An Adventurous Journey to Himalayas

Hi, I am Ajay Sharma, a travel enthusiast from Jaipur, the capital city of the desert state of India, Rajasthan. Like many of us, I also had a dream of going for a long adventure trip on my Royal Enfield motor bike. But, due to some professional commitments, it took several years to materialise this long-awaited dream. Finally, in the winters of December 2011, the much awaited day arrived when I took the break from my job and decided to go for a Himalayan trip on my bullet. It was a pleasant noon of December 26th when I shared my desire with my chum, Dinesh Yadav, who for my delight, not only agreed but also insisted on to begin the journey on the very same day. The Sun was looming on the western horizon when our luggage got fixed on carriers of Bullet. It was already dark, by the time we hit the NH 48, battering the evening traffic of Jaipur city.

Both of us were on cloud nine as finally, we were on our way to Himalayas, on our dream journey. But, soon after covering the distance of around 60 kilometres, our dreamy flight entered in the rough weather, as we realised that we werent properly prepared to brave the chilling winds. My fingers were getting numb on the handlebar as there weren't gloves to protect them from cold. We were in a dilemma whether to march forward or to retreat as Delhi was still 180 Kilometres from there, whereas Jaipur was nearer.

After some consideration, it was decided to brave the winds and keep moving forward. Perhaps, that was the first time when I regretted Dinesh's inability of riding the Bullet, as it had opposite side breaking and gear system then the normal motorbikes, and he wasn't in practice. I had no choice, other than keep riding the bike despite numbness of my fingers. Insult to the injury was that the dense fog engulfed the road making it unsafe to move further. We had to take cover behind slow-moving trucks to avoid the fog and the wind, though it compromised our speed. We entered Delhi, post-midnight and knocked on one of our friend's door to seek refuge.

For our relief, the next morning was warm and pleasant. After having breakfast, we left for Haridwar, hoping to reach there by lunchtime. The ride was comfortable and joyful until Dinesh expressed his desire of taking control of the bike to give me some rest. Based on my bad experience of the previous night, I did not want to miss that golden opportunity of training him. It was Meerut bypass, with lesser morning traffic, ideal for a new rider to try his hands. Despite being sceptical about Dinesh's ability to ride my bike due to her opposite breaking and gearing system, I took a chance and handed over the command of bike to him. 

We hardly moved around 500 meters, Dinesh was still trying to master the gear and breaking system of the bike and suddenly a tempo emerged in front of us, which was trying to cross the road. In that sudden moment, natural reflexes of Dinesh could not guide him to hit the opposite side break, and our bike barged into the tempo. Very next moment both of us were rolling on the road. Some passerbies came to our rescue and by the time we got up, the tempo had already disappeared from the scene. Miraculusly, both of us got only minor bruises, but that wasn't the case with our bike. The handle got twisted, both of the front suspension rods got bended and the front wheel got jammed, making the bike immovable. Realising our bad situation some people came forward to helped us pulling the bike off the road.

Fortunately, a Bullet mechanic was also present there, who helped us arranging a rickshaw to take the bike to his workshop. An unforeseen event disturbed our budget by consuming its major chunk for bike repair. Dinesh suggested me to stay at one of his relative's home at Haridwar for the sake of saving some money, and I instantly approved his idea. Dinesh informed his relative about our plan of visiting Haridwar and as expected, we got an invitation from him to stay at his home. It was almost sunset by the time bike got repaired for further journey. We left Meerut around 5 in the evening to repeat the history of the previous night.

By the time we knocked on the door of our host in Haridwar, it was already post-midnight. But, contrary to our doubts, we received a warm welcome from our host, who offered us a delicious dinner as well as the warm bed. We were deeply moved by the hospitability shown by him.
 

However, we hardly had some sleep when our host woke us up in early morning, instisting on to visit his cosmetic factory, where he was working as a senior manager. We couldn't understand the intention of our host, whether he really wanted us to visit his factory or he did not want us to stay at his home with his family in his absence. But contrary to our expectation, it was a new and positive experience for both of us of visiting a fully automated factory.

