So after completing our shift, we left for ISBT to take the bus to Rishikesh. We wanted ac bus but it wasn't available at that time, so we took the govt. bus. The fare was 255inr. We reached Rishikesh bus station at 7:15am. Then we had breakfast there.
We didn't have any prior booking for rafting. There was one travel agent office at the bus stand. We want there and enquired about the available rafting packages. We got to know that only 12 km one is open now, rest all other will get opened during late October. So we booked the 12km one for 500inr per person.
So to reach the rafting site we had to first reach the base camp site. There other four people and 1 guide joined us. We reached the rafting site by Jeep and we were accompanied by 4 Haryanvi people. Most of the time I was unable to comprehend what were they saying. So finally we reached there. The location for 12km rafting site is called Shivpuri. So we reached there in 20 mins and got out rafting kit which includes helmet, life jacket and paddle.
We sat in the raft and begin rafting. At that point the depth of the river was 90fts. Which is approximately 18times of my height. Ofcourse we were scared because neither I know swimming nor my friend knows. As we started going ahead our guide said to hold the rope and jump into the river. I was like what?? No need to joke right now. But later Irealised that he was being serious. As instructed we all jumped into the river keeping a tight hold on the rope. It was really scary yet adventurous as I had not such kinda thing before. Yeah I must tell you that the temperature of the water was freezing cold. So we stayed in the water for 7mins and climbed back into the raft which indeed was a difficult task. As we were propelling our raft by paddling in synchronisation, the ride was getting more adventurous. Here I want to give you a piece of information that 12kms rafting includes three rapids ( points where raft jumps because of the presence of big rocks). First rapid came is called initiation. Rafting became more exciting at this rapid. As we didn't know that we were be able to make it in one piece or not. After this rapid came the cliff jumping point. I was not feeling invigorating at all when I saw the river from the cliff. It was frightening. I was not ready to jump. But then my guide pushed me. Till the time reached the water I was blank and in a shock. Bur when I touched the water that time I came in my right senses and realised that I was flowing in the wrong direction but thanks to Mother Ganga, one of our comrade saved me by pulling me towards the edge. After that we continued paddling, many a times jumped into the water. We faced two more rapids namely double trouble and Hilton. We finally reached back to our base camp at Luxman Jhula. We were all wet. We changed and started exploring Rishikesh.
Our next place to visit was Neelkanth temple. The temple is situated at top of the mountain at a distance of 22km from Laxman Jhula. One can reach there by their own vehicle or can take a shared taxi. We chose taxi to reach there. It's an hour journey from the taxi stand. The route is but rough. To brief you about the temple. This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Legends are that after drinking poison came out of Samudra Manthan, Lord Shiva came to this place and did meditation to nullify the effect of poison. After the completion of meditation, he left a Linga here which is now worshipped by the pilgrims.
So after spending an hour there we left for Laxman Jhula. Laxman jhula is bridge made over the river Ganga. It is a cable suspension bridge. Ram jhula was made after Laxman jhula. Both the bridges are smiling in architecture. Near Laxman jhula lies a 13 story temple caled Trayambakeshwar Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. We went there and to visit the whole temple it took us half hours. The view from the top of the temple is quite beautiful. By the time we completed the temple visit, sun started setting. We wanted to witness the world renowned Ganga Aarti. We had two options either we could stay at the temple and see the worship from there or we could go to Triveni ghat. But the Triveni ghat was quite far from there and by the time we would reach there the prayer would have already been finished. So we decided to stayed at the Temple and saw the aarti the there only. I must tell you that Ganga Aarti was beautiful. One should definitely see this in his lifetime.
So after worshipping, we went to bus station to catch the bus back to Delhi.
The two best part about this trip was river rafting and Ganga Aarti.
