Rishikesh, India: nature’s jewel crown

 

I have never been particularly fond of the winters. But one city made me change my mind. And that was Rishikesh…..

Sometimes I can still feel the icy winds haunting me, calling me back to Rishikesh, but what can I say; I am a busy person. When I visited Rishikesh it was during November. All my life I have been living underneath the glorious rays of the sun but as soon as I stepped of the airplane, holy moly was it chilly. Not so cold but still it was chilly. Anyways, as I left the airport I came across something that was amazing and that was the scenery. It was something that you would expect from a movie chase scene on a mountain. Speeding vehicles that are a just a few feet away from instantly dropping down the valley. Landing in a river, in this case the Ganges. And yet somehow you know that it’s never going to happen.

Since I was in Rishikesh for a school trip with my friends, we went with Snow Leopard Adventures (a touring company). I would recommend you to travel in a group of 6 – 12 people whether family or friends. As I was saying, when I arrived at Camp Panther I enjoyed the beautiful scenery of trees, tents and the weather. You could even smell the sweet nectar of the flowers. And after a hearty lunch of rice and tandoori chicken; me and some of my friends set of to embark on a journey through a narrow yet satisfying hike. I’m not going to bore you with too many details but if you are a foreigner here then let me tell you that something as simple as a cow or some nice local children will brighten your day and make you see the upsides of India. And when we returned we showered, had dinner and then slept.

But what was really exhilarating was the rafting. That is something that you must, and I repeat you must do.  I got in with my friends in a group of 6 and a teacher. The scenery was so mesmerizing that it just took the breath out of me. My mind was just dazzled by how beautiful it was. But what made this really worthwhile was the pleasure of rafting with my friends down a beautiful river bursting with memorable scenes that is still unspoiled by mankind. But what annoyed me was the water. It was really cold. A quick dip will send shivers that will take over your body. But what made it also really fun and terrifying was when our teacher pushed my friend onto my face and as I submerged into the water. Terror seemed to scream throughout my body even though it lasted for only a few seconds.

But after a nice lunch on the pure white sand that glittered with happiness, we were refuelled with more excitement as me and my friends set of at quick pace to try and complete our journey faster than the others. And when we finally finished our journey of 32 kilometres we dried our cold and wet bodies as we embarked on an hour bus journey back to our new camp. The beaches on the banks of the Ganges in our camp were just so phenomenal. In fact we had quite an interesting game of volleyball going on and as we relaxed ourselves until night fell and then we dozed off.

 Now if you are a hiking enthusiast you are in luck because for the next part of my journey I am going to talk about hiking in the Himalayas. These were the smaller mountains but the scenery was just beautiful. Steep winding paths with an abundance of life of plants and animals. But reaching the summit was amazing. Just looking down was so refreshing as the air felt so fresh. You could even see some snow covered peaks! And so the treacherous journey of hiking back down began where in fact I had slipped a few times. And then we went back to our other new camp and prepared for the night.

The next day we visited an orphanage and went to the city to buy a few things. I had actually bought a stunning marble lamp case although you have to be careful about getting ripped off. My friend actually got ripped off for a piece of ‘sapphire’ that was only 1x1x1 cm. He had paid around 30 SGD for it and so you should really be careful!

But the next day we sadly had to say good bye to Rishikesh as we flew back to Delhi and then we boarded our night flight back to Singapore! And that was the end of my adventure.

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