Would you like me for foreign marry?

Monday 5^th Nov

So Sam and I met at 8am for some Chai before Yoga. It’s in a little hall just at the top of the road (like a 2min wa|k away). It started at 8.30am for an hour and a half and was quite a good session. It wasn’t too hard, mostly more of the stretching poses and exercises, but was definitely a good way to start the day. After it finished we went and had breakie at Bhandari – a mushroom omelette, lemon pancake and a chai. Whilst we were sat there we got chatting to a guy called Otto - Sam asked him about the awesome motorcycle he’d just rode in on and it basically all just stemmed from that. We chatted for ages. Otto is English, with south African parents, who has been travelling for 7 years. Lived in Oz for 3yrs, and New Zealand since, plus has travelled basically everywhere, including India 3 times, for 6 months at a time, just riding a motorcycle from top to bottom. He’d just travelled up from Kerala and Goa on his bike to stay for a while before going up to the Himalayas. The stories he has to tell are amazing, I couldn’t possibly begin to tell you them all, but let’s just say he’s interesting, has long hair, he’s well travelled, has dated a girl from pretty much every country in the world, knows just about everything, and he rides a motorcycle! Lol

Before we knew it, it had gone 1pm and we thought we’d better do something with our day. Otto told us about Neer Garh Waterfall which he was planning on visiting that day, and suggested we join him. So after we’d showered and he had run a few errands, we agreed he’d come pick us up and take us on his motorcycle – all 3 of us! This was actually my first motorcycle ride, so I was nervous and excited! Turned out to be pretty amazing after we’d crossed the hurdle of the steep hill of High Bank and had a near miss with an oncoming bus that refused to move over to his side of the road! The road took us way up into the mountains above the Ganges river and the views were out of this world! Once we got there, theru was a windy, steep, bumpy dirt track to ride up, so I held on for dear life and tried not to look over the edge – which was a pretty steep drop!

Once at the base of the waterfall, there was then a very long, steep, rocky climb up to the top. Which at the halfway point, stopping to catch our breath as our lungs were about to explode - whilst Otto, who smokes just about everything, every hour of the day continued to power on - Sam and I decided we were definitely not fit enough to do the Himalaya trek tomorrow!! It was a good job we’d done the waterfall today, otherwise we’d have gone on the trek and probably wouldn’t of managed it!

At the top was an amazing cove, waterfall and pool. So all a sweaty mess, we took off our kit (don’t worry, we had (matching thank god) underwear on) and jumped straight in – it was fecking freezing but soooo good in the heat! We tried to climb up to the upper pool and cove, but there was just no way we were getting up, let alone down. So instead we sat around the edge, chatted to a german couple who we knew from High Bank and got a Chai (by far the best one I’ve had) from the man who was selling stuff at the top of this waterfall – like, as if! We asked him where he slept, he told us a village up even HIGHER than this waterfall, it was mental! When it looked like the sun was starting to set, we made our climb back down again. Otto dropped us off and we made plans to meet that evening for dinner at Lucky Restaurant, after we’d all showered.

The restaurant was amazing, with an amazing river-side view as was the norm! We got pasta, pizza and noodles (though Sam said her noodles weren’t good) and even though everything in Rishikesh is vegetarian, they were b|oody good dishes! We got chatting to an American woman, who’d been living in India for the last 5 yrs, after she overheard my convo about Chocolate Philadelphia, and thought we were talking about actual Philly in the US, which is where she was from. She was also enthralled by all the stories and places Otto had been. And for some reason, asked us whether Typhoid was an STI – because a Baba she knew had it and she didn’t want to catch it – from which we gathered she’d obviously slept with him. But seriously, only an American can ask if Typhoid is an STI and if it’s curable! Lol We’ve since come to the conclusion, with evidence from many stories, that all Baba’s in India sleep around even though they are supposed to be holy worshippers.

Otto then invited us back to his guesthouse’s bar – coincidently, he was staying at the Israeli hotel – as he had gotten hold of some Indian Whiskey and he wanted to introduce us to a ‘Special’ Lassi. I’m sure you can all guess what this lassi contained...it was disgusting! That and Yoghurt DO NOT mix well! But it made for a very chilled evening of chatting, drinking, and finding out about the owners love life...

I got stuck in a conversation of how he wasn’t happy in his marriage, and that he was ultimately looking for ‘Foreign Marry’ as he called it because he is more western, and his wife doesn’t like western things. I was like, well, what does your wife think about that? ‘Oh she is happy for me to do it,’ meanwhile I’m thinking – yea, because she knows no foreign woman would marry you, she’s probably laughing (he’s a bit sleazy). ‘What do you think about my foreign marry, you think that ok?’ ‘Errrr, well yea, as long as you are happy...?’ ‘Would you like me for foreign marry?’ ‘errr guys can you0poor me a double shot of whiskey???’ lol

It got pretty late, to the point that all the staff were telling us to be quiet as they were trying to sleep (outside on the mats where we were sitting!) – so by that point we were obviously not walking all the way back to High Bank, so we stayed in Otto’s room.