23 Hours Sacred Travel to Rishikesh from New Delhi

Read, Watch & Enjoy My 23 Hours Sacred Journey from New Delhi to Rishikesh India. It was one of the best memorable trip of my life in India.

People who are interested in studying spiritual knowledge, know about India and in India Rishikesh is one of the prime location for this. Rishikesh is more famous among Westerns than Indian for Yoga, Meditation, Reiki & Peace. For it is famous due to Holy Ganga river and many temples.

[highlight]Location of Rishikesh[/highlight]

Rishikesh is situated in a state of northern India called Uttarakhand, in short some people also call it UK. This is a lovely town situated in the bank of Holy River Ganga ( please don’t call it Ganges). The near by famous city are Dehradun & Haridwar (another scared place).

[highlight]How to Reach  Rishikesh, India ?[/highlight]

There are several ways to reach Rishikesh – by train, by bus or by plane.

1. By Train

Rishikesh is well connected with Indian Railways from major Indian cities. Most of the tourist make their trip from New Delhi or Agra. In the train you can take sleeper class or above ticket. General Boggies are very horrifying to foreigners and there is no safety of you and your goods.

2. By Bus

The bus fair can be little expensive than train. There are Uttar Pradesh Government Buses running from various cities of Uttar Pradesh & also from New Delhi to Rishikesh. Govt. Buses are in very poor condition with bad smell coming all the time, but for the price you pay, no complainable. It’s cheaper than private buses. To book a ticket for nice bus I will suggest you to book ticket from MakeMyTrip.com , RedBus.in etc. The journey time will be between 5 hours to 7 hours based on bus you select from New Delhi.

3. By Aeroplane

If you want to fly by Airplane then, you will fly upto Jolly Grant Airport, Dhoiwala. And from there either hire a cab or take a ride in tuk tuk. Its not so far around 20 Km from there.

4. By Personal/Hired Car

If you are in New Delhi and want to go Rishikesh this another amazing option you have. I took my ride to Rishikesh by car too. It took me almost 4  hours. You have a nice road and you can get plenty of gas station as well as fuel station in the way. Its about 225 KM from New Delhi to Rishikesh.

Delhi to Rishikesh route by car

[highlight]My Plan To Rishikesh[/highlight]

It was a sudden plan. One of my friend had come to see me and we went to vegetable & fruit market to buy some fruits and green vegetables. (Click to see video). Suddenly he said, I had a commitment to Ganga Maa for today to see her. But it got ruined. I asked everybody in office but no one wanted to join me. It was around 9:30 PM in the evening. I got touched by his face.

I –  Pack your bags.

Raju (my friend) –  why ?

I – We are going Haridwar or Rishikesh.

Raju – Now ? at 9:30 PM , are we planning to go ?

I – Yes, let’s go, I have no been to Rishikesh as well.

Raju – Okay ..

Ok then ok . preparation started. He prepared food and I started editing that vegetable market video to post on youtube. Hurridely we manage to leave the place before 11:40. Informing my few friends & family and taking a good luck  blessings for journey from my brother (Jassy) living in Minnesota, we moved to our destiny. One of my friend dropped us in his motorbike till metro station. This the picture I took in Dwarka, sector 21 metro station at night around 00:10 AM.

way to rishikesh India

I had a friend working for the national newspaper – The Hindu , He delivers the newspaper to Haridwar from Delhi everyday. I & Raju  joined him. And journey begin to a scared place Rishikesh, India.

[highlight]How I traveled to Rishikesh ?[/highlight]

Well, if you ask me this question, I will answer in one two words – listening music. Hehe… listening old Hindi Gazals to modern filmy songs. All night listening and stopping near by for chair or for fueling or while delivering local newspaper in the major cities. Till we reach Rishikesh, we delivered 80,000 copies of The Hindu hehe. You can see my entire trip in video than reading this blog. But yeah , cool evergreen music , and driving on highway at night and talking stupid finally we reached Rishikesh in the morning around 7 am.

When our car was passing by Haridwar , the feelings was amazing … sun was rising, pilgrims in reddish orange color dressed walking on the side of the road in line, and people doing morning walk , chaiwalas busy in serving people in small roadside huts tea shop. Silent and cool breezing …. while some young lads selling garland and flowers for praying to Ganga. They will come nearby your car or bus and ask you. …. It was amazing …

[highlight]Things You can Do in Rishikesh Except Yoga & Meditation[/highlight]

1. Rafting ( cost 350 INR – 6 US$)

2. Bungy Jumping  ( 3350 INR – 55 US$)

3. Jungle Safari

4. Swimming in Holy River Ganga

5. Trekking & Camping.

How was my Trip to Rishikesh

As we reached Rishikesh, we had to take tuk tuk to reach to Laxman Jhula. It was a 10 – 15 ride in tuk tuk from city of Rishikesh to the sacred place. On the way I could see big posters and holding boards of displaying advertisement for Yoga, Meditation class to Massage to many tourist eye catching boards like – Got Guts ? – Bungy Jumping , Book your ticket now 😛 hehe.

