Rishikesh, as the title says, is the world yoga capital. It is situated at a height of 372m above mean sea level in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand. Rishikesh is well known for its yoga ashrams, Ganga Aarti, River Rafting and many other things. Rishikesh is named after Harishikesh – avatar of Vishnu.
My friend and I planned that we will go to Rishikesh as soon as I will come back from Goa. But the day I came back from Goa my annoying friend got sick and he said he need at least one week to recover. Like this our plan got postponed several times and in between I climbed the third highest peak of Solan district (Himachal Pradesh), but he was still postponing. Finally we decided that we will go on 24th of March and one mutual friend of ours also agreed to accompany us.
We reached Rishikesh late in the evening and our first task was to find the cheapest room. We found the room and immediately rushed towards Lakshman jhula, I don’t know why but we rushed, came back and slept. It is believed that Lakshmana crossed river Ganges on jute rope between these place where this bridge is built. This bridge was completed in 1929 and was constructed by U.P.P.W.D.
Next day we had breakfast, inquired about river rafting and cycling. We hired bicycles and headed towards Shivpuri. The owner of the cycles gave us a map of the nearby location that we can go on cycles in one day. Day progressed and we found out that we cannot reach all the places mentioned in the map as we were amateur and riding cycle for the first time.
We reached Shivpuri, lifted cycles on the shoulders and descended down towards the river bank. We took our cloths off and jumped into the river. After such a tiring bicycle ride of approximately 16-17 kilometers when that cold blue water of Gangotri touched my skin made me fall in love with nature more. Water had an relaxing effect and I felt energized. But that energy vanished away immediately after seating on the seat of the cycle. F*** was the word which traveled a long distance from my ass and reached my mouth depicting the pain in the ass. After that I barely sat on the seat till we reached back.
Day two began with a urge for doing some thrilling task, so we decided to go for white water river rafting. Booked our 3 seats in a raft of 10, and we were the only ones who booked that raft that day. Our instructor who was from Uttarakhand gave us instructions in English in a British accent which was hard to understand so I just said yes everytime he asked “understood”. It was a breathtaking experience with plenty of rapids having weird names, I don’t remember all of them but some of them were golf course, hello baby, double trouble, return to center. After rafting we were roaming along the banks of Ganges and suddenly we came across some foreigners playing music on the mini Goa beach. The music was so soothing that it relaxed my mind and took me to whole other level of satisfaction. I just wanted to sit there till they sing their last word but we had some other plans so we rushed to attend famous Parmarth Niketan Ganga Aarti which added a religious touch to the wonderful adventurous day.
