Trip To Rishikesh (Day 1)

Friends, I went on a Rishikesh trip on Friday evening 1st April 2022. I booked a volvo from RedBus app and left from my home at noida around 8pm. The journey by volvo bus was a tiring one.

People living in Noida, I would advice y’all to either go by a train till Haridwar and then go to Rishikesh from there. Alternatively, you can simply take a roadways bus from Gaziabad and reach Rishikesh in around 4 hours. Taking Volvo from Noida to Rishikesh will waste a lot of time. Imagine, for such a short distance it took me around 10 hours to reach from Noida to Rishikesh. Had I taken the roadways bus then I would have reached in around 5 hours at a very cheap price. I spent 900rs and 10 hours in my journey from Noida to Rishikesh. However, It would have costed me around 400rs and 5 hours if I had chosen the alternatives that I just mentioned. So choose wisely. There is an another option of Bla Bla car as well if anyone want to explore more commute options.

I reached Rishikesh at around 6 am in the morning. Experiencing morning of hill stations is a magical feeling and for a person like me who lives in a city like Noida this is whole another level experience. You feel alive by feeling fresh air and beautiful scenic views .

It was the most unplanned trip of my life. I did not book anything. Now the first thing to do was taking an accomodation. I had heard names of few good hostels at Rishikesh. One of my friend recommended GoStops. I checked the pictures and reviews on the internet for the same and decided to stay at GoStops.

At bus stop I found a shared auto to drop till Laxman Jhula. Me and some other passengers from the same bus took that auto. Auto dropped me till a certain point and now I had to walk in the city to reach my hostel. Thankfully because of google maps I had the courage to find the hostel. Therefore, I put the hostel name in google maps and started walking as per the map.

My way to hostel was filled with narrow lanes, lot of stairs, lot of scenic views, beautiful streets of Tapovan. I was enjoying everything and the smile on my face did not go away even for a single second. (I enjoy walking and walking on the streets of hill stations becomes more enjoyable for me.) After few minutes map started showing me that I need to cross Laxman Jhula. As I stepped my foot on Laxman Jhula , I experienced the most wonderful feeling of life. Jhula was almost empty in the morning. The morning wind that I experienced there engrained in my memory forever. My walk from Tapovan to Laxman Jhula was one of the best experience that I felt on my trip. One lady was enjoying the breeze of fresh air on the Jhula. She looked at me smilingly and wished me “Good Morning”. I felt a sense of inclusion at that very moment and at that point itself I felt I am going to enjoy my trip 💃. I wished her good morning back and started walking again. I finally found my hostel after a lot of walking.

ZIF: My Laxman Jhula morning view

I reached at the reception of the hostel and asked receptionist if I could get a bed in female dorm. The receptionist saw me and said “pehchana nhi”. I said “no”.He said “aap last time bhi to aaye the”. I said “this is my first time here”. Then he said “ Koi aap jaisi dikhne waali stay karke gayi thi kuch din pehle”. (Mera face itna common hai kya? 😃) Now let’s come back to my stay again, It was around 7:30 am in the morning and checkin time was 12 pm, So he asked me to wait for sometime.(whoopsie daisies!! I am very tired. Please give me bed.) He told me that I could wait in the common area for sometime and he would try to arrange for the bed ASAP. He was really friendly, helpful and understanding guy.

(If you want to visit Rishikesh and wants to stay at a hostel then you can stay at GoStops. It is somewhat costly compared to other hostels but trust me it will be totally worth it. It is at a walking distance from Laxman Jhula, Market, Ghat and Cafe’s . The hostel staff is very friendly and nice. Plus the terrace and common area to chill is extremely amazing.)

A guy who was standing at the reception to give his breakfast order joined our conversation. He told me that the common area is very nice and it has lot of places where I could rest until the bed would be ready. I sat on a couch for sometime at reception, that guy also sat on one of the couch. He started telling me about his experiences of his Rishikesh trip, his bungee jumping experience, his rafting experience and many more stories. I asked him if hostel has foosball and he told me yes. Then he asked if I would like to play a game and I instantly got ready for it. For me it was the best way to pass the time until I get the bed to relax.

