The previous post in this series is here..
We left Haridwar and reached Rishikesh. MIL was exhausted and said she will stay in the car and drink tea at a local tea stall. The driver told us he will stop and help her. The three of us were given instructions to walk from the main Lakshmanjula road towards the river and once there, walk along the river and see some bridges, see the Ganga Aarathi and then come back.
We walked as instructed, saw the crowd, saw the entire Ganga Aarathi, which was a great experience. Then we walked back with a ganna juice stop for San.
MIL looked refreshed after her rest and chai. Our driver suggested that we go to the hotel after our return, drop luggage before we make it to the end of the road to go cross the lighted Janki Setu bridge and visit temples on the other side. We should have listened to him. We told him we were all tired and would rather be done with all the temple visits before coming back.
We parked in a parking lot near the entrance to the Janki sethu (bridge) and walked across it. Then on the other side we visited two temples where we met our recent friends and family! It was great to catch up again.
We walked back to the car and our driver said the road was jammed and will take one hour to clear at least. The local restaurants had no seating. Everything was full. We left MIL in the car and the three of us walked back to the hotel in crazy jammed traffic. But our luggage was still in the car. My jacket was left loose in the trunk with my passport in the jacket pocket. I was tense and worried that if they open to take out stuff, my jacket and passport fall down. Luckily when the driver showed up with MIL and the luggage the jacket was still on top.
Alanis for some reason came to mind.. had listened to her albums as a grad student a long time ago when her album hit.. raining, traffic jam when your’e already late, India, a few neurons connected and gave me memories of Philadelphia in early 90’s, while at Rishikesh. The brain does funny things..
We were all exhausted after that experience. our hotel was a new hotel and it was fantastic. Sadly we were too late and the restaurant had closed for dinner. Ate an energy bar and went to sleep. The other three had taken some Lassi earlier at the parking lot. Everyone just crashed.
In the morning we had a really nice breakfast at the hotel including idli, vadai etc. The food and service was fantastic.
After the breakfast we got our luggage down and were all set to drive to the Dehradun airport. We met the same family at the airport again. At this point my FIL was going back to Chennai and San/me went with MIL to Mumbai. I had one evening and one day in Mumbai to repack before flying out to the US. Given all the helicopter delay scares, was happy to know that I will make it to Mumbai.
Here are the photos from our Rishikesh leg and back to Dehradun airport. We saw some interesting things in the airport including a Flybrary. You can see it in the pictures and the video.
Photos..
Video highlight reel..
Rishikesh is a vegetarian city. That in itself was an amazing experience. The food was just amazing.
We made it back to Mumbai without event.. Will write about it before I close this series!