Spiritual Rishikesh!

I went on my first trip with friends. I had never travelled with my friends before and that's why this trip was special to my heart. Because when you are travelling with friends or alone you are suddenly this grown up who is responsible for taking care of themselves. As earlier I have travelled both domestic and international with my family, where I did not have to care about the money I need to spend, what hotels I need to book, how I am going to travel in that city or country. In short, you travel tension free when travelling with family. If you are in your first phase of adulting, travelling with friends or solo is a must.

So, as this was my first trip with friends our expenditure was more than compared to other friend groups. We booked an amazing hotel "Hill top Swiss Cottage" and as we were 3 people, we booked us a luxury room and the cost of the room got divided among us and it was around Rs. 1300 per head for 2 nights. The atmosphere of the hotel was beautiful, they conduct bonfires every night and one night we were lucky when they had a local singer over and he has an amazing voice and he just lightens up everyone's mood. The hotel is perfect for friend groups as well as family. It is well decorated and gives you an amazing view. The food at the hotel's restaurant is also good, you get to choose from a variety of cuisines. I especially liked their breakfast menu, being a person who cannot move around without having breakfast, it was kind of heaven for me. They even had a yoga room, where you can sign up for yoga classes which was around Rs. 500-1000. We were not interested in Yoga, so we did not sign up for that.

For reaching Rishikesh from Delhi we booked "Zing bus" and it cost us around Rs. 730. There are cheaper buses also available but because of Covid-19 we were not sure whether we should book them or not, because of the reviews and "Zing bus" promised to be sanitised and reviews were also good and it was up to our mark so, no regrets in that. We reached Rishikesh at 5'0 clock in the morning and the city did not open before 9am. So, we went to our hotel and sat in their waiting room because it was fully booked and check-out time was 11am.

While the hotel was preparing our room we had our breakfast and went to Laxman Jhula by walking. We took the help of Google Maps and it wasn't that far from our hotel. The area around Laxman Jhula is surrounded by a market where you can find some great stuff to shop and all kinds of street foods as well as restaurants and cafes. Three girls in a market what else can you expect, yes we shopped the hell out within a few hours after reaching the city that early morning. After shopping and going up and down the Jhula a few times we came back to our hotel as our room was ready. After freshening up me and my friend went for "Ganga Aarti" and no, my third friend couldn't join us because of her "Work from home" actually it turned "Work from hotel room". Anyway, we went to "Triveni Ghat", there we experienced an amazing sunset followed by beautiful "Ganga Aarti". Watching the aarti we were suddenly detoxified and kind of forgot all the difficult things we were facing in our lives and for time I had this feeling please don't talk to me for sometime let me enjoy this peacefulness. We ended our night with dinner at "German Bakery" in Laxman Jhula. We did not like the food there, so I won't recommend it.

The second day I went out to do something daring. I have done adventure sports before but it was always with my family and if I would have died it had been in front of them. So, I went for "River Rafting" the longest river rafting in the country of 16KM. The starting point was Shivpuri and the end point was Laxman Jhula. We booked rafting at Rs. 400 after a hell lot of bargaining. And if you don't want to bargain the rate is around Rs. 600. So, they took us from Laxman Jhula by car to Shivpuri. It was almost 45mins car ride. After reaching there they provided us with life jackets, helmets and a row. It sounds scary but it was not if you listen to your instructor carefully and follow him. The river was pretty generous during our time. I was scared at first but then when I made it through 2 rapids it was more fun than scary. There are 8 rapids on the river and they all have names. I am not going to give that away because if you visit and you'll be like, "arey, I know this'' and there is no fun in that. During the rafting course they stop at a swimming point where you can get down and swim, and from there after one more rapid they took us to this "Break Point'' where you could have Maggi and tea and for dessert an experience of "Cliff Jump". I was too scared to do that, so I did not but others were having fun, so you could try that if you are not like me. Our rafting course ended at Laxman Jhula and one should definitely try it because it is the most amazing experience and once you do it all your fears go away for a second you might think can conquer the world but come on let's come back to reality. And if you want your pictures and videos of rafting it will cost you Rs. 18oo per boat which will come around Rs. 200 per head if other people on the boat agrees because one boat can carry only 9 people and if you are group of 9 people then you won't have a problem of arguing with other people or you could pay whole Rs. 1800 for yourself.

On our last day, we went to the famous "Beatles Ashram" or "Swarg Ashram" , an attraction for young people because the name itself attracts the huge crowd. Just a short story about this famous location is that the famous Beatles Band came to this ashram to study Transcendental Meditation. Who won't come to see this ashram where The Beatles stayed and meditated and was the reason for their success. The Ashram covers a huge land by the river and it takes almost 2 hrs to look around. The Ashram was closed in the 1980s and now it's not in a good shape but still beautiful. The entry fee is Rs. 50. If you are a Beatles fan you should definitely visit. While coming back from the Ashram we had to cross "Janaki Jhula" it's a new flyover and below that there is an amazing Ghat where you sit by the river and it is quite peaceful. We sat there for more than 45mins, we wanted to sit there for longer but we had a bus to catch for Delhi. But sitting by the river, hearing the sound the river gives you a peaceful and spiritual feeling and believe me you will not want to get up.

As, we stayed in Rishikesh for 2 days which was enough because you don't have much to see there and it is a pretty good place for a weekend getaway and cheap place. For us it was pretty expensive because it was our first trip and we did not have any idea. You can even travel solo and the crowd in Rishikesh is of young people and you can also make new friends there. Overall, we had an amazing experience because of the beautiful place and it was our first trip during the pandemic.