Rishikesh Part I: First Impressions

Rishikesh was a grand adventure. We found peace, made friends, became tourist attractions, ran in the rain, endured long hours of traveling and got sick.

We were up early and off to the train station. I hoped that the station wouldn't be as crowded that early in the morning...my hopes were trampled under the feet of hundreds of people. Whats more is that we had a scare when we were told at the broken metal detector our tickets were wait listed, not confirmed. I freaked. We ran up to the tourist office, as the man at the detector suggested, but of course it was closed. At the last minute, a man, who must have taken pity on our panicked state, offered to take us across the street to place were we could get our tickets confirmed. We rushed over and an employee calmly with confirmed our tickets. Another mad rush we made it to platform 15 and on to our train.
Typical India.
Get told one thing, find out it is another, get told another thing, find out it is something else all together, start to hyperventilate and then at the last minute get saved by someone calmly shaking their head at your foreign anxiety.

The train was good. We navigated some seating confusion and finally were able to plop down and relax for the 5 hour trip. The Indian country side is green. Just green and lush. We saw corn, mango groves, lychee trees, villagers out in the fields, water ponds, walking along the tracks. We had A/C, tea time, the Indian train equivalent of airplane food, a sweet older man to chat with and the view.

We arrived in Haridwar. Haridwar is another embodiment of the stereotypical India--hot, chaotic, crowded. In addition Haridwar, on this particular day, was muddy. Fantastic. My white swishy foreigner pants had mud up to my calves. There was more transportation madness to be found here. At the bus station (for we had to take a bus from Haridwar to Rishikesh)--which was more of a muddy lot with one small entrance that vehicles people poured in and out of some sort of bus osmosis. We ran toward several buses asking the faces poking out the windows "Rishikesh?!" Most of the replies were "Nayhe". Finally, after chasing who knows how many buses and accidentally boarding the wrong bus, some one kindly pointed out the the right bus, which was just about to passes through the semi-permeable membrane of an the entrance/exit. We clamored aboard and were immediately offered seats. Sigh of relief. Stage two of to-Rishikesh odyssey complete.



An hour later we were dropped off in Rishikesh, hopped a rick shaw and made our way to the High Bank area, up away from the center of town. This part of Riskikesh had an aura that induced a calm and spiritual mood. Tree covered mountains cradled the town which seemed to be drawn in place last minute as a outline of the Ganges. Here the Holy River commands your attention. It roared like a living thing stretching itself through landscape. Down the middle a strong current dragged rafters along and along the banks the river calmed a bit as it lapped the ghats where the reverent gathered to cleanse themselves in the healing waters.

They say that India is a place saturated in spirituality. To be honest, it was in Rishikesh that I first felt this notion to be true, more than just a facade. The air was heavy with something other than the humidity. I don't have a word better than 'spirituality', so I hope that will suffice. I am sure this aura had to do with the proximity of nature; trees, mountains, water, wandering cows are automatic spirituality points in my animist-oriented book. Whatever the cause it was a good feeling. A release valve to the New Delhi pressure that had built up under our skin.

Rishikesh is best described through images, so I'll leave it to that.

Leaf bowls filled with flowers and incense to offer to the river.

Mad skills.

An elaborate temple shot from the rick shaw.

Thirsty cow.

Banana rick shaw!

A street near our hostel.

Giant Lord Shiva.