Rishikesh- travel experience (in progress)

Day 1- day of the journey

We had to board a bus to Rishikesh from Kashmere gate ISBT at 11 in the night, but things weren’t quite going the way we expected them to be. It was a very hot and unusually humid day in delhi, and I was already taken for a fry doing market survey at Ghaziabad for my company as a management trainee. I reached Bumba’s place from Ghaziabad exactly two and a half hours after noon. He wasn’t home, but he left a key under the wastepaper basket.

The plan was to collect all our booze and clothes in as little luggage as possible as a lot of trekking had to be done. At around 8pm we set our journey with Riku joining us directly at ISBT after finishing office at Noida sec 16. At Kashmere Gate we had dinner at dominoes and when we went to the bus depot, we were surprised to see that there were no buses empty! All the seats were already booked even before we reached there. And we realised that we had no options but to take the private bus by paying extra. And the delhi heat and the food turned out to be quite a disaster for my stomach, and I got my stomach a little runny!

The bus was not even an AC one and we were cramped into tiny seats with overboard bunks as sleepers. The people travelling in the sleepers had to really struggle as there was about a couple of feet space for two persons. The situation was really getting a bit too crampy and uneasy, and the heated bus environment was drying our throats as we constantly sipped water to stay conscious. I was already feeling a bit nauseous with the heat and the sweat. in about some umpteenth attempts, the bus started the engine and throttled forward with the cold night air gushing in through the window.

In the meantime, another thing happened- the conductor had boarded an extra passenger in the bus and she had no seat available. The bus therefore had to turn back and get her down at the depot and start again on the same way. The only female passenger deserted us and we dolefully made our way into the silent delhi night. The clock showed it was already half past midnight and another 5-6 hours of journey was left for Haridwar.

After a couple of dusty and bumpy hours in the bus we arrived at a refreshment point where we all got down and had some food and fags. The bus again started after 30 minutes at that place, and this time we all dozed off peacefully.

It was already 6 am when we woke up at the sounds of the passengers, you always know that you destination was near when you heard such sounds. We got down at haridwar and I ran for a paid toilet. It was a great morning. We were nearing the thick of action and couldn’t wait to explore all that was waiting for us.

First stop hardwar

The morning air was refreshing for a change. We were pretty tired from the uncomfortable bus ride (thanks to the agents who promised us an air conditioned bus but ultimately accommodated us in a non a/c one). The much awaited trip for us was finally on its way and was rolling just as we imagined it to be. We took out some fags (we were stocked with about a week’s fag) and started our journey.

Breakfast was the next thing on our mind as we weren’t much of pilgrims. Though we were in Hardwar we didn’t feel the urge to get bestowed by the holiness of the place, but we did feel a lot of peace and quiet there in the morning. No hustle bustle, no chaos, no announcements over the mikes, no pilgrims, no noise...just the ghats and some devoted people who had come to take a bath in the river Ganges. The water seemed so much fresher than what we saw in UP and Bengal, and free of the mucky and gooey colour and feel. I almost wanted to touch the water and sprinkle it on my tired face, but seeing the rush and the current of the water I decided to postpone the idea.

We reached a pretty done up alleyway, full of advertisements and posters, chai and breakfast shops. Amongst that we noticed a nice restaurant totally Indian, rather desi, with lassi glasses and galebies on display. It pretty much brought a smile on our face as we entered. We ordered for a regular breakfast of puri and sabji and a glass of lassi. It was one of the most satisfying breakfast experiences for a very long time, as i had been staying out of home for a pretty long time and my culinary expertise fell flat when it came to the desi breakfast at this particular shop.