I travel very often.. and I have been to Rishikesh alot of times and did rafting more than once. This time I decided to explore the offbeat locations of Rishikesh along with ticking off one item from my bucket list, i.e. "Bungee jumping".
Day 1
I started my journey with one of my colleague from Delhi and took the last bus on Friday night to save one leave. We reached Rishikesh at 6am. Then took an auto to reach Laxman Jhula since we had to go Mohan Chetti village. It was a cold and pleasant morning to start the day. Finally we got the cab to reach our resort nearby the taxi stand at Laxman Jhula.
After reaching the resort, we freshened up quickly as we had our slot booked for Bungee. We got a small briefing at the Jumpin Heights office so that we shall not fail in our mission to jump.
There were 10 more people who were supposed to jump before me. Finally I was waiting at the ramp and saw many people jumping. Now it was my turn to jump and after thinking twice, I jumped and got my dose of adrenaline rush.
I cannot really explain in words how wonderful you feel when you get something off your bucket list plus the feeling a bird gets while flying freely in the sky. Got one badge which says "I have got guts" and a certificate which says I jumped from the height of 83 metres.
They also provide paid shuttle service to reach Laxman Jhula from the jump site. We opted for the same as we wanted to do cafe hopping next.
We started with cafe Free Spirit. This was a small cafe with beautiful ambiance and it was nicely decorated with some paintings and travel quotes. Food here was very reasonable and good in taste.
One can also work for whole day sitting in this cafe. They provide free Wi-Fi as well. Do try their chocolate shake and falafel platter.
Our next pick was Cafe Delmar/60's/Beatles.. yes this cafe has 3 names. Popularly known as Beatles cafe, this cafe gives a very nice view of the Ganges River.
You can have your coffee and enjoy the majestic view. This cafe plays some nice sound tracks from 60s. I can literally spend my whole day here.
Now next stop was Cafe De Goa. You can actually get the feel of Goa in Uttarakhand. Some nice graffiti on walls and smiling staff makes this place delightful for people.
Day 2
Started the day by the riverside, and watching sun rays falling on the river.
Then proceeded to the "Beatles Ashram"/Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ashram. This place is quite closer to Laxman Jhula. You can get a taxi for Rs. 200 to reach this place. Entry fees is Rs. 150 for Indians and Rs. 600 for foreigners.
This place has a very peaceful atmosphere. And you will certainly feel quite calm and composed. After walking for 2 min, you will see some small caves and all of them looks same.
However one cave has some beautiful graffiti and quotes written on it. Yes that's the Beatles cave. (They use to meditate in this cave). The highlight of the ashram is the "preaching hall", a treat to photography enthusiast. When Beatles came to India in 1968 to meditate, they wrote many famous songs and some of them were featured in the White album & Abbey road.
This hall has the best graffiti and beautiful quotes related to life and people.
Since that was our last day in Rishikesh, we thought of exploring one more cafe. This time it was Divine cafe and bakery. We tried their pizza and also some mouthwatering German pastries.
With this we came to an end of our beautiful journey. Came back with many beautiful pictures as well as memories.
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This blog was originally written for https://wanderershruti.blogspot.in/2016/12/explore-unexplored-rishikesh.html
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