The Holy Ganga and Hippies

We are leaving Rishikesh with a much nicer train ride than what we arrived in. The journey started with a sleepless night on an overnight sleeper train with open windows, and crowds of people. The ticket workers were bribed to overbook, so people slept on the floors underneath the seats. I didn't mind not having air conditioning as much as the noise of the railway tracks. I was really glad I brought earplugs, but I was glad to have the experience.
We started our groggy morning with a steep 3 hour hike in the Himalayas to called Neel Khant. Even with all the beautiful wildlife and view of the Ganga valley, the view was littered with trash along the whole mountain. Even if the government tried to help clean up this country, it's not important enough to the people for it to make a difference. There were lots of monkeys to watch! Beautiful silver moneys and their baby's were everywhere.
The people were great to watch along the way. Many children were painted as gods along the trail to get money. There were also many people on a pilgrimage dressed in orange( holy color) chanting and singing to keep moral high on the hike. We saw a few men doing their walks in a special way in order to gain help from the gods on something important in their lives. They promised to hike the whole way by setting a small rock on the trail, kneeling down and stretching their entire body out. The rock is moved to the tip of their body span and they get up and continue. This looked pretty difficult. We also saw men called Sadhus who were painted gray and stood in shifts of a few hours on one leg to please to gods. This came from an old tradition when they used to do this for months at a time. We ate at Chottiwalla for lunch since the food at the Ashram was bland. There were bald men dressed as chottiwallas with painted pink faces ringing bells outside the restaurant.
The whole city of Rishikesh is full of cows! Some were pretty healthy and had calves, but a lot were starving. I saw one with a large tumor an it barely had skin on its bones.
The Parmarth Niketan Ashram we are staying in is amazingly peaceful. I could live here for a good amount of time. It is the biggest Ashram in Rishikesh and has its own Ghat inn the Ganga river. There are many hippies staying here to practice yoga and meditation. Many of them were Americans living the zen lifestyle here. The Ashram offers yoga, meditation, and many prayer ceremonies.
At night there was an Aarti ceremony where people sit on the steps of the Ghat and sing prayers as the sun sets behind a giant Lord Shiva statue. When the sun sets everyone lights little candles inside bowls filled with colorfully flowers and sends them on the Ganges into the night. They are meant to bless your ancestors. Sophia, a German girl in my group, and I bought some to send off. It was quite a special night.
I can now say that I have bathed in the holy Ganga as well. Sophia and I woke up to catch the sunrise on the river, but we were a little late. People were still bathing when we arrived to go in the Ghat fully clothed and white as ever to perform a holy ritual meant for Hindus. A woman encouraged us further into the freezing dirty water splashing water on our backs. We held hands and plunged 13 times into the frigid cold saying 'Om Nama Shivai' a prayer to Lord Shiva. I said I wouldn't go in this river, but I was there and had to try for the sake of being there. Now I can say that I swam in the Ganga, the filthiest/holiest river in the world.