I slept well because of the long trip from Japan. In the morning, a manager at the retreat was not there, so I asked one of the staff about the hot shower. He checked and confirmed it was broken….Fortunately, he is super nice and let me use the hot shower in another room. Thank God …. You have no idea how grateful you are to use the hot shower!!
After that, I was bored and didn’t want to eat breakfast at the retreat. I went out for chai. I went to a cafe on my friend’s recommendation.
It was good except for a ton of mosquitos! I got so many mosquito bites….
At the cafe, I met a guy from Chile. We talked a bit and he told me about a waterfall close to my retreat, also his trip in India. It was interesting and nice to have some company at a meal.
I went to the organic store I went to yesterday to get something for mosquito bites. A staff at the store recommended tree oil. I bought it.
To be honest with you, I don’t think it worked lol But it smells great.
I was soooo tired even though I slept entire way from the airport to Rishikesh. The owner told me there is a yoga lesson starting at 7pm that night. I was excited to have my first lesson there. But I slept again in my room and I missed the first 20 minutes of the lesson. It was supposed to be 1 hour class, 40 minutes for me.
There were several people in the yoga hall upstairs. I said “Sorry…” and joined them. The lesson was not hard and I was relieved. I didn’t know who they were at that moment and I was a bit nervous to meet my classmates. But to be honest, I was out of it because of the sleepy head.
The teacher who I thought was actually one of the students. She was going to have 300 hours TTC. She took us to a restaurant after the class.
The restaurant was just 5 minutes away from the school. I ordered some Israeli food, Sabich Laffa. And it was very good!
After came back from dinner, I tried to take a shower and hot shower didn’t work! And I realized I really NEED hot shower. Some people don’t care if they have hot shower or not with hot weather, obviously I am not one of them. I learned one more thing about myself, and it was a good discovery for me.
A taxi driver came to the airport on time, surprisingly. I was the one who was late. I wanted to exchange money and buy a sim card at the airport as my friend recommended.
But the exchange rate in the airport was terrible. I asked a staff how much it would be if I give 10000 Japanese yen and he said 5350 INR. 1 yen is 0.58 INR, it’s pretty bad…..So, I decided to withdraw money from an ATM at the airport but it didn’t work. I tried the other one, but it didn’t work either. An Indian man was using an ATM and he said that one was working. I tried but it didn’t work. The man helped me and his magic hand made the ATM work! I got 6000 INR!
My driver didn’t wanna wait any longer (he had waited for over 45 minutes) and he called and tole me to get out. He said he will get me a sim and the airport one is “not good”. I’m guessing he meant it was expensive.
And it was true. I got sim in Rishikesh way cheaper. Also, rate of exchange money in Rishikesh was so good. 10000jpy is 5700inr in town. So, yeah, don’t buy sim at the airport. Don’t exchange money in the airport. But under only two conditions. The first one is if you have a great taxi driver who you can trust and second is if you have a sim that you can use in India when you arrive in an airport.
Lesson 1 about India
Don’t exchange money in the airport
Don’t buy a sim card in the airport
Have a taxi driver who you can trust (this is difficult tho)
Get a sim that can use in India beforehand.
I slept almost all the way to the retreat. We had lunch at a restaurant on the way. My first meal in India. I told a server I can’t eat spicy and, of course, his spicy and my spicy is not the same but it was good.
He was a super nice guy and he said he likes Japan. He drives an old Toyota car. I’m pretty happy about my decision about taking a taxi. It took 6 hours to get Rishikesh from the Delhi airport.
When I arrived at the retreat, a staff took me to a phone shop to get a sim. It was smooth and a guy at the store made the sim work immediately. It was only 700 INR. I read blogs and it was 900 INR at the airport. I think I got a good deal. I was happy about that.
I asked the retreat staff that I wanted to buy shampoo and soup. He took me to an organic shop close by. I quickly bought shampoo that a friend recommended. And a random girl at the store showed me a soap in the store. It was great to buy organic stuff and I can use my credit card there!
A good friend of mine drove me to the Narita airport and we had lunch together. My last supper in Japan was Tonkatsu. I will miss meat since Rishikesh is am vegetarian town.
I used Air Asia to Bangkok. I used Air Asia few times and I like them. Flight attendants are beautiful and I like their very red tight uniform. Although we arrived more than three hours earlier at the airport, many ppl already lined up. Even so many staff (12 ppl!) were there, the line didn’t move quickly. It was very slow because some of them were under training. Despite of this slow check-in, the flight was on time and smooth. I couldn’t understand announcements in the plane because of the strong Thai account, which made me nervous and worry if I cannot understand Indian accent during the course.
In Bangkok, immigration didn’t take long and I got out quickly. I was not really hungry but I had decided to have Pad Thai in the airport, so I did. It was 411 baht in total for Pad Thai (240 baht) bubble tea (110 baht) and after tax and service fee. It was good but not life changing and kind of expensive. Thai baht went up so much in past few years. I was shocked… Thailand might not be “cheap country” for Japanese anymore.
10 hours of transit time passed safely and quickly. Since it was late night and I didn’t have interest to go out of the airport, I planned to stay in the airport. Bangkok airport seemed quite safe. Lots of ppl sleep on the chairs and some ppl left their baggages while they go to buy food or use bathroom. I slept for 3 hours after I charged my phone. I couldn’t leave my phone alone and sleep. Outlets are everywhere but some of them were not working, I had no idea why. I bought a yogurt drink, bananas and dried mango at 7-11 before the check-in. Some stores are open 24 hours at the airport. Overall, staying at the Bangkok airport was not bad.
During the immigration, I got an email from SpiceJet, the next flight company, said my flight had revised. Departure was 3:50am originally and it’s now 5:25am. I saw the flight info and most of the SpiceJet flights were cancelled. I couldn’t understand what is going on but I was just glad my flight was a minor change. The passengers in the flight were 98% Indian people. So, of course the toilet in the plane was dirty. Blinds of the plane didn’t move smoothly. An Indian guy in front of me gave up closing the blund. The plane made weird noise when it’s departing. Announcements in the plane are easier to understand than Air Asia. One thing I was happy about was the seat because it was only myself in a row.
I don’t think I wanna take SpiceJet again. I still need to decide how to get back to Japan at the end of September, but not with SpiceJet.
I just decided to go to India when I started to learn yoga almost three years ago. Because of the COVID-19, my plan to go to Rishikesh didn’t work. Here I am, finally my plan is on the track.
So many things I’m worried about this trip made me nervous, mentally and physically.
How to choose a retreat?
How to get there?
Is India safe?
How to get a visa?
How much yoga skill do I need to take the TTC?
Is my English enough?
Which vaccines do I need to get before I go to India?
What kind of clothes/shoes should I bring? And how many?
How much money should I bring?
Many questions continue…. but I got those problems sorted out eventually. Sometimes in a hard way, and it was okay.
