Rishikesh Day 1

Rishikesh Day 1

The first time I heard about Rishikesh was from my parents and I reckoned it (till the time I went there) as a place for “Spiritual journey”.  But now the only thing that I am reminded off when I think of Rishikesh is the pristine white sand beach, the gurgle of Ganges, white water rafting and a place where one can explore tranquility and spirituality.

At 6.30 am we started our journey from Gurgaon to Rishikesh in a Innvova .  We took a break around 9.30 am to have our breakfast -the mouth-watering (butter laden)  paranthas and Chai at Cheetal,  mid way restaurant , still scintillates my taste buds.

We reached Rishikesh around 4 pm as generally there is a lot of traffic between Rourkee and Rishikesh. But our destination was not Rishikesh but further 2 hrs by road to Kaudiyala, the devbhoomi of Uttarakhand. After a long day in the car , we were absolutely tired. So we decided to visit "Chotiwaala" and enjoy the delicious meal there. Rishikesh's main attraction Laxman Jhula and the Shiv Murti looked beautiful in the night.

We decided to come back to visit these places the next day.By the time we reached Kaudiyala, it was 7.30pm. Moment we reached Kaudiyala it was a different experience all together – suddenly all the tiredness vanished upon looking the beautiful white sand, the river and the camps. Yes we were going to stay in camps amidst the pristine mountain valley, a star studded sky and the gurgle of Ganges. It was a different world – away from the hustle bustle of NCR.  Then came the first surprise – We couldn’t walk down to the camp, a gentleman came to escort us in the raft to the camp. That was the beginning of the Rishikesh experience!  I had never expected that Gages could be so pristine and even more surprising was the white sand river beach. It reminded me of the White sand Beach of Bicheno on Tasmania’s east coast. Truly, we have places in India which are no less than any of the exotic locations of the world. The camps were beautiful lit with candle inside and had a comfortable double bed –that was a modern amenity for a “camp”. The first time I went to Rishikesh in 2006, the camp did not even have mobile connectivity. And yes no electricity too. Can’t imagine a life without these, but believe me – the very absence of these essentials made that trip even more memorable. Imagine how will a city dweller feel sitting on pristine white sand, beside the Ganges - under a full moon black sky with zillions of starts and hundreds of constellation. That too without electricity and mobile connectivity? Well one has to feel it, to understand the out of world experience. Even sleeping inside the camp with the continuous gurgle of the Ganges was like a melodious lullaby to my ears.

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Rishikesh Day 2

The desire to see the pristine beauty of the Ganges forced me to come out of the bed early in the morning, as early as 6 AM in the morning.  Started my day with tea on the banks of Ganges…it was one the best tea I have ever had…not because of the taste but because of the ambiance of the surroundings! 

Morning Tea!!

By then most of my friends (read colleagues) were awake and we were ready with our gears to play beach volley ball. Good fun but alas I injured my wrist a bit. Well what you can expect from a software engineer (read girl) who spends most of the day and even nights in office . We had to stop at 7.30 am as we scheduled to go for rafting that morning. So we had a wonderful breakfast in the camp and we were off to rafting. 

The Ganges

It was supposed to be an easy day with small rapids. We started off our journey by crossing the river to reach the road and then we were off downstream where the rafting begins. Well that was the first time in my life that I was doing anything known as an “Adventure sport”.  We were to be accompanied by a friendly Guide “Karan”. He gave us a comprehensive safety briefing about rafting. Thereafter we packed our bags (camera and essentials) in the raft and we were ready to gooooo!  I was super excited.   We had to raft from Kaudiyala – Shivpuri . It was supposed to be an easy day with small rapids. 

The rafting begins

The adrenaline rush came when our friendly (well not really!) guide overturned the raft intentionally (off course in still Ganges) and we all suddenly were screaming …well not because we were drowning (it was not possible because of the life jackets) but the water was too cold and we didn’t expect that he will unexpectedly overturn the raft. Well, believe me this was important to remove the inhibitions/ fear we had for the rafting! It was almost like the feeling we have during holi…if someone colours us black and blue and drowns us in water, then we don’t care any further and go full stream without fear to colour other people!! Also this made us enjoy the body surfing in the small rapids. Believe me the water was very clean, unlike what it is in Haridwar. It was a Great day to relax, soak in the sun, and bodysurf and bird-watch (the real one J). This stretch of Rafting is quite safe and even families can go in for this stretch. The raft time was approximately 22 kms from Kaudiyala to Shivpuri. Well we retuned by afternoon back to our camp. After having lunch, we decided to go to Devprayag by road. That’s the place where the Ganages originates. It is one of the Panch Prayag (five confluences) of Alaknanda River where Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river meet and take the name Ganga or Ganges river. We returned back and spend a relaxed night at our camp with born fire, Antakshari and office gossips ! Offcourse not to forget the sumptuous chicken gravy for dinner! We were awake till 12 am on the pristine white sand, beside the Ganges - with zillions of stars in the beautiful black night.