Ganga Kayak Festival

Yesterday was the day of Ganga Kayak Festival. It was a full day of competition and 35 participants competed in the three different runs. Most participants were local and so were the organisers. Aquaterra came with their strongest kayakers...

 On our way to the venue this morning.

 The welcome ceremony. Rana (from Aquaterra) was chied guest, which he was very very proud of - and of course appreciated by giving a good well prepared speach.

 Some of the participants before starting. As a teaser, I can say that the coming over-all winner is in this picture.

 The little twist to the story is that I's been asked to commentate during the day. This meant that some people, absolutely voluntarily had given me a microphone, turned it on and let me speak whatever I felt like. For hours.

 The view from a slightly hung-overed commentator spot on a wonderfully big rock.

 The festival took place by one of the biggest rapids on Ganga, so once in a while a raft came by, which made the commentator get the audience cheer for a flip. And it actually happened... Once...

 Preparation of the price ceremony.

 The happy winners and the just as happy organizers. It was a great great success.

And finally the winner of it all, Sanjay, with his 2 trophies. He came first, second and seventh in the 3 competitions and hence also won the overall competition. Kahna Singh and Sohan from Aquaterra also ended on the podium Big hurrays and congratulations from the only slightly impartial commentator. But hey, it's my samdi, we're talking about.

A hitch and a song

I went back to the mountains today. First the train to Haridwar. I'd actually thought of taking an autorickshaw from there to Rishikesh, but then I met an Australian backpacker, who asked if I was going with the bus and I thougt "why not?" That saved me a dollar on transportation - wauv... - and could explain the environmentalist from Australia a bit about where he'd ended up. When I'd sent him on with a couple of younger an more enthusiastic girls from Costa Rica, it turned out I could get a lift onwards with Padri, who's a driver for Aquaterra. He was in Rishikesh anyways and he'd be there in another hour. An hour is really not much in India.

It's always good to drive with Padri. First of all he's a fright ass, who likes being alive. That's just the kind of driver you'd like to go with in India. He doesn't take any risks! And today we had a longer conversation on the way. By now, I know enough Hindi to make real conversations - beyond finding out whether Im fine or not.

Today, we spoke about my family, which he likes - nice people, that my nephew is a charmer (as if I didn't know), when I'll come visit his house - his wife will cook and I can sleep over. And then of course a couple of songs. We were singing in Garwhali, Hindi and Danish. My Hindi is far from perfect - but I do feel like I've made it somewhere!

The family says goodbye

To all of you out there. Here from cycling down from Paukedevi, where we'd been invited for tea at Pundirji's family.

And not least goodbye from Ferdinand, who's spent the past 2 weeks charming all of India - and well, auntie...

One more wedding

I believe this could be the year, where I'll participate in most weddings. It will definitely be the year, where I'll participate in most weddings for people I hardly know.

And finally it was time for one at Atali. The entire hotel had been booked (hence my family had to stay another night in the camp, which they btw didn't mind at all). Lots of planning had gone ahead of the wedding itself and I was very impressed to see the result, when I reached Atali. My family had been invited by the couple so we came by for a couple of hours and witnessed a bit of the ceremony. 

The vedi with the fireplace in the centre where the ceremony will take place.

 

The groom waiting for his bride. The athmosphere at the wedding were very relaxed and happy. As ceveral of my family members mentioned - it would be ok to have Danish weddings inspired by this.

 The bride and her followers. The Indian bride is traditionally wearing red. She was very very beautiful, which I believe is rather easy to get from the photo.

The negotiation of whether the knot should be tied. The groom tries to convince the bride to follow him and the brides family resists for a while - shouldn't be too easy. Of course everybody knows how the negotiations will end. Luckily.

 

Lots of viewers at the balcony. Not least the staff were very excited. It was the first wedding at Atali and they were at least as happy as the guests.

Benches..

As earlier mentioned, an Irish group visited Atali in November. Besides leaving an unforgettable impression they also left a donation for purchasing furniture for the local school in Sirasu, beacuse one of the class rooms in the school didn't have any furniture when the group visited the school during their stay. It turned out they's had enough tables but still needed benches.

And finally the benches were ready. Before leaving for my family trip, I came along to Rishikesh and collected the benches at the carpenter.

 The maker of the benches - and Atali's carpenter, Vikram, in the background.

The carpenter work shop.

Back at Atali, Vikram had carved the names Aquaterra Adventures and Fighting Blindness Ireland in all the benches. When my family had returned to the mountains, they got the chance for participating in handing over the bences in Sirasu.

First the benches were taken to Gullar next to the ferry crossing to Sirasu. My family were eager to help carrying.

 They weren't allowed that for long as some of the school kids from Sirasu showed up. They'd crossed with the ferry to our side of the river and came running, grabbing the benches while smiling and cheering. No doubts they were exited about the donation.

 Benches and school kids on board of the ferry. Jeetu og Pankaj both raft guides and from Sirasu took care of the ferry crossing.

 Safely over, the benches were grabbed again and carried the last bit up to Sirasu.

 Solil, who's in charge of horticulture at Atali, had donated note books for all the kids in the school. They also had to be carried.

 The benches are lined up outside the class rooms. The will be a pooja for the benches before they're being used.

 Fighting Blindness Ireland - the donor organisation.

I had the pleasure of handing over the note books.

 The girls at school had prepared a performance of local songs and dancing..

Nothing in this world is more picturesque than Indian school kids!

A blacksmith

And nothing else.
From Mala Khunti.

A good sleep...

It's been a while since the last post. My family has returned to Denmark filled with Indian experiences and adventures and not least a lot of good purchases from India.

I've taken 2 days complete rest at Meera's before returning to the mountains tomorrow. Yesterday, I spent on the couch. Today, Im still in bed at noon. Perhaps I'll move to the sun and the balcony later. I think I'll do...

Therefore, I've also got time to write blog posts about some of the days I didn't get to write about because I didn't have power and because it was more important to spend time with the family.

First a few impressions from Delhi train station, while we were waiting for the night train to Haridwar.

 The porters carried the luggage we couldn't carry ourselves.

Indian train stations are usually pretty hectic. This one's no exception even if we arrived rather late at night. Ferdinand wasn't too impressed though, he continued sleeping completely unnoticing.