Day1
We traveled to Hardwar by overnight train. I was finally able to sleep as I have been getting used to the train rides now. We took a rick over to the Ganges river where we watched the sunrise and had some chay. We also made some friends down by the river who helped us “Om to Shiva”.
It was too early and cold in the morning to get out my camera until after we had some breakfast. After watching many Hindus taking a holy dip into the river I decided that I should partake in the cultural tradition, being that Hardwar means pathway to God, referring to where the Ganges River makes its final rapids from the Himalyas and into the plains area. The water was not that cold, and I insprired others in the group to also take a dip. As soon as we got out many people came to us to give us offerings and sacrifices to the river.
We then made it over to the absurdly large statue of Shiva which looms as a shadow over everything in the town. We took some pics and played some hacky sack to relax. We rumuged through other parts of town and finally caught a 4 rupee train ride to Rishikesh. We followed the Lonely Planet suggestion of heading towards the Bombay guest house which was cheap and not to far away.
Rishikesh
Day 2
This turned out to be a wonderful idea as the stay was cheap (150 RS per room per night, two people per room) and next to the most fascinating bakery I have been to in months: Deruvaj Coffee house and German Bread Bakery. They actually had filtered drip coffee, freshly baked pies, breads and pastries (CINAMON ROLLS!!!). The café sat up on a cliff overlooking the bridge and the river below it. There were lots of foreigners at the café and lots of monkeys by the bridge.
We mostly walked around the different bazaars that first day and decided to try and find the Beatles Ashram, which was supposedly nearby. We walked up into these hills and after a few kilometers of walking we realized we had passed it, but not need to fear for this young and 3able group of people. We started making our own trail through the forested parts off the road. After a while, me and some others decided to head back and not worry about finding the Ashram while the rest pushed on into the trees. I made it back to the main road and found some good food to eat. I came across an evening celebration by the river and I went to check it out. There was a small music ensemble playing some traditional Indian songs on Tablas, Harmonium and voice and a ton of people sitting around some fires doing what seemed like an old ritual that was being shown to some foreigners.
Afterwards, we meet back up with the others who were successufel in finding the Beatles Ashram (at least that’s what they think they found, and I am pretty certain it was…)
Day 3
The next day we rented some motorbikes! We didn’t ride on any busy or main roads, except when we had to ride across the bridge and into town to get gas because they rented us bikes with no gas… but afterwords we headed back up into this mountain road and had a very, very pleasant ride heading up river. We were riding to the Jumping Hieghts Bunjee jump plateform, where Colin had signed up to jump. He has jumped many times before and we were all very excited to come out and watch… it was my first time actually watching someone jump and it looked sooo scary and exciting. I really wanted to give it a try actually… Anyway, Colin successfully jumped - twice! We then hightailed back into town and returned the bikes and grabbed some more coffee and sweets and the bakery. It was kind of sad that we ate 90% of our meals there, but hey it was awesome and I’m not sure when I will get fresh bread like that again.
I spent some more time down by the river and watched the sunset. I also did some shopping and “hippie-d” myself out with some killer threads. My Impression of Rishikesh is that it is still trapped in the 1970s, and the Beatles never left, and everyone is a hippie. It was a great vibe and I think I totally will be taking a part of it home with me
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