Well, I didn't end up getting on the river today. No trips booked in advance so I made other plans, then trips booked very last minute this morning. As I've already learned, nothing happens the way you plan it in India, but it's part of the adventure and enhances the journey. I ended up going on a hike with my new buddy Nishit, a climber from south India who is hangin out in Rishiksh in between a Wilderness First Responder course and a 20-day Expedition Leader course. More on that later....except for a picture right now :)
We ended the night getting some food at the Ganga Beach Cafe. I had an awesome veggie Korma dish while some great reggae played in the background. At night, the streets quiet down. Thankfully, Matt and I had a bit more of a peaceful walk home.
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After waking up and saying hello to everyone, I cruised down the street to get some Aloo Parantha, the potato and chapati breakfast. On the way, I ran into Nishit, or rather he ran in to me. I usually find myself trying not to get hit by a moving vehicle and avoiding cow poop when I walk around, always surprised when I run into friends. We went and got breakfast elsewhere and decided we should go on a hike to Kunjapuri Temple, high in the hills. I figured it'd be a great way to spend the day, seeing as there was no rafting. After finding out about the trip that came together last minute (but not bummed!), we got some brief info from Ganesh, the Red Chilli Office Manager, and headed out.
From the beginning, I was thankful to be with Nishit as we navigated the narrow maze of alleys on the outskirts of Rishikesh. We required constant direction from the locals, which required the ability to speak Hindi.
We quickly entered into the hills, hiking along a beautiful creek.
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| Nishit, a really awesome guy |
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Last night, another guide from Red Chilli Matt, two Irish gals who Matt took rafting earlier, and myself went down to the Ganga to check out a nightly prayer ceremony. But first we had to cross Luxman Jhula bridge...
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| Enter the chaos!!! Yes, motorbikes, cows, monkeys, and humans all share this narrow bridge. |
While a cool ceremony, it is really no different than going to church back in the US...except for you're in India. A good experience and the tabla player in the "house band" was pretty good!
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| The statue on the right is of the Hindu godess Shiva, protector of the mother Ganga. The flame to the left was the center of the ceremony. |
We ended the night getting some food at the Ganga Beach Cafe. I had an awesome veggie Korma dish while some great reggae played in the background. At night, the streets quiet down. Thankfully, Matt and I had a bit more of a peaceful walk home.
*************************
After waking up and saying hello to everyone, I cruised down the street to get some Aloo Parantha, the potato and chapati breakfast. On the way, I ran into Nishit, or rather he ran in to me. I usually find myself trying not to get hit by a moving vehicle and avoiding cow poop when I walk around, always surprised when I run into friends. We went and got breakfast elsewhere and decided we should go on a hike to Kunjapuri Temple, high in the hills. I figured it'd be a great way to spend the day, seeing as there was no rafting. After finding out about the trip that came together last minute (but not bummed!), we got some brief info from Ganesh, the Red Chilli Office Manager, and headed out.
From the beginning, I was thankful to be with Nishit as we navigated the narrow maze of alleys on the outskirts of Rishikesh. We required constant direction from the locals, which required the ability to speak Hindi.
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| We squeezed through the little slot in the back left to come back out into the street! |
After hiking next to the creek for a ways on a nice path, we ran into an India couple doing laundry. Once again, glad to have Nishit, we found out we had missed the trail only a short ways back. After backtracking and going down a different trail, we found ourselves essentially in someone's home where a young boy told us the trail was the direction we has just come from! The boy walked us out and at that time, the couple met up with us. Lo and behold, there was the trail, up and to the left. Unmarked, the trail from here to the top was really steep, hot, sunny, exposed, and quite overgrown, as we half-bushwacked our way up.
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| Sweaty and itchy |
We made our way up to a flat, rocky road where we further bushwacked. I was running out of water and it was really hot so we decided to turn around (Nishit could drink from pipes coming out of the hills which looked clean but I knew would spell disaster for me). Before we turned around, we soaked up the view for a bit and had some delicious cookies Nishit had picked up.
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| Awesome view of the Ganga river valley and Rishikesh from the road. |
Turns out the hike up was about 4 to 5 hours long and we had quite a ways to go - we were told it took about 2 hours and the couple doing laundry told us we were almost there! Still, it was really nice to get some exercise, get up into the foothills of the Himalaya, and hang out with Nishit.
Life is good here, just did some laundry and off to get dinner soon. Going rafting tomorrow and really looking forward to it...assuming it happens :) One last picture from our lovely hike...until next time!
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