Ramblings of an Insomniac

Weekend at Ganges!

The end of mid terms also endowed us with a break of 2 days. After a round of quickfire planning, we zeroed in on using our serendipity for visiting Dehradun, Rishikesh and Mussourie

Rishikesh

We got down the train at Haridwar and started for Rishikesh, our first destination. With Ganges in a full flow, I was enchanted by the natural beauty of Rishikesh. It was like a movie setting..the river flowing deep and quick amidst the tall hills. Nature enthusiasts that we were, we decided to do River Rafting on Ganges. Having never done anything close to river rafting before, all of us were very excited to get going in the river. But a first step into Ganga sent chills down our spine, literally! The water was extremely cold.

We got on to our raft (made of rubber), and started rowing our way to glory. It being a very hilly terrain, the river took many twists and turns through our journey (of arnd 10 KM). The best parts of rafting were at places where the river became very fiery and quick. It was exactly as we had expected..our raft jumped and heaved over the water which was moving very rapidly. A small loss of balance wud directly throw us into the river! Finally, after a very eventful journey, we ended up below the Ram Jhula, the bridge built at some distance to the very famous Lakshman Jhula. Both the bridges are supported only at the ends, built over the river.

After visiting the 13 storeyed temple in Rishikesh, we left for Dehradun for the night.

Mussourie

Situated at around 32 KMs from the city of Dehradun (capital of Uttaranchal), Mussourie lies a good 6000 ft above sea level. It is also one of the oldes hill stations in India. It is completely commercialised and also has a variety of hill schools like the Woodstock school, International school, etc. Whereas the former charges 3Lakhs pa for students, the latter houses children from foreign countries (of foreign embassies, etc).

Kempty falls is a natural water fall where the water originates from inside a mountain. Fresh water beckoned us and we obliged by getting down into the small pool of water at the foot of the falls. And guess what! We were completely numbed by the coldness of the water. The water was so cold that for the first five minutes after we entered the water, we thought we lost our hands and legs for good! Having cold water fall over one's head from over 100 feet is a memorable experience :-D. Later, we went to the Laal Tibba (highest point of Mussourie), from where we could see the Himalayas in all their glory. We could see the snow capped tops of the greater Himalayas, which were nearly 200 KMs away. Apparently, on the other side of these mountains was China! It was an awesome view to see the majestic Himalayas from so near. It definitely inspired me to visit Kashmir and Shimla. Will definitely visit them before I get out of IIML..

Dehradun

Unlike my perceptions of Dehradun as a hill station, it is actually a full blown city with almost all the modern amenities. The city is very similar to Pune in terms of being located just below a hill station. The city also houses the very famous Doon School, where children of politicians and Film stars study.

Sahastradhara is another water falls located 18KMs from Dehradun. We met a different kind of place there...a Cave! This is a naturally formed cave formed due to water droplets originating from inside the mountain. We had a great time trekking into the slippery cave and getting wet from the continuous downpour of water.

A memorable experience akin to the one I had a couple of years back at Ooty. I would love to visit another hill station, especially in the Himalayas..

posted by Vamsee @ 9:20 PM