Weekend Trip_Rishikesh

Hi I am Shivangi, a 24 year old girl working as an HR in Housing.com. I live in Gurgaon and i love travelling. As many people would say, once you start working you don't get time for yourself, the 9 - 5 job sucks the life out of you and you just want to relax in the weekends. I completely disagree with the above statement, you make time for the things you love. I started working in Jan 2019, and it took me 6 months to realize that i am also becoming a rat in the ongoing rat race who just wants to achieve a certain target, have defined set of workable and get a lot of sleep in the weekend. Hence, i decided to utilize my weekends and go on nearby trips.

Rishikesh, My first solo trip.

Since i live in Gurgaon, Rishikesh is just a 6 hour journey for me. i booked myself a bus ticket worth Rs 600/- on Saturday 8th June'19 for 11 pm and reached rishikesh in the morning around 7 am since the bus reached rishikesh bus stand 1 hour late. At the rishikesh bus stand, i brushed my teeth, freshened up and had my morning tea at a nearby Tapri. Since i was travelling solo i wanted a two wheeler for myself, so i started looking for these travel agents shops who arrange these scooty and bikes for a day.

i got my self an aviator at a price of INR 500 for day. I already had my destinations fixed, the Neer Jahrna and Ganga aarti in the evening. So i headed towards the Neer Jharna which is at a distance of 30 minutes from the bus stand. It was a fiery hot day and to make things worse there was a lot of congestion on the road, imagine having a traffic jam on the mountain road, Scary as hell right?, i was feeling exactly the same. Anyhow i crossed the blockage and reached the Neer Jharna location, it was indeed beautiful, "Jaise suraj ki garmi se Jalte hue man ko mil jae taruvar ki chaya types". But i decided to drive a bit more to see the cantonment area which was ahead of the neer jharna location but after a 10 mins drive the road got lonelier and i decided not to continue further.

I returned back to the Jharna, parked my scooty and started walking on the small stairs made for the way to the waterfall. i saw people enjoying with family, swimming in the small back water created by the waterfall and there was music around which the families were playing. i walked up to to the small bridge and sat very near to the waterfall on a big rock immersing my feet into the cold running water. It was a different experience altogether. After spending about 30 minutes near the waterfall i came back where i had parked my scooty, had maggi and tea in a nearby tapri and started driving back again towards the rishikesh bus stand location because i had to attend the Ganga Aarti at exactly 7 pm for which i planned to reach at 6:30 pm to worship the temple aswell.

Returning back, since it was a very hot day i felt completely exhausted and drained so i had to stop by at a hotel for some rest. Stayed at a hotel for 3 hours, had a bath got some sleep, after which i felt i came back to life again. at around 6 pm i started off again and went the to the Ganga aarti sthal, famously known as "Triveni Ghat".

It is a beautiful location, where you see a shiv-parvati statue in which ganga has beautifully depicted as she is flowing out of shivji's Bal Juda. I saw the whole mountain meeting the ganga river, mesmerizing scenic beauty, small kids deep diving into the river and picking out thrown coin from it, small stalls put my old ladies of "puja samaan" which they would tell you that you cannot attend aarti without. It was absolutely a perfect environment as i sat there immersed my feet into the river on the steps seeing the candles in the "Dona Phool" flowing along the river with lot of prayers that people were wishing to come true by offering this "Dona Phool" in the river.

There were a lot of priest at the Triveni ghat, who were preparing for the Ganga Aarti, they are said to be doing this from their ancestral times, they along with their kids in red kurta and white dhotis with turmeric colured tri symbol on thier heads, lit up the aarti and it started with 6-7 priest offering the aarti in a straight line standing on a 4 foot aarti sthal. It was one the most magical things i have ever witnessed till date as i cannot describe the feeling into words. It was just magical, after absorbing the moment for quite a while, i thought of video calling my mum and showing her the aarti, she was really happy.

My mother has always told me to always do what i think is right and will make me happy. She always knew that i am a travel bug and has always encouraged me step out of my boundaries, for my father, he feels i am truly his reflection as he also loves travelling. As a girl, it is expected by the society that i stay at home, be in my limits , marry and end my life living for somebody else, on the other hand, my father has a very different ideology, he says its always you first, your dreams, your wishes and your life by your decisions.

So, after seeing this mesmerizing Ganga Aarti, i reached by pickup bus location that was "Muni ki Reti", so as i reached half n hour before my boarding time, i planned to explore this place as well, roaming a while i thought there is nothing more to this place, but something struck me and i started walking towards these big stairs and found the real and the last shining star of my Amazing Solo Trip, it was the best view of the whole Rishikesh and Laxman Jhula lit up which shimmering lights. What a beautiful view to end my trip on. Finally i boarded the bus at 7 pm and reached home by 3 am in the morning, after which i headed to office exactly at 9 :15 am.

Hope you enjoyed reading about the trip, since this is my first writing, please let me know how i could improve on it. Would share about the next trip on which i went with 25 random strangers from Pan India to Chail, Himanchal pradesh.

Thankyou.