Now, it was time to say goodbye to our host and to resume our journey. From there, we moved straight towards the famous ghats of Haridwar; where, after gathering much courage, we took the holy dip in the cold water of river Ganga. However; hesitation of the cold water was short lived as we enjoyed our bath after the first dip. The current of Ganga was transmitting a new divine energy in our tired bodies and souls. That was the first time when we realised the power of spiritual atmosphere in our surroundings. The feeling of our individuality was leaching away in the holy water of river Ganga. Every Individual, present on the Ghats, was appearing an extension of the same soul. We were in a different world and the tiredness of our long journey had vanished in the spirituality of that atmosphere.

After that divine experience at the ghats of Ganga, we moved on to pay our homage at Mansa Devi temple, situated on a hilltop. Ropeway facility was available to reach the shrine which appealed both of us due to two main reasons; first, we were tired and second, it was our first chance of using ropeway facility. So, we opted for the ropeway facility instead of walking to the shrine. It was an awesome feeling of being in the air. We paid our tribute to Mansa Devi, seeking her blessings for a purposeful life. The spread of Haridwar in the valley and snaky curves of river Ganga, vanishing in the horizon, were great sightings from the top of the hill.

After having the initial glimpses of the natural beauty of that Himalayan region, we decided to move towards our next destination, Rishikesh. Haridwar was the last town on our way, situated on plains as the Himalayan mountain range begins from there. Our way to Rishikesh was on hilly terrain and full of natural beauty.

We reached Rishikesh by noon, and our next priority was to find a suitable accommodation for us. We had already spent a huge chunk of our budget on bike repair, making most of the hotel rooms out of our budget. Finally, it was decided to take shelter in a Gurudwara, where accommodation and good food were available at free of cost. Despite our budgetary constraints, our subconscious did not allow us to take undue advantage of the generosity of the Gurudwara committee and we deposited a meagre amount of rupees 500 as donation. After showing our identity cards and sharing the purpose of our visit, we received the key of a neat and clean room which was no less than any budget hotel room. We put our luggage there and left to have a look of that holy hilly town.

Rishikesh appeared relatively cleaner, less crowded and peaceful in comparison to Haridwar. River Ganga separates it in two equal part, connected by two mega suspension bridges Laxman Jhula and Ram Jhula, which were designed for pedestrians, thus, not wide enough for motor vehicles. However, motorbikes can pass through these bridges. Both of these bridges are the source of employment for some local vendors and photographers who earn their living by selling souvenirs to the tourists and clicking their photographs on the bridges.

Like other tourists we also spent some time on Laxman Jhula, enjoying the view of river while feeding the fishes in clear transparent water of the great Ganga. The mesmerising view of clean and transparent water and gentle touch of clean fresh breeze took us to another divine world. After spending some time on Laxman Jhula, we moved towards the clean and sandy riverbank where we enjoyed a barefoot walk on river sand and then got relaxed by laying on our backs. 

From there, we moved little upwards along with the riverbank and saw a group of young boys and girls was enjoying the white water rafting. The thrill of adventure was visible on their faces as their rubber boats were going up and down with the force of water on huge boulders and rocks. Both of us too were keen to try our hands on whitewater rafting but before we could think further, the harsh reality of our shrinking pockets brought us to the reality. We had no option other than satisfying our desire by clicking the photographs of those charged up people on boats.

We spent rest of our day while roaming in the narrow streets of Rishikesh visiting numerous temples and Ashrams. And our evening was spent on a Ghat in the spiritual atmosphere of Ganga Arti. We returned back to our room in Gurudwara with a mixed state of being physically tired but spiritually charged.

Rishikesh is a must visit place for those who are either in search of peace or adventure as it offers plenty of opportunities for both kinds of people. Laxman and Ram Jhula, Neelkanth Mahadev Mandir, Terah Manzil Mandir, many Ashrams, Rajaji National Park, Whitewater rafting and Ganga Arti are some major attractions of Rishikesh.

