The plan was such that all of us were to meet in Delhi and go to Rishikesh for river rafting... The much heard of adventure sport in India – rafting @ Rishikesh. It has been close to a year since we started working and had been looking forward to this trip eagerly. And then slowly the count of people who could make it to the trip started reducing since each one of us had some professional/personal commitments. Finally, the situation was such that only two of us could make this trip. I was contemplating if I should postpone this trip to a later date when all of us could go together. For some reason, I never wanted to cancel this trip and thankfully I did not. I found a random group on the net, going for rafting on the same day and we joined them.
Day-1:
With all this, I arrived in Delhi at midnight of Thursday. Next day, I was set out to explore the city alone and also finalize on the travel to Rishikesh. Travel was ‘easily taken care of’ with the help of some online bus booking and I started moving around exploring the metro of Delhi. This is my second visit to Delhi, but first time moving around by myself and the place has a lot to explore. One cannot miss the Central Park (@ Connaught Place) which had a 90x60 foot Indian flag on a 207-foot pole. Being a fan of cold coffee, I definitely could not miss the Java Choco chip cold coffee of Starbucks. With a very good ambience, Starbucks did live up to the expectations that I had. On my way back to Chattarpur I found a stop – race course. Having read, heard and watched this place a number of times in books, news and movies, there was an urge in me to check it out and got down at the station (the best part of going unplanned and alone – you can do whatever you want. No question of convincing your group ;-) ). This place was as scenic as they showed in the movies. Clean, green and with all the political bigwigs’ staying here, there is a lot of security. There is not much to do here, except exploring the greenery and also wondering if you could get a place like this to stay ;-). Racecourse road has a less heard of but still a historic place – the Safdarjung Tomb (which I am sure not many Delhites too would have visited. Even I would not if I had a planned trip). The place was so unheard of, that locals were clueless to give a pointed direction. The tomb had the usual Mughal grandeur (huge, rich and green) which always makes me wonder how rich and intelligent the ancient engineers might have been. After roaming about the place for a while, I took a train back to my friend's place. We packed our bags and left to Dhaula Kuan bus stop where we were supposed to catch our bus (Metro Travels) to Rishikesh
Day-2:
We reached Rishikesh perfectly on time by 5:30 in the morning. Metro travels was an AC bus when I booked it. But when we were travelling in it, we felt like we were in a refrigerator (added to it, the uncomfortable seats and bumpy roads). Unable to bear the cold, I went to the attender and asked him to reduce the AC for which he replied “ye sab nai hoga bhaiyya. Ye sirf on aur off hoga aur hum off nahi karenge kyonki baki logon ko pareshani hosakti hai” (all this is not possible. We can either switch it on or off and I am not going to turn it off as other travellers might find it difficult). At around 2am, after almost all the passengers started complaining, they did stop the AC and I could get a couple of hours of sleep.
We got down at Rishikesh and there was a cold breeze hitting us from all directions. That was a great feeling of relief after having a painful journey all night. We had to book a cab and reach Kaudiyala (~31 kms from the main bus stop) to go to GNH Beach camp – the place we were going to camp, for the next two days. Now we were riding up the hill with a lot of twists and turns and suddenly at one turn, the cab guy stops with absolutely nothing but a small signboard which says GNH Beach camp. For one min, I thought this could be some trick and I had paid the wrong person... The thought of staying at this crossing without any tents for 2days was crossing my mind till we discovered a thin passage or trek down, which took us into a small serene and secluded place. When we finally reached our camp, we realized that all the effort was worth the splendid view. White sand beach right next to the Ganges, with our tents on it, the other side of the river was just a huge hill with some landslides marks on it. We then met some of the people who were going to camp and raft along with us. We were supposed to go rafting after we finish our breakfast and then we realized that for us to go anywhere, we had to take again take that trek route up the hill to catch a vehicle and that in itself was an adventure. When we finally got on top, we saw that we were supposed to travel standing behind an open top truck. These are the trucks that take cattle around between villages ;-) but standing on them and travelling down a hilly road was memorable.
When the rafting started, we were put in with a relatively new group of people with whom we did not interact much before reaching there. It was a 26kms rafting with around 15-17 rapids in-between. I remember asking Meharbaan Singh (our raft coach) if we were at least half done and he replied saying we have rowed just 8kms!!!! Meharbaan Singh had his style of making us do the rafting. The way he commands and his accent was like a navy chief commanding his fleet… The time when he said we can jump into the river. The best part of our rafting was that we even did a kind of rescue operation. Unfortunately one of the boats flipped and there were 2 people who were flown a little far from the boat. There were ropes and many boats along with ours which were there to catch them. Meharbaan sing in his commanding accent orders us to row the boat across the rapids against the water force towards him and we got him on. It was a bit scary for us (though the staff their said it’s common and there is nothing to fear) but then we loved the fact that we were able to do this mini rescue operation ;-). Once the rafting was done we were taken back in the same truck to our camp where we again trek down and took rest.
