To Let it Go! #RishikeshDiaries

We lose ourselves in things we love and find ourselves there, too.

The left hand sticks out in thumbs up gesture; I thought I had completely lost my mind to do this after walking against the cold wind at Lakshman Jhulla and trying to hitch a hike at 8:30 am. I walked some more towards bus stop, but realised that bus-stop was very far and the rickshaws are not allowed beyond a certain point. I managed to hitch a hike halfway but the man had to go in another direction. I started walking again, I always try to travel light but this time my caring mother made me pack woolens, which I didn’t remember to wear until now. I was heading to my camp which was 35 km from Rishikesh at the place called Kaudiyala, the camp manager explained me the direction and how to reach there a day prior, all I had to do was to take any bus from Tapovan to Kaudiyala. The camp which was almost full when I called them up to check if I could get a place from 29^th to 31^st, now was full of silence, there was only a group of 4 men who were leaving on 30^th  so I had to do the rafting on 29^th with them. 

Too much fresh oxygen to breathe while walking almost left me breathless so I decided to stop at a small shack and buy some water. I hear someone calling “gudiya” from rear, I turned around to find a babaji sitting on a pavement and checked around if he was calling someone else, but I think it was just me “gudiya” material there. And the babaji started with his fortune telling, I thought I should inform him that I am already broke and I can’t give him any money in return of his wise words, but that did not deter him from his noob fortune telling, telling me about some guy with same eye colour as my sweatshirt waiting for me somewhere is fake as it could be. The babaji didn’t offer me Prasad as well and I had to bid riddance before he spoke another word. I don’t know about any man with blue eyes waiting for me but I was surely hoping him to be the next guy on bike or car, I was tired of walking and bus stop was still far, somehow I managed to hitch a hike and the man dropped me at a place where on one wave of your hand the buses stop for you. Kaudiyala was 45 mins drive from Tapovan, I intended to sleep but couldn’t trust the conductor much so I decided to witness crazy mountain driving, and believe me they are so scary that little imbalance and you are actually cliff jumping with 50 other passengers and a bus.

Although I had tried rafting before it didn’t curtail any of my excitement to raft in Ganges. I was speculating the temperature of the water while waiting for my raft and co-rafter to come; I saw them coming waterways already rowing in the water. I felt cheated as they got to raft from the very beginning, but looking at their terrified faces I gauged that they were first timers, that mellowed my feelings. After pep talk on techniques to row and safety procedures (which I was already aware of) the four boys, me and three rafting guides started rowing the 10 seater raft. It was one hell of an experience with boys, the petrified look on their face the moment the guide asked them to jump in the water to their antics once they jumped in. Two of them fell in the water while we were trying to balance the raft in a small rapid. The water was freezing cold, all my swimming skills were vain, I could feel my hands and legs numbing out as soon as I jumped in the water. If it weren’t for the life jackets, I or rather my corpse would have floated all the way to Haridwar (no death ceremonies required).

The rafting group

The camp entrance was approximately 20 km away from raft drop off, out of which 16 km was travel by jeep to Madhav Chatti and another 5 km of trek to the camp in midst of nowhere. The camp seemed diminutive but it almost stretched 1 km in length and breadth with private view of Ganga and the beach. The boys were only company I had at the camp apart from the staff also men. It was the very moment or very day I should have been terrified of in my life, the one thing that I was apprehensive about travelling north alone – the men in the north and here I was amidst a camp in nowhere of Rishikesh with almost 10 northern men. But I don’t remember any such moment where I was terrified of being the only lady in camp. The boys group was one of a kind company reminded me of my good old college days, although most of the men in camp were younger to me and treated me like their sister. The moment a guy called me sister it got me thinking either they are not from Delhi or I am not good looking enough. Everyone at the camp made sure I was comfortable and not bored; they even played a match of beach volleyball for my entertainment and shared their liquor while keeping tab on my number of pegs. The food at camp was delectable, confused me with what do I munch on first, every dish just looked scrumptious.

My Tent

View from my tent

The next morning was beyond comprehension, the beach, the colourful fauna around and the view of mighty Ganga, what else do you need around you for a perfect vacation? The boys were supposed to be leaving early in the morning but they stayed back for a while after breakfast and we decided to check out the waterfall which was 5 mins walk from camp. The water was still cold and I was in no mood for a chilled shower so I made a deal of clicking their pictures while they enjoyed the free flowing water. The boys left soon after the waterfall visit and I could see only 3 helper boys today, I wondered where the rest were. Now it was just me and my thoughts that I could hear in the entire camp. I even started off with a book on Market Research on Travel & Tourism, sounds bit off for a book to read on vacation and it couldn’t settle my thoughts even for a moment so I chose to go intrepid again. After lunch I told the camp manager that I wanted to cliff jump and kayak, in return he asked me if I wanted to do rock climbing and rappelling as well. The cliff was some 15 feet high, although I wanted to do it without the life-jacket but then raft reminded me the water temperature day prior. The cliff jump was sort of a practice session for jumping from a height 18 times this height the next day, I couldn’t simulate the same pump but yes jumping into the cold water from a cliff was surely ticked off from my bucket list. Kayaking wasn’t pretty interesting as they tied one end my kayak to a tree with a rope, so I had limited coverage area because of it. After a quick hot shower and change of clothes I was ready to do some climbing and rappel down.

The climb seemed easy but I missed a step and in split of a second I accelerated down with nothing to hold onto while I was sliding down. I got a few scratches here and there, also ripped off a bit of my jeans from the side, yet that didn’t blow up my will to climb back again. The climb was almost 20 feet from the ground and so was the rappelling. I rappelled down in seconds and the guide could see the disappointment on my face, so he asked me if I wanted to go on a small trek nearby, I didn’t have much to say apart from yes, so we started walking, we passed by the caves and an old way to kedarnath for babaji’s to traverse while they rested in those caves in the night, also there was thick cover of forest around and the guide mentioned that it was very likely of a leopard to be around, we also found the leopard pugmarks while returning. The guide wanted to follow the pugmarks but did not after looking at my panicked state where I was trying to collect tiny rocks in my pockets. He started laughing at the fact that I was going to counter leopard attack with stone pelting. It was getting dark and going back to the camp was sane option, on getting back to the camp we decided to sit down near the beach and listen to the music of calm and dark Ganga. Somewhere the idea of leopard had completely spooked me out so I decided to head-off to my tent in sometime, while he stayed back for some more solitude. Tonight the camp was quiet, it was just me trying to warm up myself in the chilling cold around the huge campfire; the dinner followed by desserts were silent. So was the night, I could although hear a leopard roaring on the other side of the river. I wished I could sleep as soon as I dove in the bed but the leopard was still playing on my mind. We are more frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than reality.