Pic: GoStops Laxman Jhula Common Area Relaxing Beds

The common area was on second floor. The hostel had a lift to take us to different floors. We took the lift to go to the common area. The common area of GoStops hostel is extremely amazing. It has pool table, foosball table, carrom board, TT table in games. We played few games of foosball and TT. After that my new friend went to have his breakfast and I relaxed in the common area for few minutes. Then I went at the reception again and I became very happy to learn that the bed was ready. I went to my room and slept off immediately for sometime 😴.

Pic: Gaming Area at GoStops Laxman Jhula

I woke up at around 11 am. One of my roommate noticed that I was sleeping in the room. She said : “So sorry, I did not notice that someone is sleeping in the room. I was playing music. Sorry to disturb you”. “It’s Ok. I did not notice as I was extremely tired” I replied. That’s how we started conversing with each other. Then we talked for sometime where we shared our basic information, hobbies, some travel experiences. She told me lot of her travel experiences as she was travelling from last 7–8 days. We talked for around 1 hour and then I finally realised that I have to get ready and explore the city. Also, I was famished and needed to eat something. I went to take a shower and got ready in few minutes.

(The song that she played was very nice. One more Shiva song got added to my list. Ganga Dharaaye Shiv Ganga Dharaaye. Har har bhole namah Shivaay. Nice one 👍)

Finally I left the hostel and started roaming in the markets of Laxman Jhula. The markets were full of shops which were selling home decor items, clothes, bags, food etc. I like roaming in the markets and watching beautiful and unique items. So, I was again experiencing one of my favorite things during travel. But, as I was hungry so decided to quickly search for any nearby cafe to eat. One of my other important checklist during my travel is to explore the best cafe’s of the place which provide the most beautiful view. So, I checked on internet and found “Ganga view cafe is nearest and one of the must visit cafe in Rishikesh”.

I again used google maps to find Ganga view cafe. I reached the cafe without any hassle and quickly this time, as it was very near from my hostel. I asked the waiter for a table. But the cafe was full, however one foreigner was sitting alone, So the waiter asked me join her. I sat on the opposite chair of that girl on the same table and asked for a menu from the waiter. I had heard that Falafal is a nice dish to try. The person sitting next to me was also having Falafal and I noticed that many people in the cafe were eating Falafal. So I also thought of trying the same. In drinks, I ordered Grape Mojito. After ordering my food I thought I should start a conversation with the person sitting in front of me. I said “hi”. She replied “hi”. That’s how I started conversation with a complete stranger again. We talked on variety of topics like her life at Rishikesh, Yoga, Meditation, Cafe’s, Food. She was from Russia. She came to Rishikesh for few days for a yoga training but she liked the city so much that she extended her stay for few more days. Now it’s been 8 months since she is staying at Rishikesh. She started working as a yoga teacher here and parallely she was learning more advanced yoga. In her words “Rishikesh is her second home. It is the best city to live in the world. People are very loving and accepting here.” (PS. I did not like Falafal. Mojito was good. The view of the cafe was actually very amazing. Totally worth a try.)

Pic: Taken from Ganga view Cafe

After having my food and clicking few pics in the cafe I said good bye to my Russian friend. Now, I thought: “what next”. I spotted a temple nearby and decided to explore it. It was a Shiva temple. It’s called Trayambakeshwar Temple. I am a follower of Shiva as Shiva is described as a symbol of infinite energy. Our universe is created from matter and energy and in our mythology Shiva and Shakti is described in same way.

The temple has 13 floors and each floor is dedicated to one particular reincarnation of shiva. The temple hallway has multiple shops selling religious products. The products are not very costly, So It’s upto you if you want to buy or not. I bought one ring and 2 Tulsi maala from a shop. After 6th floor I started feeling “Aur kitna bacha hai”. But trust me it is worth to visit the temple. Firstly you will get a chance to exercise and secondly the view from top floors is breathtaking. So my advice is to include this temple in your list during Rishikesh trip.

Pic: View from temple 11th floor

After visiting temple, I asked myself again: “What Next”. Now I thought of doing river rafting. I recalled that hostel was providing river rafting for 12km at 400rs. So, I decided to go back to hostel for river rafting. On my way I bought one Kurta which had “om” symbol in hindi written all over it. After reaching hostel I got to know that it’s already 4:00 pm and now it won’t be possible to do rafting as it closes at around 3pm. Nevertheless, I decided to try my luck in the market as It might be possible that someone would agree to take me for rafting at that time. I went back to my room to change into my newly bought Kurta. After that, I again went to market. I visited lot of shops but most of them had closed rafting for that day. Fortunately my luck was in my favour on that day and I finally found a shop who agreed to take me for rafting. 💃 (Yayyyy!! Victory!!)

