheeky monkeys. Nerves of steel and can be quite scary when confronted. Master thieves. If you have food in your room, don’t leave your door open. All windows are barred to keep out our simian relatives.

Holy cow

Not sure if I can describe to you all what it is like to live your life alongside a huge population of cows who largely live off our waste.

Picnic

Pankaj organised a picnic on the “beach” by the Ganges upstream from Rishikesh.

Day off yoga

Aarti

Ill. Coming down with tummy bugs. Thousands of the llittle buggers. Feeling feverish. Missed yoga class this evening, but got to witness the nightly chanting/ candle lighting session by the river, which was pretty cool. Was transported on a river of mantras for an hour or so. Felt inspired to try and cure myself with a sip of the holy waters.

The river in Rishikesh (and Haridwar further downstream) is lined with ashrams, which are like religious Butlins for Indians needing a break from their daily lives. They arrive en famille and get spiritual. Hi de hi.

New town, new yoga teacher

Meet Pankaj (centre), photographed here with Galit from Israel in the foreground and a couple from Brazil. Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Korea, Japan, France, America, Germany, Ireland, England, Australia, China, Singapore and Spain were also all represented in his class. An inspirational teacher. Prankster. Loved his craft. Didn’t care about the money. The story goes, he started yoga at 13 because he wanted to dance like Michael Jackson. Started teaching at 19. Is now 32. Already a legend in his own lifetime among a few devotees. All hail.

Rishikesh

Travelled overnight to Rishikesh via Haridwar. My first Indian train journey. Slept pretty well. Lulled to sleep by movement and sound of the rails. The stench from the tracks could be pretty bad at times though.

Rishikesh. Self proclaimed world capital of yoga with about 60 teachers working there at any one time. It is situated where the Ganges flows jade green out of the Himalayas. The Ganges is considered a very holy river by the Hindus. Hindus often try to make a pilgrimage to at least one of the four principle sources of the Ganges before they die. Watching people as they cross the river by ferry, I would always see them take a sip and “baptise” themselves with the waters.

Market

Bathing

Bathing in the waters around the Golden Temple is considered particularly auspicious by the Sikhs. Headgear is still obligatory at all times for all visitors to the temple.

Border closing

The closing of the border between India and Pakistan is a piece of pure theatre. The crowd on both sides are whipped into a fervour of good-natured patriotic chanting and flag waving. The soldiers prance a piece of flamboyant choreography, which is reflected step for step across the national divide. And then everybody goes home for the night. Extraordinarily good entertainment. Recommended.

Street scene

Indian streets are just insane by western standards. Pedestrians, cows, cycle rickshaws, motorised rickshaws, cars and motorbikes jostle for position with an endless cacophany of horns - sounded not in anger, but because all the wing mirrors have been knocked off the vehicles and that is the only way people know what is coming up from behind. Most trucks have the words “Horn Please” emblazoned on their backsides, and everybody accommodates their wish. Constantly. You kinda learn to filter it out, but then have to get used to a driving style in which conventional manners are completely ignored. Gaps in the traffic are filled on a first come, first served basis, which means that you are constantly being cut up. If it happened in the West, there would be endless cases of road rage, but here it is so commonplace that nobody bats an eyelid. Driving is purely instinctive and I never saw an accident. Having said that, I did see a few cows minus a horn and one with it’s hindleg hanging off. Lovely.

Hindu deity

This little girl has been dressed up in the temple to resemble a hindu deity.

Not to be outdone

Not to be outdone, but outdone nevertheless, the Hindus have attempted to emulate the Golden Temple a couple of miles away. The results vary from the sublime to the outright tacky.

Just too cute

Feeding the 30 000

Free board

Every day, 30 000 meals are served endlessly to pilgrims, who are sat in long rows while volunteers walk up and down the aisles serving lentils, pickle and chapatis from stainless steel pails until you are stuffed. Didn’t feel right to me, that a rich westerner like myself should be being fed by these people, but they were happy that we were there. (Left to right) Lilie, Julie and Kaya.

Free lodgings

All pilgrims to the temple get free lodging in these halls of residence - no matter what their race or creed. For some reason Westerners get priority. The overflow camps out on the balconies and in the courtyard, and prays that it won't rain.

Golden Temple, Amritsar

Joined some of my fellow Buddhism students to go to Amritsar - heartland of the Sikhs. Sikhism was born out of Hinduism in the 15th century by a guru - teacher - who renounced the caste system and created a new religion based largely on altruism.

Hazy mountain shot

Never seem to tire of these photos. Won’t bore you with too many of them.

Triund

Spent the night at this chai stall on the way down. 2900m

Ragu

Ragu, my guide. Weakest bladder in the world. Must have gone six times in a three hour ascent to the summit. Like a dog marking his territory. Hope he’s ok. Read it is a symptom of diabetes when I got down. Diabetes is a big problem in India. Once you have tried the national drink - chai - you can understand why. Apparently it was the British who introduced sugar to the indian diet. And sugar cane to the landscape!

Edmund Hillary Jr.

Made it! The view was worth it. Mt. Kailash visible by my left arm. 4300m. Felt the lack of oxygen from about 3700m. Dizziness every time I turned around to look at the view. Everest is over twice as high again. And people climb it without oxygen!

Indraharar Pass

Still can’t levitate, so decide to climb up to the top of this mountain to see the view.

Avital

My mate Avital. With me through two yoga courses and the 10 day retreat, she’s my friend for this lifetime at least. Had stupidly told a friend of hers a few weeks ago that I thought people became more interesting over 30. Of course she told her boyfriend, who told Avital, who, it transpires, is only 27! And I’m a twat. What’s new?

Will's 40th birthday. Happy Birthday, Will.