Friday, June 18, 2010

Haridwar trip

My parents are here and we went to Haridwar and Rishikesh in the last weekend. We hired a cab and started at 6:30 am on the Saturday morning. The moment we reached Haridwar, it was 3:30 pm. Take 1 hr break for breakfast and 30 mins break for the tyre puncture at 1 pm. The distance is 210 kms and it can be covered in 5 hrs if the road is free.


There are train options as well but this knucklehead decided on Friday evening at 6pm to visit the holy place. The cab was confirmed finally at 11pm. So there is no chance of a train. It is better to enter the train and bend your back to the TTE than trying to book a ticket in IRCTC. Long queues at the stations will force you to buy a shikanji if not a Maaza.

Did not expect such traffic on the roads on that day. These Delhities haven't got any work. Pick a car and head someway to the North or the East during the weekend. I never love driving. Add to that it was an amavasya day and people wanted to take dip in the holy Ganga.


Looks like they have been commiting sins just I have been doing and so the place was totally crowded as it was a Kumbh Mela. The Ganga river flowing at the Hari ki Paudi ghat in Haridwar was good and the water has some speed. If you don't hold to any of the chains, then there is every chance that you may lose your footing and name in the Govt census will be deleted. One can to little deep into the river because it looks as if it was man made ghat for specifically for bathing.


People cannot drown in the river because there is a concrete base under your feet atleast to some extent. So it is common to see people going away from the bank and into the river. I haven't tried testing how far is the concrete base for I was holding tightly to the iron chains at the ghat. If the water flow is little less, it is a very nice place to learn swimming.


I took a bath the same day in the evening at 6 pm and next day again at 7 am. We then went back to the hotel, packed our bags and headed to Rishikesh. It is more sedate and it is not as protected as Haridwar to have a dip in the river at the banks. The water is quite cold even in this summer.


Had misssed seeing couple of important temples (Chandi and Manasa Devi) in Haridwar. There is a ropeway to reach those temples. Altogether a taxing trip in the taxi coz of the unexpected traffic. Should try next time when I go there with a certain someone preferably by train.

Unforced Errors:

1. The Wimbledon draw is out and Rafa has a potential quarter final clash with none other than Robin Soderling.
2. People living in the hill stations are more friendly than the ones living in the cities.
3. Our taxi driver has travelled atleast 40 kms extra when we were out for bathing and I cut down that many kms while calculating the total kms for the bill settlement.
4. Federer is not going to win this year's Wimbledon.
4. Keep your eyes wide open while dipping at the ghat for the obvious reasons.
5. People dip in the holy rivers to get rid of their sins and devils in their systems.

Toque of the day:

Forget about the devil wearing a Prada, it does not even wear a cut draayar.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you for your informative post on Haridwar with beautiful pictures. Haridwar is regarded as one of the seven holiest places (Sapta Puri) to Hindus and can be easily reached from Delhi. It is an ancient city in the Haridwar district of Uttarakhand. With various places to visit in Haridwar it is one of the holiest center of pilgrimage which fills the soul with calmness and contentment.