namaste, thane again. after two days in the hill station of Mussoorie, our efforts to make the rain stop continued to be futile. we knew the gorgeous views were there, but the clouds were locked in, hiding them from us for 4 days. each night i was absolutely convinced that the next morning would be dramatically clear, and each morning i resigned myself to another eery day of living inside a misty damp cloud. we had a great time roaming the markets and bazaars of mussoorie, though, and bought a few souveniers which we then mailed home. this, of course, is an interesting task - it involves taking your package to a tailor (a guy in a shack down a dirty alley behind a dirty building) who wraps it tightly in white cloth and sews it up. then, you write all over it in black marker and send it home by sea, which takes around 3 months - of course, in indian time this probably means more like 12 years. we walked in the rain up to the famous Landour Langugage School for a Hindi lesson, but they were too busy with long-term students for a quickie. we spent our evenings flipping channels through bollywood flicks in our nice hotel room and resting so that i could kick this head cold i developed a few days ago. this morning we tackled the country again via the cheapest transportation possible. you see, many indians dont understand why we, being relatively rich in their standards simply by being white, would pass up the expensive cab rides that they constantly try to pressure and con us into taking. sometimes it seems silly to pinch pennies (literally) but it has been important to us to learn how to function and move about in the most traditional or simplest ways. travel with our indian bretheren, the common man, sort of thing. so....we took a bus down the mountain to dhera dun(picture 30 indians packed into a tiny bus going down a tiny mountain switchback road, with little old kendall and me holding our baggage under our chins), a rickshaw to the other bus station, another bus to a town called rishikesh, and another rickshaw to our ashram here in town. rishikesh is a wonderful place. this is one of the spiritual centers of the country, located on the Ganges river as it exits the himalayas and makes its way through the subcontinent towards the deltas of Calcutta and Bengal. it is the home of many ashrams (centers of spiritual study, yoga, meditation, etc) and for years has attracted hindu pilgrims and western hippies alike. the beatles came here to study with the maharishi somethingorother. it is home to many sacred temples and sites connected with pilgrimage routes which kendall and i will start to tackle tomorrow. for today all we had time for was a walk through town and across the Ganges on a huge springy suspension bridge lined with monkeys. our friend Sanjeev connected us with his cousin, who owns and operates an ashram here. we have a clean and spacious room in the middle of a beautifully landscaped garden where people come to study yoga and meditate and heal themselves through ayurvedic medicine. (this is the ancient herbal holistic medical practice that has been the inspiration for many New Age offshoot and knockoff movements in the US). we take our simple meals with everyone else in the ashram, barefoot and on the floor in a barren room, do our own dishes outside, etc. it is a peaceful and safe and relaxing setting, looking out over the ganges and close to all the fun things to do, but far enough removed from the bustle of the town to feel like a true retreat. we are excited to be here, in the good hands of friends, with nothing but time to stay and try new things, explore the nearby hills, and wait for the mountains to open themselves to us.

thane