Gallivanting the globe 2019 - RTW and then some

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The first woman sang hauntingly beautifully, with the highly-amplified music and song echoing across the river. I found it quite pleasantly mesmerising. It went on for quite some time.

The second woman (American-accented) delivered a homily-laden sermon of sorts and then invited everyone back to the ashram for a meal. I didn’t go.

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The next day’s mission was to walk to the other side of the Ganges to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram – aka the ‘Beatles Ashram’. The Beatles (with other pop and movie stars) stayed there between February and April 1968 and reputedly wrote most of the famed ‘White Album’ while there Beatles Ashram - Wikipedia Beatles Ashram - Wikipedia).

It later fell into neglect and the jungle encroached. It is, strictly, part of a national park where tigers occur. The compound is a fenced-off corner of the park and a small amount of restoration has been carried out but it’s fundamentally in decline.

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Well, there you go…

I spent several fascinating and enjoyable, albeit very hot and humid, hours there. A couple of delicious vanilla, honey & other bits milkshakes in an A/C café overlooking Mother Ganga on the way back to my hotel went down extremely well while I cooled off and used their WiFi. (Not that I wanted any wine or beer at that time, but just noting that Rishikesh is a totally dry town.)

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Later that afternoon it was time to transfer to Haridwar station to take the 4.5h train ride to Delhi, to overnight there before flying out the next morning to Goa in S India for a few days.

I engaged a porter at drop-off but as it turned out my train was leaving from platform 1 and I therefore had no need to lug my bag up over the track bridge.

Nevertheless, on showing my ticket to the porter he took my bag, with me tagging along, to the exact spot where my train carriage was to stop. He plonks down my bag and says he’ll be back when it arrives to load it aboard. Spot on, he arrives, grabs my bag says, “follow me” and we charge aboard to my seat.

There was no luggage storage at the end of the carriages; even full-size bags went in the capacious overhead rack. He heaved my bag up – amongst many of his colleagues doing the same for other tourists and I settled in. Again, brilliant porterage like I’ve previously experienced in India. All the porters are clearly identified by their red jackets and numbered badges.

On arrival, porters swarm aboard to reverse the process. I didn't bother at that point because the train arrived at platform 1.

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And TKWIA - natch. :cool:

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So, to bust a stereotype, anyone who wants to ride on the roof of an Indian train is about 50 years too late...

Panaji is the capital of Goa and very tropical. There are some rather nice Portuguese colonial buildings in the old Latin Quarter and the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception dominates a hill in the centre.

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Such cool photos - I like the idea of cows roaming around, but I imagine in practice it can be quite inconvenient.
 
Such cool photos - I like the idea of cows roaming around, but I imagine in practice it can be quite inconvenient.

It's just part of the rich tapestry of life in India. Everyone just intrinsically works around them.

The cattle are very docile because they have interacted with people and traffic since birth (and, of course, the people with them since birth). Don't equate them to generally more skittish beef cattle here; they are much like dairy cows.

Take a trip there - you'll love it. :)
 
Old Goa, the former Portuguese colonial capital which thrived in the 16th century but declined in the early 17th century because of cholera and malaria, is about 10km away and well worth a visit. Its WH-listed historic buildings are now an extensive set of museum or ruins.

The Se Cathedral is the largest church in Asia. The lopsided appearance is a result of losing one of the belltowers after a lightning strike in 1776.

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The immediate impression of Sri Lanka upon leaving CMB (which is well to the N of Colombo) and driving slightly inland to the first night’s hotel is that it is not a small clone of India. Sri Lanka is very firmly its own place. It is less shambolic (that’s not a criticism of India, as that is part of India’s charm), the roads are generally better and it’s tidier.

But, like India, the people are benign and friendly and English is almost universally spoken, so it’s also an easy place to travel in.

Late September/early October is the beginning of the tourist season, but it was exceptionally quiet. The atrocities of the previous Easter had clearly made tourists shy of going to Sri Lanka. Normally the type of tour I was on would have up to 16 people.

It was the first of the season, so numbers may be expected to be less than the maximum. However, we had only four – my elder son joined me and there was a couple from Victoria. Our tour leader was a great guy, about my son’s age, and the other couple were very active and youthful 50/60-ish. We ended up having an absolute blast.

During the two weeks, our tour leader told us that he was taking his last tour group for the 2018/19 season to CMB for their outbound flights when they saw the explosions in the distance. It has clearly had a dampening effect on tourism, which had been rapidly increasing, with all the hotels we stayed at being very quiet. Such a pity, because Sri Lanka is a great place and we certainly saw no sign of any religious or ethnic tension.

Much like Egypt, the upside for tourists prepared to go is that major sites that may usually be packed are much easier to get around.

Coming into CMB.

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The next day was driving inland to the famed WH-listed Buddhist Royal Rock Cave Temples at Dambulla (Dambulla cave temple - Wikipedia). These date to the 1st century BCE.

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A suitably mind-blowing first full day in Sri Lanka.

It was then on to Sigirya, the iconic WH-listed ancient rock fortress of Lion Rock (Sigiriya - Wikipedia), arriving at our hotel late afternoon to take in a view of the rock, initially through a monsoonal rain shower, and prepare to conquer it with an early start in the cool of the next morning.

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About halfway up the rock there is a spiral staircase leading to a long, sheltered fresco gallery past a smoothly plastered ‘mirror wall’. Photography of the frescoes is not permitted. I pinched a pic from the Wikipedia article (Sigiriya - Wikipedia). This link also has some pics, along with a great panoramic pic of the rock: The 'Lion Fortress' of Sri Lanka was swallowed by the jungle.

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Then back down from the fresco gallery and around the rock to face the climb to the top.

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Mission accomplished.

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It was getting warm and humid. A zoom in on our hotel and pool gave us something to look forward to.

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