Penelope's blog: Hello India, Part 6

Some of the amazing artwork at the Beatles ashram

Pilgrims worshipping the god shiva in Rishikesh

Worshipping the god Shiva

At the Beatles ashram

I arrived in Rishikesh following an overnight bus journey from Dharamsala. For the first time there were other Westerners on the bus and I used this to my advantage when we arrived at our destination. What I had been aware of, but had not quite comprehended, was the fact that there was a big festival happening in Rishikesh, to the Hindu god, Shiva. The evidence of this was apparent from the outset, as roads were closed and huge numbers of mainly men in orange tee-shirts were everywhere. I shared a rickshaw with two Australian girls to the area of Rishikesh where most backpackers head, Lakshmanjhula.

Rishikesh lies north of Delhi on the sacred Ganges river. It is the centre of all manner of Hindu and New Age activity and has many ashrams, attracting devotees from far and wide. It is also a stopping off point for many religious men, swamis and sadhus on their way to the Himalayas. The Beatles came here in 1968 to meet the Maharishi Yogi and put it firmly on the map. They spent time here during which they wrote much of the material that ended up as 'The White Album'.

Today, as in Dharamsala, there are a huge range of courses available and I was determined to do some yoga classes which I looked into straight away. Although it advertised it as 'traditional Indian yoga', the use if props and precision of the poses were familiar to me from practicing Iyengar yoga in the past. I did a couple of very enjoyable early morning sessions. A great way to start the day!

I enjoyed my couple of days in Rishikesh very much. It was very hectic in the streets as the pictures show, and you could not walk anywhere without being photographed countless times whether knowingly or unknowingly. In fact, when we left yoga each morning, we were positively mobbed! However, despite the craziness in the streets we managed to escape to the calmness of Bombay Guesthouse which had a lovely courtyard in which to relax. I became friends with Alex and Antoine, as well as the Australian girls, and it was good to have a group to hang out with and have dinner. I also met Scotty, from Hartlepool ,who had been travelling in India for the last five years. He had a motorbike and drove Alex and I to the Beatles ashram. The ride, through streets thronged with the pilgrims, was particularly memorable and as you can imagine, we must have made quite an impression. At the Beatles ashram itself, Alex and I spent a couple of hours taking in the atmosphere of what once must have been quite something. Today, it is no longer a working ashram and has largely fell to ruin. Nevertheless, the sprawling grounds have retained a spiritual harmony and some areas- like the meditation hall- have become shrines in themselves. See the pictures which show some of the art work we saw. We played some tracks from the Beatles' White album- much of which they wrote when they were here- which made it extra special. And at the end we stumbled upon two people who had painted a tribute to George Harrison in the individual dome shaped structure he had used for personal meditation. They had just finished as we took a look at their work, had a chat, whilst the Beatles played from their laptop.

Rishikesh was a place I could easily have stayed for longer but for my time really was getting down to the last few days and I managed ( with some difficulty due to the Shiva festival) to book a train for Varanasi, the spiritual home of Hinduism.

Next stop: Varanasi