Find heaven in the Himalayas
An eagle circles up the Ganges valley and then hangs, for one glorious moment, above the temple roof. We barely dare to breathe. So clear is the air that you can see every detail, every feather on his chest. Then up, up, up he soars, into the mountains, and the moment is passed, perfect and pin-sharp in my memory. Kunjapuri Temple is the kind of place where you have a religious experience, whether or not you are religious. The trek up to it alone is enough to test anyone's faith, then the final climb up steep stone steps to the top, beset by monkeys. Then being here, high in the foothills of the Himalayas, surrounded by such uplifting beauty and awe-inspiring scale, you feel on top of the world, a little closer to heaven.
The Hindu temple sits on a hilltop above Rishikesh, a holy city on the Ganges at its green-blue beginnings in northernmost India. Temples, ashrams and ghats line the riverbanks. In the evenings, the Hindu ritual of ganga aarti is performed at Parmarth Niketan ashram: devotees sing and light candles and send them floating down the Ganges, hundreds of flickering lights drifting out into the darkness. All are welcome here, curious travellers singing shoulder-to-shoulder with sadhus.
Rishikesh is the birthplace of yoga, and has been the epicentre of the world for those seeking spiritual enlightenment for hundreds of years. In 1968 The Beatles came to study Transcendental Meditation with its creator and their spiritual guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. They stayed at the Chaurasi Kutia ashram, chanting mantras in egg-shaped huts. Chanting, and jamming - so productive was their stay that they gave up drugs and wrote at least 30 songs, including most of the White Album and Abbey Road, the musical influences of India tumbling out in sitars and swarmandals. That ashram is long abandoned, but now you can visit again - it recently reopened as a shrine to the band, decorated with murals: love, love, love, all over the walls.
These days when stars from the West come to this holy place in the Himalayas - for yoga or r'n'r, or seeking deeper meaning to life - they stay in the hills above Rishikesh, at Ananda in the Himalayas.
Ananda is a top-drawer, five-star spa and wellness resort, and probably the best destination spa in the world. Certainly it has won award after award since it opened in 2000. Set around a restored Maharaja's palace in the hills above Rishikesh, the estate has long been a retreat; guests such as Lord Mountbatten came to recharge their batteries in the early 20th century; more recently, in its new incarnation as Ananda, it has hosted British royalty and Hollywood royalty (though staff are far too discreet to reveal names).
The setting is heavenly. It is surrounded by forest, green and peaceful; the air is fresh and clean. Eastern healing - yoga, Ayurveda, Vedanta (the pursuit of a higher consciousness) - is very much the focus, yet every Western requirement is pandered to. The luxuries are positively unashram-like: Wifi, flatscreen TVs, hot tubs. Huge, deeply comfortable beds. The spa has a relaxation room with floor-to-ceiling views down the Ganges valley, and treatment rooms open to the forest. There's even a golf course, just beyond the gardens of peacocks and poinsettia trees, where paths set with bowls of floating marigold blooms lead to yoga pavilions where you can salute the sun, in a group or one-to-one. Of all the places in the world to do yoga, there is surely none more perfect, more right, than this: in an open-air sala, surrounded by greenery, views out across the Himalayas, above the very birthplace of yoga itself.
Yoga and spirituality are intrinsic to Ananda. The Dhyana programme is a process of self-realisation to achieve emotional and spiritual balance, through a holistic series of practices: hatha yoga with your own dedicated yogi, meditation sessions, looking into a candle flame until the light is all you can see, maintain silence, and chanting mantras like the Beatles did in the 60s, until the sound reverberates and you are not sure whether it is coming from within you or it is something in the air.
Ayurvedic doctors, like life gurus, gently help you work through things. During a personalized consultation they will establish your dosha, or body type, so that you can eat, sleep and live more in tune with yourself, and opt for treatments to help alleviate symptoms. I am dismayed to find that my dosha is prone to greasy skin, bloating, insomnia; then amazed to discover that by tailoring my diet and lifestyle slightly I can help banish these problems, redress the balance. The food here is, I am surprised and delighted to find, completely delicious. Healthy, with plenty of it, and full of flavour. By the end of the first week, you can taste every ingredient, every delicate spice; with every step, you feel lighter.
Treatments, too, are tailored to suit every individual. The circulation-boosting Choornaswedana treatment uses dosha-specific herbal oils in a full-body massage; the toxin-busting Abhyanga treatment is a four-handed Ayurvedic massage which you lose yourself to entirely, lulled into a higher state of relaxation, aware of only birdsong in the forest around you. Or there is the Tibetan Ku Nye massage, in which the toxins and stress are kneaded out of you by women with strong hands and kind smiles. Afterwards you carry around the scent of cardamom and lavender from the hot poultices.
Up here, it all makes sense. Stress falls away, worries become mere trifles. Perspective is regained, balance realigned. Truly something close to heaven.
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10/10A pool villa at Ananda