Enjoying Rishikesh

Monday 4^th May 2015

I woke up early this morning and took the time to finish the terrible book I had been reading. Once that was done I chilled on the roof for a bit so that Mark could do his laundry. Eventually we headed out around lunchtime to get some breakfast.

We ate at a little Indian place that was cheap as chips and then headed into town to have a geez at Rishikesh and to take a swim in the Ganges. We crossed Lakshman jhula (the suspension bridge) and then walked along the far side of the river. We stopped off in a few shops along the way and then made our way down onto one of the beaches.

On Lakshman Jhula

Selfie with a cow

The Mighty Ganga

We paddled our feet in the icy waters but couldn’t swim there as it was a no swimming spot (many people drown each year when they get pulled out into the deep current filled river) after sitting a bit too long in the sun we walked along the beach and back up to the town.

We were just having a nosy at the bathing Ghats when someone grabbed my arm form behind, it was Sandeep from the Ashram way back in December we stood about chatting for a bit and then Gita (also from the Ashram) also turned up.

We all went down the road where the boys got fruit salad and the girls had juice. We sat in the juice shop all afternoon catching up and finding out the best things to do in Rishikesh.

Eventually about 4.30pm we decided it was a good time for a swim and Mark, Gita and I headed back to the beach where we had a quick dunk (the water is so cold all you need is a dunk) we felt cooled down by the icy fresh water and headed back to the guesthouse dripping (we had to swim in our clothes)

Once we were showered and clean we headed out for dinner we wanted to go somewhere that had good Wi-Fi so I could upload some pictures but we didn’t have much luck finding anywhere as the place we wanted to go was closed and by this stage we were starving. We ended up having a cheapo thali and then heading into a café for a cup of tea and an abuse of the Wi-Fi but it turned out to be quite slow and we spent ages in there with little result.

On the plus side we didn’t get chased by dogs on the way home so we were pretty pleased about that.

Tuesday 5^th May 2015

We woke up today feeling rather lethargic and so moved very slowly towards breakfast. By the time we found somewhere to eat it was lunchtime and so we got falafel plates and spent the next two hours picking at food and reading.

Eventually we got moving and took a walk past the bridges out of town and found a semi secluded beach where we spent the afternoon chilling out and paddling we didn’t really swim as we were on a section of beach that was designated no swimming and neither of us really felt like drowning.

On the way back to our guesthouse we stopped to get our palm read by a wise little raisin of a man. He spent an age studying all the lines on our palms before eventually coming up with his verdict. He was pretty good and very informative but I think we will still check out someone else as well to see if the readings match!

We walked across the bridge and went and got huge ice-creams as a treat. Despite being about 5pm it was still so hot that they were melting as fast as we could eat them so they didn’t last long.

We headed back to our accommodation and showered and got clean then headed out for dinner we managed to find somewhere with good Wi-Fi and sat and rinsed it for a while before heading home to bed.

Wednesday 6^th May 2015

This morning we had breakfast at one of the Indian places we have been frequenting before taking in an epic walk to a waterfall. We had been told that it was 3km away but it was more like 6km the walk took us along the road above the river which had spectacular views but more than a few times we looked up to make sure there were no rocks falling on our heads.

It took us about 90mis to get there the last part of the walk was up a steep rocky dirt track which opened out into a little clearing at the base of the waterfall. In the monsoon season it must be a sight to behold but as it was there wasn’t too much of a flow coming down just enough to make a little pool at the base that was about thigh deep.

There were a few other people there all sunning themselves in bikinis despite it being a holy place and there being a big sign to treat the area accordingly. It was quite peaceful dipping our toes in the fresh water and then chilling out being cooled down by the mist that was blown in our direction.

We sat there enjoying the tranquillity for a while until a big group of Indian tourists came and ruined the silence they were loud and boisterous and very drunk on some hideous whiskey and coke combo. I think the sanctity of the holy waterfall was definitely defiled by the smoking, drinking and littering going on.

The space wasn’t big enough to move out of the way so we ended up packing up and leaving as they were all so spatially unaware we were constantly being stood on and caught in the middle of their raucous conversations they also had a very beautiful but very smelly Alsatian who kept standing or sitting on me and its stink was enough to make one throw up!

The holy waterfall

The walk back took a bit longer as we were tired and my shoe was rubbing giving me an almighty blister. At one point Mark mocked this huge monkey who took great offence and chased us for a short distance we made it back into town and crossed over the bridge to our side of the river where we were stopped by a man selling bindi stamps I have seen them before but always managed to run away before they could get me but today I was so slow, he ended up stamping them all over my face an hand and arm and in the end we walked away with three packs. (They were ridiculously cheap though so we weren’t complaining) once we got away from him we had a thali for lunch (even though by this stage it was 4pm)

Two Mules enjoying the shade

Crazy tree on a tree

Feeling full we started back to the guesthouse to chill out for a bit and have a shower but got distracted by a café as Mark wanted coffee the view was amazing and the place had Wi-Fi so we took advantage of it and chilled out for a while.

View of The Ganga

In the early evening we went to meet Sandeep to watch the arti it took us longer to walk there than we expected but we weren’t too late. We chilled on the bank of the Ganges on the steps of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram chatting and watching the world go by until the arti started and we moved closer to see it.

Arti

After watching we got our shoes back from the shoe keepers and a family asked me to take a photo with them Mark was doing up his shoelaces behind us and grabbed the ankle of the little girl scaring the shit out of her which was rather funny but also rather mean.

We met up with Gita for dinner as it was her last night in India we went and had dinner at one of the Ashrams I had a pumpkin curry which was sensational. After that we headed down the road to a café for something sweet I had this chocolate ball that tasted quite a lot like a brownie with chocolate melted on top and then it was drizzled with honey it was rather amazing if not completely indulgent.

We ended up sitting there until quite late and by the time we had to walk back everything was closed and it was very dark. Luckily we didn’t run into any angry dogs (or people for that matter) but it wasn’t a fun trip in the dark.

Back at the guesthouse we were so pleased for a shower after spending the whole day in grime covered sweaty clothes (it was close to 40 degrees when we walked to the waterfall!) and after so much walking we were happy to be in bed!