Are you one of those who wish to visit a place that has both thrills as well as spirituality? Are you still confused about your next destination in India? If you are one of those, you have come to the right place. In case you don’t know who we are……….
We call ourselves Travel Freaks………
Let’s begin with this blog series……… Any guess……
We are taking you all to Rishikesh, and there is a reason, though. In this blog series, we will take you to several key places in Uttarakhand, especially in the Garhwal Region centred around the Char Dham Yatra. This will definitely help you plan your own itinerary.
Before starting, there is a common notion that……..
Table of Contents
1. How to start the Char Dham Yatra?
Generally, there is a common notion to start from Haridwar. In fact, you can also start. However, we chose differently. Yes, now you understand from the title how we started.
We started from the Yoga Capital of the World: Rishikesh, in the month of June. There is a railway station in Rishikesh, you can reach by train. In our case, we reached Delhi, the capital of India, by flight and took a bus from Kashmere Gate. There are lots of bus options available.
There was a huge queue on the outskirts of Haridwar, and then finally reached Rishikesh. It took us 7 hours to reach Rishikesh bus station.
In fact, there can be several ways to reach the Yoga Capital. It all depends on your budget and time schedule.
Okay, so as we reached, let’s guess what you might be thinking………
2. Where did we stay?
We stayed at Chandreswar Nagar. There are few budget options available at that place. It was hardly 2 km from the bus stand. We hired an autorickshaw and thought to reach our stay within 10 mins. Unfortunately, we were stuck in a long queue while crossing the Charanbhaga Old Bridge.
You can choose your stay near the bus terminal also. There are stay options available.
Coming back to our story, we were pretty tired as there was a packed schedule for the next day. Somehow crawled to have dinner and then remembered that we forgot to book our river rafting trip for the next morning.
We walked a bit towards Ghat Road, in close proximity to the Triveni Ghat. We booked from the many available options there. He asked us to come sharp at six o’ clock the next morning.
We would suggest you book river rafting in a group rather than one to two. You can easily bargain with the available agents. Anyways we had a good sound sleep at night.
We know you are excited as we are to answer this question…
3. How was the River Rafting experience?
Well, as the agent instructed, we reached sharp at six o’ clock at his shop. From there, he booked an autorickshaw to take us to his shop near the Janaki Bridge. We waited there for around 15-20 minutes. A jeep arrived with the raft tied on top. It was as exciting as you can imagine to see that.
The jeep took us to Brahmpuri, from where our rafting would start. Out of excitement, we didn’t even notice the time. In fact, we were excited to wear the life jacket and helmet with the paddle in hand.
The guide instructed us to be careful and attentive to his instructions and asked us to hand over the phones and wallet to him. He kept it in a waterproof bag that was tied to the raft.
Soon the rafting started to flow along the river current, and our excitement level grew. Our guide instructed us to row the paddle in a rhythm. We were thrilled to row over the rapids, it was pretty exciting. When the river was calm, our guide asked us to jump into the Ganga River and enjoy ourselves. We did act as per his instructions. It was a memorable experience.
This was something we would cherish for the rest of our life. The rafting ended near the Janaki Bridge. We didn’t even remember what time it was and how long did it take to complete our rafting. However, when we reached our stay at Chandreshwar Nagar, it was close to noon, and we were quite hungry.
We would suggest our readers plan river rafting with your group, and there is nothing to worry about. Listen to your guide, and everything will be fine.
After resting for some time in the afternoon, we planned to explore a few local places as we were to depart the next day early morning……….
4. Where did we go after resting?
We took a short rest after a heavy lunch, and then we decided to drop a visit to the most iconic place in Rishikesh. Any guess……
Yes, you guessed right, we were going to Ram Jhula.
There were e-rickshaws available that took 10-15 minutes to drop us to the Ram Jhula from our stay. As it was close to evening, we could see a busy Ram Jhula marketplace. It was difficult to move freely as there were crowds moving on the street. Somehow, we reached Ram Jhula.
With a little bit of difficulty, we crossed the Ram Jhula Bridge. It was difficult to enjoy rather than focus more on our personal belonging. We looked around, and there was a quite serene Ganga Riverside that would take us to the Lakshman Jhula.
We thought to walk along Riverside rather than take the Lakshman Jhula Road. The view was so beautiful we thought to sit there for a while and enjoy the cool breeze blowing. There were travellers who were also enjoying sitting near Riverside.
After walking for close to an hour, we reached the Lakshman Jhula Bridge. Unfortunately, renovations were going on, so we decided to return back to Ram Jhula, cross the bridge and then hire an e-rickshaw to our next spot for the evening Ganga Aarti.
Many curious souls might wonder………
5. Where did we go for the Ganga Aarti?
On the way back to Ram Jhula from Lakshman Jhula, we hired a car that dropped us off. We crossed the Ram Jhula; this time, the bridge looked way more beautiful than you can imagine. Reached the main road and hopped onto an e-rickshaw that dropped us to Triveni Ghat for the evening aarti.
As we got stuck in the traffic queue, we reached a little late, after 7 in the evening. Unfortunately, the aarti was over for the day. Nevertheless, we explored the local souvenir shops and had tea by the river front.
We stayed there for an hour and then decided to return back as we had to leave early the next morning.
Now many might wonder……
6. What other places can we see in Rishikesh apart from the ones mentioned?
Adventure lovers may opt for cliff jumping or bungee jumping options. It should be on your list.
Spiritual or peace lovers may opt to visit Parmarth Niketan and Beatles Ashram.
There are a few herbal tea options also available for health-conscious persons.
You can explore it in two days. Of course, everything depends on your budget and itinerary. In our case, we had a packed-up schedule, and we were heading to the next destination in our Char Dham Yatra.
If anyone wishes to visit Char Dham or anywhere in India or Nepal, they can click here and explore the various itineraries available on their site. They provide affordable luxury packages.
Before signing off, we would like to answer one last query……
7. What kind of help are we gonna provide?
Let us inform you that we prepare itineraries not only for anywhere in India but also for Asia. We have been travelling since we were toddlers. So here in our blogs and stories, we will be giving you a glimpse of our journey and also helping you to plan your trip.
Read about our Uzbekistan blogs.
Read about our Kazakhstan blogs.
Read about our Singapore blogs.
Read about our Vietnam blogs.
Read about our Cambodia blogs.
Read about our Bali blogs.
Read about our Kuala Lumpur blog series.
Read about our Sri Lanka blogs.
Read about our Nepal blogs.
Read about our Char Dham blogs.
Read about our Ladakh blogs.
Read about our day trip to Hyderabad.
Read about our Madhya Pradesh blogs.
Read about our Andaman and Nicobar blogs.
Do follow our Instagram handle @mindfulllofvacations and keep an eye out for the next destination story of Char Dham Yatra. For any query related to any trip, drop a mail at @mitkau007@gmail.com.
by mitkau