We were 9 people and a guide on the raft. It was 12 km rafting for 520 rupees. (You could bargain for 420 rupees as well if you reach before 3pm.) People who did rafting with me were also very friendly and we all enjoyed a lot. I love water and almost all water sport activities. So I was doing the best adventure sport activity that I love the most and living the best moments of my life. It is a heavenly feeling when raft passes through the rapids and the water from the river falls on you 😍. After a certain point the guide gave freedom to jump into the river. (Never loose control of the life line rope of raft.) That experience of jumping into cold water of Ganga river is something. For me it can be considered as one of the best moments of life ❤️.

Pic: 1. Waterfall 2. Rafting

Our guide stopped our raft at one point and told us that we could eat maggie or have tea there. There was cliff jumping activity going on at a nearby point. Me and one another person from my raft decided to do cliff jumping. There was a waterfall on the way to reach to cliff jumping point. Passing through that waterfall was an amazing experience. And now come back to cliff jumping. When I reached at the point from where I needed to jump I got very scared. I wanted to do the jump but I was scared. My guide came and told me “It will be ok. Nothing will happen and I can do it.” I again went to the point but got scared again. But this time, guide pushed from the cliff. Trust me that free fall from the cliff till the water, those seconds are one of the best seconds of life. That was one hell of a experience. (Everyone must feel it at least once in their lifetime.) From there we headed back to our end point of rafting. I was wet and wanted to quickly reach the hostel to take a shower and change into new clothes.

After I changed into fresh clothes, I decided to visit Beatle’s cafe for dinner. Suddenly I got a call from one of my friend who was also travelling to Rishikesh. He asked me to join him and his friends to Beatle’s cafe for dinner. Bingo!! The same place which I was also thinking of going for dinner. The cafe was a little far from my place and I had to walk all the way to reach the cafe. But as I already told that I love walking So it was no issue for me. I reached the cafe and found out that we need to wait for around 30 minutes for getting a table. In the meantime, I got acquainted with everyone. After waiting for few minutes we finally got a table. Pure joy !! We all ordered food and started chatting. One of my friend’s friend was working in GlobalLogic from a long time, I had also worked in GlobalLogic in past. Chances are I might have bumped into him when I was also working there. So we both got to chat about a lot of things and came to know that he was a friend of my that time manager. I had a very good time with all of them. Food, view and ambiance of the cafe was very good. Thumbs up 👍. Worth visit place.

Pic: View from Beatle’s cafe

My friend walked till my hostel from the cafe to drop me. I decided to again visit the nearby Laxman Jhula and spend sometime standing there. I spend around one hour on the Jhula. The feel of wind on Laxman Jhula in evening is a divine experience and one must feel it. The feeling can not be explained in words. I combined the experience with a Kulhad waali tea. My God, what a feeling. (In my words, Jeevan ka swad aa gaya 😃)

I again headed back to hostel. At hostel my roommate asked me to join her at terrace. The view of terrace was amazing. The atmosphere on the terrace was also very chill. Some people were playing Ukelele and guitar. People were jamming together. They all had set up a very good vibe. One other guy joined me and my friend. We all started talking about our experiences. Then my friend went to sleep. This guy said : If I had no other plans then he is going to ghat to chill with some of his other friends and would like me to join. I said yes. Then we went on the ghat. Two of his other guy friends joined us and we chatted a lot about various things. On ghat also, people were playing guitar, singing, jamming. (Mast mahol set the 😃) The wind at ghat was amazing. It was all a beautiful experience. After sometime we came back to our hostel and I went back to sleep in my dorm. This is the end of my day 1 trip.

Pic: View from hostel terrace

Each and every experience of that day were one of the best experiences of my life. That day is one of the best day of my life. I felt total freedom, liberation, confidence, peace and so many other feelings. I enjoyed each and every moment of that day and every moment is engrained in my memory forever. I travel to a very happy place in my memory when I start thinking about this trip. This is what a trip should leave us with — Lot of happy memories.

Hope you liked reading this article. I will write about Day 2 in a separate blog.