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Published: October 17th 2014
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So i was on holidays from my office but due to some prior commitments i was not able to leave Delhi. In the back of my mind i was praying to god that please do something and get me out of Delhi .So it was Saturday evening 11th Oct,2014 i was having tea with a cousin of mine and in between our talks Haridwar came out of my mouth. I told him that i really want to visit Haridwar as its been 5 years since i have visited the place. So within an hour he was all set. I packed my bag and he packed his .We searched alot on net about the timings of buses from Delhi and then came to know that from Delhi Kasmere Gate- ISBT terminal a bus leaves for haridwar every half an hour .But these buses were ordinary buses with crowd who are drunk or who are smoking.As me and my cousin did not wanted to travel in those conditions,we searched for AC Volvo buses and we confirmed from the call center that only two buses leaves in the evening.The first Volvo Bus leave at 9.30PM and the other at 11.00PM. So we took metro
from our home and reached kashmere gate metro station around 7.45PM and after enquiring at various ticket counters found out that the 9.30PM bus is having availability and it will reach haridwar by 4.00AM. We bought tickets which costed us Rs.1200/- for two tickets from Delhi to Haridwar. Finally we boarded the buses and to our utter surprise it was all empty as only 5-6 seats were filled.
The VOLVO bus on Delhi-Haridwar route is of uttrakhand tourism and let me tell you it does not provide you blankets and there is no TV in bus which is provided in other VOLVO buses.
Around 11.30PM the driver stopped the bus at BIKANO'S newly opened restaurant and to our surprise we came to know that we are misinformed about the arrival time of haridwar .The conductor told us that bus will reach Haridwar at around 2.00AM and 4.00AM time which was mentioned to us at the ticket counter is of Rishekesh.
Finally the bus arrived Haridwar at 2.15am .Now in the middle of cold night we were on the road.
After that we went to nearby restaurant and ate some prantha's and had tea.
While we
were on our way out of restaurant this Rickshaw puller tried to get friendly with us. At that time i understood that there is something fishy in his head.
He with his kind gesture and talk make us sit on his Rickshaw and he took us to nearby hotels.After visiting around 5 Hotels around 3AM i understood that the rickshaw puller will get his share from our Room Rent as well,so basically he was an agent of hotels. But due to bad rooms conditions and giving full rent of a day for just 4 hours i didn't chose hotels which were charging Rs.600/-.When i told the Rickshaw puller to leave us near bus stop so that we will search our accomodation ourselves he started shouting that this is not done you need to give this much to hotel people. At this behavior of his i also shouted that look don't make us fool out here we know that you will get a share from our room rent.
My simple theory was that why should i pay Rs.600/- for just 4 hours ,as we had planned to leave hotel around 8AM. The checkout time was 12NOON so therefore the
hotel people were demanding full amount but being less on budget i chose to bargain.
Finally at last the rickshaw puller took us to a hotel which charged Rs.300/- and gave us a nice room till 12NOON.
Me and my cousin brother slept around 3.30AM and got up around 7.00AM checked out of the hotel and started exploring the place.
I was curious to see river GANGA but to our utter disappointment it was in the process of cleaning and we could not witness its fast flowing water instead we saw the river bed and only few layers of water flowing which does not have much depth as the regular GANGA.
But showing positivity we took a dip in the GANGA on the Ghat side where the some water was flowing at a very slow speed.
After that we had lunch and then we were off to visit Mansa Devi temple which can be reached via ropeway cable car.
It took us an hour to visit Mansa Devi temple.
It was 11.30AM and we had plenty of time to spend so we took the shared auto's from haridwar and reached rishekesh in an
hour and spent sometime relaxing near the GANGA ghat there which is near to Ram Jhula. The water here was at full capicity. After spending time near the Ghat we went to see Ram Jhula and then explored the places near to it.
To see the main thing in Haridwar that is the evening AARTI we left rishkesh at 3PM and reached haridwar by 4.30PM.Upon reaching we tried food at different restaurants and finally occupy our position to sit and witness the AARTI. The evening AARTI without the full ganga river flowing was a bit different but it will be a rememberable one.
As soon as AARTI ended we took rickshaw direct to bus stop and find one VOLVO parked and got inside of it and left for Delhi at 8.00PM and reached Delhi by 12.30AM.
Hope to see your valuable comments..
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