Honest Review I hope they don't silence.
Hello, this review is a bit long but I want to put everything sincerely so that people who are looking to take a course to become yoga teachers can make a conscious and responsible decision. I hope this feedback is not hidden like all the others that never came out or will come out because they don't publish them. I booked my trip to Rishikesh at Gurukul in mid-June. The communication from the administration was excellent; there was never any problem. I requested a private room with air conditioning, which added $200 more to the cost. It seemed a bit expensive, but I accepted. When I arrived at the school, I found that the rooms with air conditioning were not within the school premises (which I was never informed about when I reserved my spot). They took me to two places which I did not like, first because I did not know the area and second because of the hygiene. When I returned to the school, they told me they could give me a cooler for an extra $100, which I accepted because I was exhausted from running around after three days of travel and just wanted to shower and sleep. When they showed me the room, it was disgusting, full of dust, the bathroom super dirty, and the sheets horrible too. I literally had to walk to the town to buy detergent, bleach, Lysol, and other things to clean the room myself. The sheets and pillows were filthy i had to buy new sheets and pillow cover myself. I let it go because I didn't want conflicts and aimed to clean the room myself during my stay. we spend 4 days without electricity and the school generator give out (which is not the school management fault) so i decided to return the cooler and after a couple of days they refund me the 100 dollars.
Food is decent, not the best i never ate inside the school premises because im a picky eater but is not what they advertised they don't have variety. They treat local students (students that comes from India) vs Western students totally different i can testify that is in discriminatory way and I have proof of that, they charged westerners 4 times more than local and when you complaint about it management just says they pay more taxes for foreigners.
Please please do your own research before going to a yoga school in Rishikesh this one doesn't have any negative reviews which now i understand why, they hide everything and silence the people that have a negative experience.
I complaint about cleanliness in the common areas because they had trashcans full and they told me that "im probably not used to the Indian culture" I will be posting the pictures here.
Good thing about school that I cant deny is the education, I had the opportunity to learn from exceptional teachers, and mentors they hired fine and knowledgable people to teach and I would be lying if I say other wise. So you can take classes if you want as a walk in but I highly recommend to stay elsewhere for sleep although in India Hygene in general is really questionable specially rural.
At the end of the 200 hours i decided to leave the premises to another hotel and they didn't even help with my luggage .
please please DYOR before leaving for a month and be very self conscious of what you will be getting yourself into and for how long.
******update****** the school is saying that i'm targeting them because i did not abide by the rules of the ashram, which is totally untrue. after check-in, chenna was the one who gave me the room keys, and there were two keys instead of one. i was late one night by 30 minutes because i was with my classmates enjoying the ganga arti. so, here is the proof that the ones harassing me are the school, sending our philosophy teacher to ask me to remove the review and threatening to cancel my certification. mind you, i'm not a child; tired of playing games, especially in a place that i paid to be and where i should be treated decently. I ALREADY SUBMITTED A REPORT WITH YOGA ALLIANCE AND WILL TAKE THIS TO THE LAST CONSEQUENCES IF I NEED TO SPECIALLY BECAUSE THEY KNOW IM TELLING THE TRUTH.
30 czerwca 2024
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