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