Char Dham Yatra: Rishikesh

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Day -1: Delhi to Rishikesh:

Our Char Dham Yatra booked through RadheShyam was to start from New Delhi Railway station at 12.00 pm on 9^th May. We reached Delhi by train from Ahmedabad at 7.30. And we started at 11.30. Our first halt was at Rishikesh, about 225 km from Delhi. It was hot all throughout, although the road side views were lush green.

In June, 2013, there was a cloud burst in the hills upwards of Kedarnath leading to flash floods in River Mandakini and subsequent widespread destruction and large number of deaths including many pilgrims. The authorities were at a loss even to estimate casualties. Since then a registration system has been introduced while starting Char Dham Yatra. Registration can be done at many places from Haridwar onwards. The registration slip shows your probable dates of arrival at different places. There is another reason for registration: Uttarakhand is a border state and at times you are hardly 20-25 km from International border with China. To get yourself registered, you have to produce photo ID. So far, so good. Like most other Government schemes, this registration card was not checked at any place. Any way, we got our selves registered in the evening itself because there can be long queues in the morning. The Yatra had opened on 7^th May, i.e. ours was the third batch.

Hotel accommodation (Hotel Neeraj Bhavan) was reasonably good. Our tour guide would announce next day’s programme at dinner time every day.



Day -2: Rishikesh local sightseeing and travel to Barkot:

Uttarakhand is also called ‘Bhoomi’ – Land – of Gods. It starts from Haridwar which is before Rishikesh coming from Delhi (incidentally Haridwar was our last stop). There are a large number of spots (and temples) connected with the two epics: Ramayan and Mahabharat in Uttarakhand. Add to these are the two mighty rivers of north India: Ganga and Yamuna – worshipped as Mothers / Goddesses.

Places to visit at Rishikesh include: Triveni Ghat, Trayambakeshwar temple, Badri-Kedar Temple, Laxman Zula, Laxman Mandir (Temple), Gita Bhavan, Swarg Ashram, Neelkanth Mahadev, Ram Zula, Parmarth Niketan, Vashishth Gufa etc. At least one full day is required at Rishikesh. Whereas the time available to us was only from 7.30 to 10.30 as we had to proceed to Barkot (7 hours). Neelkanth Mahadev Temple is some 12 km away and it would take 2-3 hours.

Haridwar and Rishikesh are the two places which are included in many tourist circuits apart from Char Dham. E.g., both are on way to Dehradoon and Massoorie, they can be included on way to Jim Corbett National park and on wards to Nainital (although it is shorter to go to Nainital directly). For this reason, only a short stay was planned at Rishikesh in this tour.

After spending one full hour at a Govt sponsored souvenir shop, we could see only Badri-Kedar Temple, Laxman Zula and Laxman Mandir (Temple). Laxman Zula is a cable suspended bridge across River Ganga. After crossing the bridge on foot (motorised two-wheeler are allowed on the bridge) we went to Ganga Tati by taking shared Taxis. Devotees started taking dip in River Ganga from this point on wards! From there we took 5 min boat ride back to the main city side of the river.

If we happen to visit Rishikesh again, we would skip the places we have already seen and go to the remaining.

On way to Barkot, we by-passed Dehradun and Massoorie. We saw the prime attraction of Massoorie – Kempty Falls from a distance. At that time we felt that we had missed something, but after having seen hundreds of such falls joining the big rivers of Himalayas, now I don’t think I will go to Massoorie!

Right from Rishikesh, kilometres and kilometres, sorry, hours and hours of winding, dangerous, hilly roads start. Tour organisers generally keep extra margin in time in case of traffic jams, which are said to be quite frequent. Although in the entire tour we did not have any jam lasting for more than an hour.

We reached Barkot at around 8 pm. Tent accommodation was available. It was a good change from typical Hotel rooms, but at night it became somewhat uncomfortable due to cold. Temperature must be around 10.

Click on any photo to start full size slide show. Description of photographs are embedded.

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Comments

[Ravindra Shivde]

Excellent writeup
Your blog is very well written and was helpful in planning my tour.