Haridwar & Rishikesh

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It was to be a quick weekend trip to see the Kumbh Mela 2010 in Haridwar, Uttarkhand and perhaps a day in Rishikesh about 25kms from there. We were 5, got on to a bus from the Kashmere Gate ISBT after paying INR 400 each at 11.30pm, lucky to get seats. Arrived at 6am the following morning after stopping in Muzaffarnagar for the best tandoori roti & dal yet and before that for chai at a non-descript dhaba. All roads were sealed except for sadhus (priests) and we trekked with all our luggage for roughly 3 1/2 hours before finally getting to hotel Alaknanda at 9.30am. Run by the U.P Tourism board they had their room rates hiked to about 3,500 INR for a simple but clean 2 bed room, the toilet was usable lacking modernization yet we were supplied with 2 bars of small soap, seemingly clean towels and 2 unlimited sachets of shampoo.

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Gorged on a variety breakfast of puri aloo, cheese sandwiches, paneer pakodas and toast along with more sugar than masala chai despite my repeated requests for tea with sugar separately. Post this we were down at the ghats for a dip in the freezing Ganges, that's what the world comes to do. All sense of morals were surprisingly lost in terms of nudity with men & women of all ages, all sizes & shapes went all out to take a dip, drenched, saris draped, undies see through with the water, shivering and chanting. If only the MNS was there to see.

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Lunch, breakfast & dinner were included in the package, we did have lunch as everything would be accessible post 6pm, when everything we came to see would be over. we did however take the long walk to har ki pauri in the evening, caught all the madness in the narrow market lanes and had a yummy dinner at 'Mathura ki pracheen dukan' or some such. They served kachauris, 2 variations of potatoes & a pumpkin mash on leaves. i bought a wrought iron cycle for around INR 300 and a wooden horse for INR 50. Hung around randomly checking out the various lanes & by-lanes and sort of sauntered back to the hotel to crash.

Upset with the whole kumbh mela disappointment we left early for Rishikesh by a 'Vikram' auto rickshaw, we payed a total of INR 400 for the long scenic route and it took roughly an hour and a half to get to where we had to take another auto rickshaw to high bank, which we graciously shared with an elderly lady from New Zealand on her way to the same area. I highly recommend "lonely planet recommended" New Bhandari Swiss Cottage as the sign said and so did the book. Though the cottages were booked we got a small clean room & funny tunnel like loo for INR 300 a night. The food there is fab, it also houses a German Bakery and the guys running it are the sweetest. Look out for e-kis, he's awesome, full of stories, ever ready to serve or tell a tale. Ironically or not we were in this German Bakery when we heard about the bomb blast in the Pune one, which i was in roughly 10 days back!

Rishikesh is fabulous, the people are nice, it has the right vibe and one can feel what the Beatles must've felt back then. Definitely plan on a longer stay here, perhaps next month, and try to get in on some of the camping / rafting experience as well.

High bank is the area which is sort of secluded and higher as the name suggests, carved out and catering solely to backpackers and is a 20 minute walk to Lakshman Jhula just as the lonely planet predicted it to be. There are a couple of other hotels, cafes, a massage parlor, a bookshop, an internet cafe, travel agents and shopping shop selling clothes, Nepali north face bags and what not.

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Lakshman Jhula is the trippiest experience ever! you simply have to walk up and down this suspended bridge running over the Ganga to feel it. The other side has the ashrams, a painfully slow cafe coffee day (i was craving my dose of caffeine) and the speed boat agent who charges INR 1200 for the farthest they can take you for a private boatfull, though the boat captain makes it up by letting you spend a few extra minutes on the mid-way isolated beach and even pulls off a couple of daredevil 180's if you befriend him. he too is full of stories, including one about how if someone is killed and thrown into the Ganga, the river will refuse them and the body will float out but if someone drowns and dies, they'll never be found. I'm sure there is a scientific explanation to the phenomena and something to do with air being trapped in the lungs causing the body to float up if killed outside as opposed to drowning, filling lungs with water, heavy body, drown, never be found. anyway. a little more shopping and we reached the Oasis restaurant, decorated with flags of the world, including a game on the menu while you wait for your order which 3 people have won. it has a page full of all the flags of the world and if you guess them all then you get a free dinner, for one upto INR 500, so go prepared. (all 3 winners were geography teachers!)

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a cup of chai at the garden restaurant at high bank and we ended the evening chatting in a very windy cafe back at our hotel before calling it a night. The next morning was a heavy breakfast, a dash to the bus-stop, a dash-back from the bus stop to retrieve the forgotten bible of travel and another dash-back to the bus stop to get onto a 2x2 back to Delhi. (2x2 is a smaller bus with 2 rows of 2 seats each, they're reclining, it's not a Volvo but comfier than a fixed seat 3x2).

we left at 2pm and reached the outskirts of Delhi by 9pm and were caught in a nightmare of a traffic jam all the way through to the Delhi border at 11pm, this area is lined with malls and wedding halls and it was the 14th, valentines day, every couple on the block was on the road or getting married! we painfully reached at 11.30pm, a good couple of hours later than we should have.

all in all Haridwar was horrid but Rishikesh made up for it with it's good food, friendly people and the vibe, it's all about the vibe man, you've got to feel it!