A bonfire was set up for us at night and then dinner was served. We met another group of people who then started to make the otherwise dull and boring night pretty much lively with some games and photo sessions. At around midnight we get the idea of getting all our beds out of the tent and sleep in the open night. This particular camp we were staying in had absolutely no power so once the bonfire was set out, the only visibility was the bright moonlight. Which also meant there is no point for charging a phone and hence all we did was just call up once in the morning & once at night to inform at home that we were safe (rather alive) and then we switch off the phone. So there was absolutely no disturbance. That night, all we could see and feel was shining white sand and a gentle breeze all through the night. We could not see where the beach ends but were able to hear the water flow, no vehicles could be spotted but could see just their headlights at a distance, could not see any landslides but here small rocks falling down the big hill on the other side of the river.
When the rafting started, we were put in with a relatively new group of people with whom we did not interact much before reaching there. It was a 26kms rafting with around 15-17 rapids in-between. I remember asking Meharbaan Singh (our raft coach) if we were at least half done and he replied saying we have rowed just 8kms!!!! Meharbaan Singh had his style of making us do the rafting. The way he commands and his accent was like a navy chief commanding his fleet… The time when he said we can jump into the river. The best part of our rafting was that we even did a kind of rescue operation. Unfortunately one of the boats flipped and there were 2 people who were flown a little far from the boat. There were ropes and many boats along with ours which were there to catch them. Meharbaan sing in his commanding accent orders us to row the boat across the rapids against the water force towards him and we got him on. It was a bit scary for us (though the staff their said it’s common and there is nothing to fear) but then we loved the fact that we were able to do this mini rescue operation ;-). Once the rafting was done we were taken back in the same truck to our camp where we again trek down and took rest.
A bonfire was set up for us at night and then dinner was served. We met another group of people who then started to make the otherwise dull and boring night pretty much lively with some games and photo sessions. At around midnight we get the idea of getting all our beds out of the tent and sleep in the open night. This particular camp we were staying in had absolutely no power so once the bonfire was set out, the only visibility was the bright moonlight. Which also meant there is no point for charging a phone and hence all we did was just call up once in the morning & once at night to inform at home that we were safe (rather alive) and then we switch off the phone. So there was absolutely no disturbance. That night, all we could see and feel was shining white sand and a gentle breeze all through the night. We could not see where the beach ends but were able to hear the water flow, no vehicles could be spotted but could see just their headlights at a distance, could not see any landslides but here small rocks falling down the big hill on the other side of the river.
Day 3:
We slept in a sleeping bag after a long chat and a feeling like never before… and then we got up with raindrops on our face :-). Apparently, there was a snowfall in Manali the previous night and hence a cool and rainy day was expected. So with that slight drizzle, we got up and went for a long walk – till where the beach and white sand was to be seen and got back… After a few minutes we could see that due to heavy rain, the place we crossed to go to the other side of the beach is now actually filled with water and could not see the same path which we took. There was rappelling and rock climbing planned for the day, but due to the rain, this would get risky and hence that plan got cancelled. However, the rafting group whom we met were planning to go to Rajaji National park and also our bus stops for the return bus were same so we jumped in with them and moved to Rajaji National park. This particular park had a safari ride and is open only for 3 hours. Morning: 10-11.30 and afternoon 2-330. Now we would have reached on time for the safari ride, but due to a huge traffic jam in the valley, we reached at 5 in the evening. However, we did see some huge elephants in the sheds. For the first time, I saw such huge elephants with such big tusks. The baby elephants were very friendly and we stood right next to it with the help of the caretaker. Once all this was done we left for our bus stop and were waiting for our return bus which was at 10:30pm. This time it was AG Travels which got cancelled the last minute and the alternative provided was Metro travels bus. Luckily, the group with whom we came had a better bus and they also spoke with their bus attender to accommodate two seats for us. Somehow, these new friends had made this trip a lot more memorable by this gesture and we came back to Delhi on Monday morning.
Had a long shower and slept like a log at the friends place before taking my return flight with loads and loads of memories and also very happy with the decision to go for this trip even if it meant it was only 2 from a group of 7. J
Exploring the city alone, the stay with no disturbances, the trek up and down for our camp, rides on that open truck, rafting and jumping into the river, the night with bonfire and games, new acquaintances, and the last day ride, chat and help of the new friends we made… summing up to be a great trip.
