Sunday, February 5, 2023

Day Off,  February 5, 2023  Rishikesh, India

Sunday is our only day off but the school provides us with the opportunity for excursions.  Today’s left at 5 AM so we could watch the sunrise at the Kunjapuri Temple.  I like sunrises but I think it’s really hard to beat the ones I have at the lake-


Anyway, I went along and it was a bad decision.

The Kunjapuri Temple is dedicated to the goddess Kunjapuri Devi.  It’s one of 52 temples in the region.  As Sati, wife of Lord Shiva was being taken to her final resting place, 52 parts of her body, fell off and wherever the parts landed, a temple was built-


Inside the temple-



The sunrise over the Himalayas-



I have to keep reminding myself that this is India. We got on the bus and we were packed in like sardines-


Indian people are quite small and so for them it would be fine but our group is mainly North Americans and Europeans so we were very squished. After about 45 minutes, we arrived in the dark and everybody got out except me.  I didn’t see much point in standing around the temple while it was still dark so I stayed in the nice warm bus. Once the sun started to rise I went up the many steps and took my pictures. We were sitting around doing nothing in the wind and cold so I came back to the bus where I promptly fell asleep. I guess I missed the priest arriving and putting tikka on everyone’s third eye spot. Fine with me.
Everybody came back to the bus and away we went but we stopped halfway down the mountain for ginger water, milk tea as well as maggi which is ichiban noodles with a very strong MSG flavoured sauce. Just for me to smell it makes me want to puke. I wasn’t feeling well and the curving winding road wasn’t helping nor was the fact that I was very tired.  After breakfast we continued back down the mountain and I threw up although there was nothing in my stomach to throw up besides about a teaspoon of milk tea. I also thought I had an “accident”  but I didn’t thank goodness.

I headed up the hill from the bus back to the school and stopped in a local restaurant to try to get something to eat. I felt like I was really really hungry, weak from hunger as I haven’t been eating much because I find the food quite poor. Rice and pasta have few nutrients and everything has masala spice on it that just turns my stomach. The owner of the school was in the restaurant, which he also owns, and I told him I was not feeling well at all. I suggested maybe I could have eggs for my protein and he said no we don’t cook eggs at the school but you can come here to eat. Sure I can but I have to pay and they are North American prices which I will definitely pay if it keeps me healthy. I just found it interesting because on our first day he said if you’re having issues with anything please bring those problems to us and we will try to fix them.

I got some yogurt and fruit and went back to my room and slept all afternoon. I felt really good when I woke up and wandered to another café for a sweet lassi and some toast. The lassi tasted sour, I think something was off but the toast was good so I have another place where I can get something to eat.

Tonight I am just going to sleep some more and hopefully feel even better in the morning. I hate being sick!



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