— June 22-23 —
Located in the foothills of the Himalayas (pronounced hi-MAL-iyas), Rishikesh is considered a holy city, and a vegetarian one too. As the birthplace of yoga, it is known as the Yoga Capital of the World!
Though we didn’t do any yoga, the city had plenty else to offer. We climbed a temple, walked the [very crowded] Ram Jhula suspension bridge, observed the Ganga Aarti river god evening ceremony, did whitewater rafting on the Ganges (including cliff jumping and jumping into the river, which I was not a huge fan of), and hiked a short trek to a waterfall that (unfortunately) turned into a 2-hour one. All in all, Rishikesh was a tiring but fun weekend.
We left the guesthouse at 4:30am Saturday morning. I fell asleep in the car and woke up on a scenic one-lane highway by a jade green river – the upper Ganges canal – which we followed north. The rural landscape here was more of what I had expected India to look like: run down looking houses – large bulls pulling wagons piled up with rocks and muck – shops selling mangoes and popcorn (we tried a raw mango – it was hard but tangy) – skinny wild monkeys hanging out by the road – fields of sugarcane – a milk factory – a pig (grey because it was caked in mud?) with the cows – and beautiful scenery. We stopped for breakfast and had masala dosas — fried crepes made of rice batter and black lentils filled with a potato stuffing, served with coconut chutney and curry — and sweet lassis.
Since there were 7 of us total in a 6-person car, three of us (often the gals) ended up squeezing in the back row. This was fine for one hour, but painful after several hours. I fell asleep again and woke up to a bumpy dirt road – our driver seemed to enjoy going very fast, jolting us around in our seats – it was quite the ride. Then we entered forest-y mountain terrain. Honking is definitely not used only for emergencies — it’s used all the time, including when the car behind you thinks you’re going too slow on a winding mountain road.
We were staying at the Skyard hostel in Rishikesh, which was up a steep flight of stairs, away from the crowded street of shops, cafés (which are more like sit-down restaurants), and yoga ashrams. We had lunch at the top of the hill at The Pyramid Café, where we finally had a moment of peace and quiet!
After lunch we climbed to the top of the famous Trayambakeswar temple, a multi-story Hindu temple where each floor had rooms with different statues — some had priests sitting inside writing, beckoning you to join them — and stores selling souvenirs. It was quite commercialized. One guy tried selling a necklace to my friend for 200 rupees, but because an intern from the area came with us, she ended up getting the necklace for 5! From the top of the temple we had great views of the Ganges, the town, the mountains, and the Ram Jhula, a long suspension bridge – and the most crowded one I’ve been on yet (they really should ban motorcycles).
It rained for a little, and we took shelter (with the cows). There were quite a few large and baby stray cows on the streets that disregarded us. We sipped fresh coconut water out of coconuts and ate the white meat, which I thought had no taste. I found it interesting that the street market shops here emphasize honesty – one shop even had a sign admitting it was selling fake cashmere. I bought a small drawing for 100 rupees.
We arrived late to the Parvarth Niketan Ashram, but got to witness the end of the daily river god evening ceremony, the Ganga Aarti, which is a devotional ritual that uses fire as an offering, consisting of chanting, singing, and music.
Would highly recommend dinner at the Little Buddha Café!
On Sunday, we did whitewater rafting in the Ganges river with Shri Ganga Adventures for less than 1000 rupees ($15) a person – not bad!
The thrill started with the car ride to the river. We drove in a jeep on winding mountain roads, and the driver would pass all the cars and motorcycles – during the turns too. Honestly that was probably the scariest part of the rafting trip.
The Ganges presented a gorgeous view of the wide green river and green mountains. At first I was trying to stay dry, but then we got wet, and then our guide splashed us all with his oar. And then he was like jump! And we all got up and jumped into the river. I didn’t find it all that fun holding onto the rope for dear life.
At one point we got out again for cliff jumping. I climbed up the rock barefoot and jumped from 35-40 ft up. There’s that moment before you jump when your mind tells you to just jump and your body refuses to cooperate but finally you take the leap, suffer a second of free fall and then bam – the water knocks the wind out of you. I must’ve not landed on my feet, because my bottom was in a lot of pain right after. I let the current guide me to the boat, then had to clutch the rocks desperately with my feet when I realized I was about to be swept away down the river.
Tip: Don’t wear elephant pants if you know you’re gonna get wet! I ruined my favorite elephant pants — and then bought two more pairs at a government store (so no bargaining because government prices are set, but they’re usually decent prices), though they weren’t as nice.
Had magi, a snack famous all over India – it’s like ramen, salty and spicy and full of flavor.
The Neer garh waterfall trek (hike) was a bit steep, but just 15 minutes later we reached the small waterfall with a small pool where families were swimming and chilling in the cool water, surrounded by mountains covered in green forest.
Unfortunately, what was meant to be a 20-minute hike turned into a 2-hour trek: we got stranded on the roadside because our driver decided to drive far away to buy tobacco and ended up getting stuck in traffic on the way back to pick us up. We ended up walking on the traffic-jammed highway with the sheep and cows, who were also hungry — two were fighting over a piece of trash, and I saw one sipping murky brown water from a puddle on the ground. The quintessential snapshot of India: on a road with cows, monkeys, and endless honking. We were hungry, sweaty, and constantly breathing in dust and exhaust fumes – I’m pretty sure there was dust all over my face. On the bright side, we got a pretty good view of the river and mountains and could even see the Ram Jhula bridge (which meant we weren’t too far from where we started driving here from). Thankfully there were soda and ice cream carts along the road to keep us alive.
The intern who came with us invited us to his home for dinner. His family was so sweet and served us a delicious homemade meal of yellow dal (lentils), bhindi (okra), eggplant curry, rice, butter chapati, pauper (probably butchered the spelling), with a pistachio ice cream dessert, plus fresh mangoes! We ate to our hearts’ content.
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