Weekend In Rishikesh

We reached Rishikesh at 4:30 am and at that time it was dark because of wintertime but few auto-rickshaws were standing at the opposite side of the bus stand. So we hired an auto for Rs 250 from the bus stand to our hostel, Indian Culture, which we pre-booked for 2 days and 1 night that costs us Rs 1733. If you wish to go there you can book a shared room at a minimum cost. As the budget was not a problem for us so we booked a separate room for us. The market and Laxman Jhula from Indian culture hostel are within walking distance.

We decided to explore nearby places of our hostel as check-in time was 11:00 am. We first visited Laxman Jhula, it was so peaceful and beautiful in the morning with the colourful lights on the bridge and less crowded. We witnessed sunrise sitting near the river.

After spending some time near the river we started wandering on the roads of Rishikesh for around 2-3 hours. We then checked-in at our hostel, had our breakfast and then headed towards the search of places where we could arrange our rafting adventure.

Again this was my friend's idea to do rafting just a week before her marriage. We managed to book a rafting trip for Rs. 600 per head for 16kms for the next day morning. After this booking, we explored cafes and local markets. Then for sunset, we came back to Ganga Ghat and we first clicked a few photos there and then we just enjoyed the view and sunset.

The very next day we were ready for our river rafting trip. One cab picked us from our hostel and took us to the rafting’s starting point. On this trip, our rafting buddies were two college students and one couple roughly in their 50's. In the cab we had small talks. The couple was very excited for this activity. They were full of energy and they made us laugh throughout our trip. The kind of enthusiasm in them made us feel so alive.

We reached the starting point. Then a guide explained about the rapids and raft and trained us for the expected and unexpected situations like how to handle ourselves if we fall out from our raft and how to deal with the situations if our raft flips and gets stuck under the raft. After these instructions, we then started the adventure.

As I already had rafting experience prior to this trip in which I did something stupid, (mentioned in my previous blog) so I was aware of what situations I should avoid this time. There were no major rapids so we just enjoyed the calmness of the river. We jumped off the raft and enjoyed the bright sun rays and cold river water.

We took a break at a famous cliff jump and maggie point in between the rafting trip. My friend was so excited that she decided to jump off a cliff and I remembered what her mom said to me to take care of her the previous day. But she finally managed to jump from that cliff without harming herself and asked me to do the same. I can do any adventure but jumping in the water from a height is not my cup of tea especially after my first rafting experience.

We then continued rafting which later ended at Laxman Jhula. After rafting we came back to our hostel, got ready and went to Laxman Jhula again to see Ganga Aarti after which we had our dinner and without wasting any time we booked an auto-rickshaw from our hostel to the bus stand and ended this trip on a happy note with some good memories. :)