It felt to us as though Rishikesh is all about making money from yoga. "Spirituality for sale" I like to call it... Almost everywhere puts their energy into a TTC (Teacher training course) but the drop-in classes are largely ignored. We did classes at 5 different places, and found that there were only beginner classes on offer. Almost every day the advanced or intermediate classes were cancelled, or simply weren't offered at all. Maybe it was because we were there at the start of the off season, but it seemed everywhere we enquired about advanced or intermediate classes tried to push us towards a TTC (which I already have).
It was also a strange place. We are firm believers in “When in Rome, do and wear as the Romans”. In Rishikesh it is common to see people wearing malas and bindis and looking all “yogic and spiritual” and then wearing tight fitting, short, revealing clothes. Everyday we saw nipples, penises, bum cracks… All in a country that covers up. It was just so contradictory. Sure, at a music festival it would have looked great! But in India.... It was just strange.
Time to head to the Himalayas for some reprieve from the heat!