Lots of foreigners white, black, brown moving on roadside taking Chai on roadside just like Indian do. Then I remember a line – When you are in India, act like Indians :P.

I saw many forgeries living there for a long time with family, probably for few months. On the way, you will see lots of meditation and yoga centers while some people you will find filling gas in he boat which they gonna use for rafting in day time. Morning was silent but my eye was so curious to everything I see and observe and I missed some of my people  from around the globe, they should be here.   The feeling was inexpressible.

learn hindi with anil mahato

[highlight]Laxman Jhula[/highlight]

First thing we visited there was Laxman Jhula. Laxman is the name of younger brother of lord Rama and jhula means simply a bridge or Swing. This bridge is like swinging and hanging so, it was named Laxman Jhula. We have another Jhula called Ram Jhula in distance of 2.5 Km from there.

This picture I tool at Laxman Jhula, Rishikesh, India

Laxman-Jhula-at-rishikesh-India
Anil Mahato (Me 😛 ) at Laxman Jhula, Rishikesh, India

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There are many temples, small and big near by laxman jhula and you will see pilgrims worshiping to Holy River ganga all the time. Crowd is more at evening and day time. While some tourist including Indian, just laying down on the sand at the bank of Ganga river and looking the beautiful flow of river and greenery above it. We did it too.

[highlight]On the Way To Ram Jhula[/highlight]

When I started moving to Ram Jhula, I was already in pressure of peeing 😛 I was holding it for a long time. But I saw no place to pee and I don’t wanted to pee like we do mostly anywhere anytime :p because of the respect for Holy Ganga & sacredness of it. So I my prime focus of the eye was to see the washroom to be honest but still the magnificent path with chanting matra was giving me peace. The most amazing thing I saw in the way which was almost 2 KM I guess is on right side you will see garden and sitting chairs painted in red all made in 1929 and made by individuals donation. There you will see the name of the people who made it.

rishikesh-photos
Sitting on a chair made in 1929 AD , wow

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Again you will see lots of sage on the way some true and while some are fake.

[highlight]Ram Jula [/highlight]

Finally we reached,  Ican see crowd more there than in Laxman Jhula may be because many temples are more here , yoga centers are more here, Gita Bhawan ( the house of Gita chanters) is here and also is first place from Rishikesh. It comes before Laxman Jhula when you travel from Rishikesh city.

Again amazing feeling of devotees and Ashrams. As it was morning it was not so hot , day was super hot :(. So, we traveled around for a while and saw many temples, ashrams, people & yes of course monkeys :p

[highlight]Swimming on Ganga River[/highlight]

This is the most interesting thing for me. Water was clean only sad was mixed. It has got so many places to take bathe. Almost everywhere from Laxman Jhula to Ram Jhula you will see taking shower or at least just they deep there body. People are scared while some are swimming even upto middle of the river, which is not allowed by tourist. We also took part in swimming and playing with holy river water. Outside the sand was so hot but inside water was so cold you will start severing in some time, meantime you will see lots of rafters sailing in the middle of the river.

This is the pic I took when I was swimming there.

Holy Bath in Ganga River at Rishikesh India
Doing Shirshaasan at Ganga River, Rishikesh, India

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 Worship & Food

After swimming it was time for worship and eating. We did some pray with some holy food offering to goddess of river , mother Ganga. Elainchi Dana ,  is a famous offering there. We bought and offered . There is a cardamom grain in the middle rapped with sugar. Take a look on the photo below.

Elainchi dana prashad
Holy Food ( Prashad) – Elainchi Dana

After worship I ate this food on the bank side Indian Restaurant. You will get almost all cuisine here based on your choice. But I wanted to eat while seeing the river, so I find Indian food serving restaurant only offering this. Food will cost you between INR 50 to INR 350 based on what and where you eat. Here is my INR 70 Rupee(1.20 US$) Dish.

70 Rupee Indian Dish at Rishikesh I ate.
70 Rupee Indian Dish at Rishikesh I ate.

[highlight] Roaming Around & Walking in Jungle[/highlight]

After food, we get tied in stomach and sun was also terrific so, we started roaming around the rishikesh and towards jungle on the way to Nilkanth temple. Here I am sharing few picture from there.

Lord shiva at rishikesh India
Touching feet of Lord Shiva
eating-mangoes-on-the-way-to-nilkanth
Eating Mangoes in Jungle on the way to Nilkanth temple.

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rishikesh-India
A small view on the street of Rishikesh India

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