Delhi- Rishikesh- Delhi
Day 1:
Assembling at Connought Place at 7:30 am- the Scooby doo van
heads towards Akshardham to pick rest of our friends- Music, cards and the Bluff
masters- Quick Aloo parantha n Shikanji breakfast at Modi Nagar- cross Meerut-
Everyone’s buzy bluffing!!- Soon cross Mujaffarnagar- Still bluffing- About to
cross Rourkee- everyone’s asleep- Crossing Haridwar- debates over which
one of surrounding ghats is Har-ki-pauri- mass hunger inside mystery machine- Soon
the morning leftover paranthas get many takers- Entering inside Rishikesh-
passing the Laxman Jhoola behind- still some 30 km left to kill- All 30 eyes
glued to ‘Bayasi’ milestone- its 4:30 and finally we reached the ‘stop- in-
front- of- few- continuous- speed- breakers- near- a- few- shops- in- queue’
landmark- We get ‘picked up’- 10 (full) minutes of FUN(!) downhill slope (with
100 kgs of luggage with every woman and yeah 40 Tuborg greens distributed among
men) gets us to an enchanting piece of land ( enchanting x enchanting +
enchanting x 100 times enchanting!!!) (Well this one definitely deserves a
paragraph- imagine a beach of white sand in a completely isolated area, imagine
stunningly shaded and chromed natural river stones around- more beautiful than
the bestest diamonds n opals in the world, imagine the mighty Ganga roaring next to you,
imagine no one else can see you, just you and your loved one, imagine andamans,
imagine the scenes of Hollywood thrillers where people get lost on an
enigmatically quiet and bewitchingly beautiful island!! Well, THIS place was
just all that!) 10 minutes’ further walk while admiring the white beach
where a person is waiting for us to take us across in his raft- Wow! Wondered
what more this trip had for us in its kitty!
Relishing the five minutes of coming back to life and being
the first one to climb the location of the camps- Self Allotment of camps
further 20 steps up- Relaxing tents with 2 single beds each tent and most
importantly the attached toilet- Soon we freshen up only to go all the way down
the slopes to soak ourselves in water- and yeah to soak the Tuborgs in cold
water of ganges thanks to no refrigerator (these camps have practically no
electricity except for a single bulb they manage to put on over generator only
from 7:30 to 10:30 pm!)
Some much needed drenching in the waters of Ganga and
suddenly everyone’s so relaxed!- (again) imagine a small white beach for urself
and pals- evening time when the sun has just set- everything around so
amazingly dull (trust me dull could be amazing sumtimes- this was my first
experience too)- sipping on golden liquids on shores of sparkling waters of
Ganga sitting on a parked raft- Someone’s staring at water unendingly, few trying
to capture it in their lens and some busy demanding their rights on the sand…….
No later followed the games of handball- some throwing, some
catching, many missing, some falling, some hugging the sand, all enjoying…all
rewinded back to their babyhood.
Day swiftly moved ahead and the darkness took over.. and so
did the game of dumb charades .. Like every dumbcharades session, new movies
were ‘discovered’ by the creative minds… Jalte huwe tawe pe naachti hui
bhootni, Howrah bridge pe latakta khooni khanjar, sookhe nadi pe tairti laash
and so on n on…………
Post dinner it became pitch dark..just a single bulb inside
each tent! And the tents surrounded by jungles on 3 sides.. then started the ‘nature
walk’ suggested by the camp guide.. a narrow slippery and slopy footpath
created by the villagers who passby everyday was our route tonight..thats not
all.. this barely 1 metre wide path in the middle of jungle around a cliff atleast
50 metres above the roaring Ganga on the other side also made sure one wrong
move and the foot slips..n ur gone forever… to add to the horror of this
situation were 12 drunkards, tipsy on tuborg.. a creepy 30-40 minutes’ walk to
and fro got us all safely back to few metres before camp location.. a casual
focus of a torch over a random direction in pitch dark and ! there it was the
worst thing that could happen then…an old lady in white saree with white hair
left open sitting in the middle of jungle and meditating!.. Needless to say
what followed next.. but difficult to say if she scared us more or we with our cries petrified her
more!
Day 2:
A day full of rafting! The rafting that started around 10 in
the morning from Bayasi finished only well past 4 near Laxman Jhoola 36
kilometer far! Ofcourse only after – the first few warm up rapids, a skipped
rapid – the wall apparently too dangerous due to its difficulty level, few
terrified faces and their prayers, the desparate swimming in the middle of
Ganga, flashing smiles for facebook dp’s even in the freezing cold water, the ‘all
forward- all backward-(and the most soothing) relaaaaaaax’ orders of the Nepali
guides, the amazing rapids of- 3 blind
mice, micky mouse, Kal Ho Na Ho that followed, a maggi n colddrinks break at
Shivpuri, 5 mins from Shivpuri starts the real action! The most amazing ‘Rollercoaster’
rapid! The cliff jumping at Brahmapuri- soon reaching Rishikesh and hungry
tummies hogging on Bhelpuri, shikanjis n cold drinks. Our van was already
waiting for us uphill where we reached by what can be termed ‘the most unneeded
physical activity’ post the gruelling 6 hrs rafting!
Only when everyone seemed almost dead out of exhaustion,
were we told we have a further ‘forced’ 3-4 kilometer rafting waiting for us if
we wanted to reach the campsite! The already tired lifeless us were compelled
to carry double the load this time since the whole group was accommodated in
the single raft! I wouldn’t wish so much rafting in a day even to my worst enemy! L
When we finally reached our beach, it felt like all 15 of us
were done with the rafting for our entire lives!! ~ ~ ~
The aloo n vegetable bhajiyas n garmagaram chai felt like
heaven to our tummies since we had had to skip the lunch due to rafting..
Again today the dumb charades succeeded in throwing everyone’s
fatigue away with a lot of Kamasutra, prostitute, Jawani, pornstar, garmi,
josh, khooni atma n old at!
Such camps are just incomplete without ghost stories told in
the dead dark….something that was happening outside tent number 6..and yeah not
to forget the wind supposedly running only outside tent no.2………
Day 3:
A quick breakfast and quick hisaab kitab and a lot of
climbing uphill got us to the mainroad…and left for Delhi at 11!.. but reaching only at 11 in the night
thanks to traffic of rishikesh, haridwar, rourkee, Muzaffarnagar, Modinagar and
Ghaziabad…
