Dan: Today was pretty much an uneventful day.
We were resting before starting our Himalayan trekking tomorrow, so we spent the day wandering around town, checking emails, and exploring.

The suspension bridge called Laxman Jhula was built in 1929 when the original bridge was washed away in a flood.
Apparently, it's wide enough to carry a jeep, but I suspect they mean some sort of small 1930's era jeep, as there is no way you'd get a car on it today!
What's funny, is that the bridge is used by people, cows, and motorcycles.
Because the bridge is always packed with people, the motorcyclists have to continuously beep their horns until people clear out of the way.
Back in the UK, if a motorcyclist did this to you, you'd think them quite rude (and would possibly do what I do, which is get even more in their way!) but over here people take it in their stride, and it's all pretty easy going.

I must admit, I'm starting to get into my stride here – the stress and "got to keep going all the time" attitude (that I picked up in the UK after my last 18-month project) seems to be dropping away, and I'm starting to really relax.

The bridge really is something to behold – the Ganga is quite wide at this point, and the bridge sways with the movement of the people on it.
On the east bank (the side on which the village is on) there are two temples next to bridge – in fact, the standard photo of Rishikesh that people see is actually a photo looking across this bridge towards the two temples.

 
Looking south, and then north from the middle of the bridge


Temple located to the left of the bridge


German Bakery and Cafe located next to the bridge

The hotel we're staying up is up a pathway from the main road, and is about halfway down the main road of the village.
Looking left and right down theroad you can see lots and lots of little shops selling clothes and scarves and jewellery, with a smattering of crisps, bottled water, and toilet paper thrown in for good measure!
There is a general store located opposite to our pathway which is useful for water, snacks, and toilet paper.

 
Looking north, and south down the main road


Looking down the pathway from the hotel to the main road - the guy sitting on the path is a snake charmer, with a very lazy cobra in the basket!


The General Store, where we buy our supplies

We unpacked Karin's laptop today so that she could get on with some work, and discovered to our annoyance that the plug for her power supply had broken – it was actually the plug that goes into the back of the laptop that had broken. I tried pushing part of it into the laptop, and then holding the other part against it, but I just ended up jamming the broken part in her laptop… ooops!
I did some research online to see if we could get a replacement part (which we an), but there's not much chance of getting one here in India.
Maybe I'll have a go repairing it when we get back – although Apple tend to use customized parts, I notice that for their power supply they use a 2.5mm stereo jack as the main portion… cool, an exciting electronics project to mull over!
The internet connectivity here is not very good - all teh cyber cafes here seem to have a 56k dial-up modem which is shard between all the computers, so updating this blog will take some time. Still, at least we're connected to the outside world, for which I'm grateful!
Part of me wonders if maybe I should spend this month in isolation from the outside world, and use it as an opportunity have some "me" time - I'll play it by ear and see how I feel.
Although Karin has work to do here, and has set herself goals for every day, I'm just here to do nothing - literally. I just need to recharge my batteries, both physically and spiritually.

It is Martin and Claire's last day here today – they went white water rafting on the Ganga and recommended it, so I think we'll give it a go after the trekking.

We all went out to dinner tonight to a local restaurant and had a lovely meal – I'll be sorry to see them go as they’ve been great company.

The evening was a lot quieter tonight – apparently we're still at the end of the Diwali festival, hence all the canting (which tends to be amplified through rather bad amplifiers, and echoes down the valley).
Tonight, however, we could hear only one or two sources of chanting, and it sounded sublime – that and the bells ringing.
The evenings here are magical, as the sun sets and it starts to cool down.
During the day it reaches 28 degrees or so, but in the evening it becomes very pleasant, and it's lovely to sit out on the terrace with a chai and look at the view.

We've noticed that every night a strong wind starts up and blows down the valley, and then stops again as the sun starts to warm the area – I'm sure this must be some sort of convection wind, but I'm don't know too much about the weather.
So far, every day here has been sunny and cloudless – just an endless expanse of blue skies framed b the tall wooded hills that make up the foothills of the Himalayas.