Passing through India

Today is Thursday, and we walked endlessly along the country lanes along the Ganges. It is a beautiful river here at its headwaters, lots of white water rapids to raft on but too cold to do so. It's pale turquoise. We took a ferry across, then the long narrow foot bridge back. walked down a stone walled lane then up many stairs to one of the 50? ashrams amd ended up hanging our with the resident guru, 75 year old Swami Premvarni, who ran away at 10 to study yoga. We saw pictures of him doing all these asana contortions. He's taught in Berkeley and other places in the States. Very sweet moments with him.
Finally started using my new hd dv camera. Had been intimidated by the 57 buttons on all 6 sides of it, but only needed two...
Leanna and I keep having wonderful talks, especially at 5 or 6 in the morning when we still awaken from jet lag. We've covered soo many subjects, given her and my fields. She brings such a basic human, cultural view to many interpersonal dynamics.
Like, What IS the deal with incest?? Who would choose that? Why is it less of a deal in France?
Or, what is this YEARNING THING? What do you replace it with when you get what you want?
HOw successfully can you de-imprint?
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It's been funny trying to deal with my Indian toilet training... using water instead of paper. Wouldn't you know Leanna is probably the only person I know who uses a douche toilet at home so she's in heaven while I'm flubbered. The hose is hard to manipulate and gets sprayed all over the place. In steamy Malaysia, that was okay and I used it down my back for cooling purposes. Today I tried the douche toilet and the shock of that cold water on my backside reminded me of that glaucoma test that they pop on your eye ball...Very shocking! But it makes sense. Leanna swears by it. Meanwhile I travel with paper in purse...
The food is fabulous. So many great flavors. The countryside on the train was constantly reminding me of Indian art. So many rows of trees, a cross between a poplar and eucalyptus, many without leaves, which I find enchanting, much as I love trees WITH leaves. You can understand why the British fell in love with this place.
Last night I got caught by the cold after being at the internet cafe for two hours and not paying attention to the congelation occurring. They only had a coiled hot plate for heat. It was painfully cold and we had a long way to walk, including across the looong foot bridge.