Taj Yoga

Taj Yoga
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After few days travel I arrived to Rishikesh, which is claimed to be 'Capital of Yoga' ever since Beatles came here in '60s. Here I met Aneta, my old friend from university and she convinced me to try Yoga for the first time . I have to say I like it to certain extend and I hope I will try it more in future.

Wondering around Rishikesh we come across the ultra beautiful waterfall under which one could swim. The scenery was almost like from the paradise maybe except.... to refreshing temperature of the water. No photo of this scenery, since I did not have my camera with me that time.




Varanasi is colorful, old and magical city. It is a one of the holiest places in India, where pilgrims all over the country are coming take a bath in holy river. There are also several "burning ghats" where bodies are first washed in holy river and than cremated in public.



In between Rishikesh and Varanasi we visited the one of the symbol of India Taj Mahal. I was initially very skeptical about visiting this place, but finally I like it much more than expected. One of the Indian poet describes Taj Mahal as a "teardrop on the cheek of eternity". Taj Mahal is a magnificent memorial built by emperor Shah Jahan for his second wife.

40 kilometers from Agra there are magnificent ruins of an ancient city, where basically we were a huge attraction for everyone around. And I received my new nick-name in India. At least 6 people independently called me Ali Baba. Should I change my email address to AliMiko?



During my travel I meet many different people. But since India is a destination mostly for backpackers, additionally I am mostly not following the most beaten tracks (with few exceptions), so I mostly meet people that are ready for new adventures. But Agra is a place on the beaten track. And indeed on the train from Delhi to Agra we met Mariusz, a polish tourist that completely did not fit the image of backpacker. Mariusz is a very good hearted person that works hard in gastronomic industry in Netherlands the whole year in order to go somewhere for organized holidays. This year he went to Goa, but his tour operator did not provide him any tours or activities. Moreover in Goa it was raining all the time. He decided to see THE highlight of India on his own - Taj Mahal. The distance between Goa and Agra (through Delhi) is over 2000km. In Goa he went to the train station and bought a ticket to Delhi. When he reached Delhi he was surprised that Taj Mahal is not here and he still have to travel further on. Unfortunately he was completely not prepared to anything that he had seen and he was afraid about the surrounding. The whole way from Delhi to Agra he was dreaming about getting nice picture with Taj Mahal (since he could not say that he was in India and he was not in Taj Mahal) and getting as fast as possible to his safe and comfortable hotel. We tried to make his day in Agra as good as possible pointing out the positive things around him, and I guess we succeeded a bit. He manage to buy a 20 small Taj Mahal's as suvenirs, T-shirt with Taj Mahal and get few very nice pictures with Taj Mahal. And for us it was really interesting experience to realize how Mariusz was perceiving the surrounding reality. Not everyone is able to fall in love with India, and not everyone has to go for two weeks to Goa....