Feb 21/09
We're in Haridwar now. We decided against Varanasi. Actually, the fully booked train decided for us.
Back in Canada I had decided not to bring my Lonely Planet Guide book with me to India because it was huge and weighed a bajillion kg and I'd have had to pay extra for the extra weight on the plane (K, maybe it's not that heavy), so instead I photocopied what I thought would be the necessary pages. And what I thought were only necessary were Delhi and Varanasi, not taking into account the total unreliability of trains and buses and general transportation in India.
So based on the recommondation of Rajan we hopped on a whiplash-inducing 8 hour, dirty, gross, squishy bus ride and started heading to Rishikesh.

I cannot fully emphasize the state of this bus. It had plastic seats, was small and crowded and was more reminiscent of a city bus like the TTC than a long-distance bus meant for hours and hours and hours of SLAM stop. SLAM go. SLAM stop. SLAM go. And oh man, the insistent, steady horns! Just like in China, the way vehicles announce their presence is by blaring on the horns and when you have hundreds of vehicles on any given road at any given time, it gets loud.

Very, very loud.
And then... oh, this is hard. I'd rather put it out of my memory. Oh my word, the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes! Constantly buzzing, flitting around your exposed sandal-clad feet. I nearly drowned myself in repellent, but I'm proud to say that I escaped with only one bite on my toe. Thus far, anyway.
So yeah, we're in Haridwar. We're supposed to be in Rishikesh but when there's a bus strike going on between Haridwar and Rishikesh, what can one do?
Well, if you're Indian you can easily make a few calls and find a place to crash for the night (at this point, it was midnight). And if you're a young foreign girl, you can blindly trust a nice man when he tells you he'll find you a cheap hotel.
So here we are. In a 500INR per night hotel. In Haridwar. With no way to get to Rishikesh.
And this hotel is really gross. I don't know if this is my Canadian standard speaking or if I'm basing it on what I expect Indian conditions to be like. The pillows were once white and now they're a deep grey. The sheets were also once white but are now a muddy brown, with splotches of blood. Yes, blood. Oh wait, did I say sheets (plural)? I mean sheet (singular). There's just the one covering the mattress. And then there's a 50kg duvet insert folded up at the foot of the bed. No cover. Just insert.
We met another Canadian (represent!) on the bus. We saved her from the same man who tried to direct us to the wrong bus. She's been travelling around Australia, Nepal, India and surrounding areas for the past two months and is going to continue on for another three months. The stories she has are pretty incredible and make me regret further that I actually agreed to come for only two weeks. Two weeks! What was I thinking?
Anyway, hopefully the buses will be running tomorrow and we can get over to Rishikesh. It sounds like an interesting city. It was apparently put on the map by the Beatles in the '60's as the place where they found enlightenment and transcendental meditation. It is also the birthplace of Yoga and has the nickname of The City of Yoga.
Our loose plan thus far for the weekend (if we can get there) is to do some yoga, maybe some white water rafting, lots of meditating and attempting to find our inner selves. We also hope to hit up Rajiji National Park which is supposed to have every animal under the sun but whether or not you see them is a different issue.