Rishikesh — a beautiful, tranquil and spiritual town on the Ganges
Being a Backpacker for the first time in my life, I was not used to not having my travels planned which made me quite nervous and anxious in a way. Not knowing where I was going to be in a few days and not having booked a place to sleep in scared me. But after a few days I realized that not booking everything in advance was the only way to do it. Because you don’t know whether or not you are going to love or hate the place. So… Rishikesh was a place I kept hearing about from travelers, Rob and Zak and even my mother who hasn’t visited India before. So My expectations were already high. Well I can say with all my heart that Rishikesh is an absolutely incredible town full of spirit and I decided to extend my stay here especially after meeting some wonderful travelers from 9 different countries whom we all got along well with.
Yoga retreats, Ashrams and meditation courses consumes the town with nearly every second building offering these services. I stayed in a touristy area called Tapovan, further up north from the town center. In the evenings the Guru’s are heard singing in prayer which echoes through the Ganges river and cannot be missed by a single ear. This creates a calmn and soothing ambience setting the mood for all who can hear it. The town does not sell any booze nor meat, although our hostel did drive 12kms every second night to the next town to buy a few bottles of rum to have on our roof top chill area while playing games and sharing stories. Management were really accommodative and great at making sure we all had a good time but while having respect for the towns culture.
On my second day a group of us decided to go river rafting which is a must for all who visit here. 3 hours was good enough as my hips started aching from being the main paddler in front. We went over 10 Rapids, one being named the roller coaster, for good reason, this was a grade 3 rapid and we managed to get through it without toppling over! We stopped off on the side of the river for some masala tea and a few of us jumped off a 7ft rock into the Ganges — good fun.
The next day we did a hike up to the Neer Waterfall, a 5km hike which took us 3 hours to complete with having swum for 30 minutes at the top. I then managed to have the hostel organize us a Bollywood dance class. Needless to say this was a huge hit with a turn out of +15 people and is now being included in the hostels weekly program.