Next day early morning, we said goodbye to Rishikesh and left for the queen of hills, Mussoorie, which is around 85 kilometres from there. It is difficult to say whether our journey was more beautiful or our destination. The beauty of the hill station completely justifies the title "queen of hills". We had a stroll in the market in search of a good restaurant to have our first meal of the day but soon we found an old man who was selling hot and fresh Kadhi-Chawal (Curry-rice) on his bicycle. Considering our budgetary constraints we preferred his food and for our delight the food was so delicious and pocket friendly that each of us enjoyed having two plates of Kadhi-Chawal. 

After having the hefty breakfast we were ready to enjoy the scenic beauty of Mussoorie and headed straight towards the Gun-hill point which is one of the highest point there and provides 360 degree view of the mighty Himalayan range. It was our first experience of enjoying the mesmerising view of endless snow cladded peaks of Himalayan mountain range. Earlier, both of us had seen the vastness of Arabian sea and the Thar desert, but this was the time to witness the greatness of the great Himalayas. 

However, warm sunshine and the scenic beauty of mother nature were persuasive enough to keep us stay there for a longer period, but our desire to explore more, pulled us towards Kempty Falls which is another tourist attraction of Mussoorie. The first distant view of that mighty falls made us realise the reason of its popularity. It is a huge waterfall visible from far distance. When we reached at the base of Kempty Falls, we found that it a well developed tourist spot with all modern facilities such as clean and safe water pools, changing rooms, rented swimming costumes, locker rooms and cafeteria. Though all those facilities and the beautiful view of the waterfall were very appealing to induce someone to have splashing bath under the waterfall but despite being good swimmers we couldn't dare to jump into that cold water. We spent some time there enjoying the views and having refreshments. Then we headed back towards Mussoorie and spent rest of our day strolling at the famous Mall Road. The market on Mall Road offers so many choices to the tourists to empty their pockets, but in our case, we already had our pockets almost empty, so we decided to spend our day admiring the architectural beauty of British era buildings while strolling in the streets of Mussoorie.

It was already dark by the time we begun our descend for Dehradun. The amazing night view of Dehradun from hill top was appearing as a reflection of the starry sky above us. By the time we reached Dehradun it was time to have dinner and both of us were hungry. Being vegetarian, we searched for some pure vegetarian restaurants but couldn't found any in that part of the city. We also tried some road side stalls but there too we couldn't find pure vegetarian food. Finally, we satisfied our hunger with bred and namkeen, which we brought form a local grocery store.  

After having dinner we decided to head straight towards Rishikesh to spend our night in the Gurudwara. But, our adventure didn't end there as we got another surprise on our way back to Rishikesh. At the outskirts of Dehradun, there was a barrier on Dehradun-Rishikesh road and the police officer on duty did not allow us to ride towards Rishikesh on the pretext of safety concerns due to the movement of elephants in the night. He also told us that an adult male elephant had already injured and killed some people who dared to ride on that road during night time. 

We had no choice other than to retreat and to find an accommodation to spend that night in Dehradun. After consulting with some local shopkeepers, we found a budget hotel, suitable to our pocket. It was an old house, converted into a hotel. We found a neat and clean room in a cottage at the back side of the main building. Both of us were tired enough to fell asleep as soon as we got into the warm bed. 

Perhaps, it was the first night since the beginning of our journey when we had proper sleep in a warm bed and we woke up refreshed, next day. We felt thankful to God and the police officer who stopped us from going to Rishikesh, when we saw the news of a human casualty in elephant attack on Dehradun-Rishikesh road on the previous night. It was the 31st of December by now we had done enough adventure during that journey. Therefore, we decided to celebrate the new year eve with our families in Jaipur and after having our breakfast we headed back towards Jaipur. The journey back home was a 12 hour long ride form Dehradun to Jaipur and we joined with our families by the evening of that day to welcome the new year. 

Our Journey was full of fun, adventure and misadventure. During this journey, we learned that unforeseen events may occur and alter your plans when you are on road. We also learned how to manage and enjoy a journey when you run low on budget. Last but not the least, you can overcome all difficulties if God is with you. During our journey, we not only survived an accident but also avoided deadly encounter with elephants. We thank God for making our journey so enriching and safe and look forward to have another great expedition in near future. Until then, I leave you with some more beautiful images of this journey. 

By: Ajay Sharma 
For More Images: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2435491372317&type=3