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Published: January 17th 2010
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11/1/10
Travelled by bus in this part of India reminded me a lot of Yunnan and Sichuan in China. The curving up down mountain road through valley after valley. But here seem more prettier in sight, as there was less cables wiring and telecom towers, and houses usually painted in adorable colours and more in harmony with the nature . Bus serviced in between city were more faster and quite often ignored passenger on the road, I guessed it was because those were state owned business, and all the conductors were issued a small machine to print out ticket, no cheating! But once up in the hill area most buses were private owned. So they would stop everywhere and tried took as many passenger they could, it made the experience more like in China. And once I crossed into Garwhal region, buses became smaller and more packed, and my first encounter was the bus switching, one bus sold the passengers to another bus, it was totally Chinese! And I hate this very much as I usually would lose my comfortable window seat, and this time I had to stood packed inside the small bus, bags stuffed between my leg and
my head leaned on one side because the ceiling was too low!
I choose Rishikesh for a break. a religious center, more renown as a meditation and yoga center, since the Beatles came up here in the late 60's, it attracted much more spiritual seekers into this Ganga land. I didn't know why I would stop here, as I wasn't religious, I wasn't interest in meditation or yoga, guessed I just wanted to see other travellers for a changed, and be able to eat something other than chapati. Landed myself in Lakshman area. Think I was lucky to got a cheap room as I find out it will be the Kumbh Mela in nearby Hardiwar, this one happened one in 12 years, said it will attracted more than million pilgrims into Haridwar. No wondered I saw many Indian tour group in town, all with their label plate hanging down their neck. When the owner told me Rs140 for the room, although only a small bed squared by 4 bare walls, I took it right away. Finally seen some other tourists, but it was far less than I'd expected, and they looked more Indian than the Indian, even nowadays most people
dress in western style, only those into this religions business would clad themselves in paper thin fabric, and top up by rolling with a woolen blanket, of course...tourist wore more in style and colours matched, lungi in knee length, caught up with the woolen socking from below, all with the fashionable bulk-head sandals shoe. Beside Lakshman(@380m),the Ram area 2km away also gathered many travellers, and I would prefered it more there as the Ghat was there and you could see ritual ceremony during early morning and late afternoon. You could see posters and advertising about courses for meditation and yoga everywhere, and I guessed 80% or even more of the travellers were came here for this. And many camouflaged spiritual men lined the street double as drug dealers made it handy and attractive for many seekers. Unfortunately I wasn't interest in any of these and worse that I didn't even have the guts to walked into the ganga. Do I need to purified my sin? Hey...beside...the water was bloody cold! to be honest ,it actually was really cold at night, the horror night in the Everest kept coming back. It was far colder than the last few days when I
was at over 1600m.
There wasn't much religious atmosphere that I could sensed here(perhaps just because I wasn't hindus), commercial and business was the main theme in my opinion. And many big buildings and estate was being constructed on both side of the river, for future residents from overseas, come here to purify the soul and wash away their sin from the city.
The Rishikesh town was about 5km down from Lakshman, where a small market area still kept some old buildings near the Ghat.
Note
Bus Kausani to Kanapraya Rs100
Bus Karapraya to Srinagar Rs60
Bus Srinagar to Rishikesh Rs100
14/1/10
The 2nd times in my life got a pick-pocket behind me, again...while got into a packed bus, not a lot of money, but just looked at the way I defined money(1 cent the size of pizza), I would walk 3 times around town before made the decision to buy a bottle of water perhaps 3 rupee cheaper, a street further to save 5 rupee for internet in a shop on the back street, now I need to figured a concepts to balance my psychological unstabled. but mostly I wasn't happy because sure some people saw
it happened, but just didn't stop it or made some noise. I was down in Haridwar for the Hindu festival, the one that happened one in 12 years, the Kumbh Mela. It was as predicted...many people! It wasn't the kind of festival that I'd expected, as there wasn't any shows, performances or parade, only the bathing in the Ganga, so...you seen everyone pushed to the riverside find themselves a space and undressed, from year old to 90, men and women, any size and shape in any colour, of course wouldn't forget to washed their clothes if needed. Heard it would carried on for months, and each day should be good for people in different star sign, but no matter what...as long as it was the water of the Ganga, all the sins should be wash away! I guessed that guy(or a woman)would went right down to the ganga after pick my money from my pocket! With the traffic control, bus station had been closed in Haridwar, that was why I had to squeezed in the bus by the road side. There really not much to do in Haridwar, people just walked, yes...you one see people walked, the flow and the
moment, sometimes police would came and urged people moved forward. I really didn't feel any festive atmospheric in the air, perhaps it was the 1st day, maybe it will developed some kind of carnival later. On the bus back I saw the only festive scene on the road, a small parade of youngsters, shouting and singing, trumpets and drum, followed by a white horse decorated with embroidered saddle which carried the groom to pick-up the bride, dressed in white, a head dress with steamers covered his face, in China is the bride that should covered her face, and the groom provided the dowry, but here in India, they played it another way around. again...the sense of India!
Note
Bus Rishikesh to Haridwar Rs19.
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