Rishikesh

On Friday, seven of us adventurous souls decided to brave the Indian railway system and travel without our surrogate parents/babysitters (aka our teachers) to Rishikesh, a touristy town nestled in the Himalayan foothills on the banks of the Ganges. Like I said in a previous post, I was all over the hotel reservations, train tickets, and emailed packing lists (terrifyingly mother-like, let's not talk about it), so after our oral Hindi exams on Friday, we ate a quick lunch and smooshed into three autos to the Nizamuddin train station. Unfortunately our train was delayed by about an hour, so we drank generic-brand Limca (deliciously refreshing Indian lemon-lime soda) and sweated liters sitting in the shade, getting stared at all the while. I repeatedly tried to ask people where our car would stop (a non-air conditioned sleeper car, though we didn't sleep at all since we were traveling during the day), but I mostly received confused looks and useless information about which platform to go to, even though we were already on the correct one.

Finally our train arrived and we hustled on. After Tania made an 11th hour decision to get off the train and not come because she felt sick, we were on our way! The train ride was approximately five hours, and while it was a tad hot because of the whole lack of AC thing, it was generally not too bad because we chatted and listened to our iPods for most of the trip. As usually happens whenever we're confused, we found someone who was also getting off at Haridwar (a town 24 km from Rishikesh, into which trains arrive) who we could follow at the appropriate time. Generally, when in doubt, we make the best Hindi speaker ask the person closest to us about how to get on or off a train or bus or metro, and then either follow them or another person who says that they're getting off at the same stop. We were lucky Sagarika was with us, because she speaks fluent Hindi and therefore is our perpetual translator and clarifier.

After admiring the setting sun in all its red glory (thanks air pollution!) and eating a weird hodgepodge of snacks, we finally reached Haridwar around 8:45 and disembarked. The train station was more bustling then we expected, and we headed outside to find a taxi or auto that would take us to the Divine Ganga Cottage in Rishikesh. Now, this is where I must backtrack a little bit. When I was booking the hotel earlier in the week, I had spoken on the phone several times with the owner, a very nice, helpful woman named Seema who spoke impeccable English (we later found out she was raised in Orange County and then moved back to India, so that explains that). I told Seema I would call on Friday to confirm our reservation and let her know whether we would need dinner upon our arrival. At the train station in Delhi, I had called to ask if we could change our room situation a little because we had an extra person. Seema was very understanding and willing to make the change, and we chatted for a few minutes about what the seven of us were doing in Delhi and such. After Tania decided to get off the train, however, I had to call her back and sheepishly ask if we could change our reservation back to the previous arrangement and also ask if the hotel's restaurant could have dinner ready for us when we got there. Once again, Seema was responsive and courteous, and that was that.

Upon reaching Haridwar, Seema had asked that we call her to let her know how long it would be until we reached Rishikesh, so I called her for the third time that day. After Sagarika found us two autos that promised to take us to the Divine Ganga Cottage, they pulled over on the side of some dark road in Haridwar and asked me to call Seema again to ask directions. At this point we were all a little frustrated and ready to be settled in our rooms, but we were told to all get into one larger auto for the same price (rip-off city, what else is new) and a new man drove us onwards. I was in the front next to him because we all couldn't fit in the back, and let me tell you, it was terrifying (I'm really making the most of my basic Myspace-era knowledge of HTML)! Lanes technically exist, but for all intensive purposes, they don't. Despite the darkness, windiness, and narrowness of the road, cars, trucks, buses, autos, and motorbikes continually passed one another in the oncoming lanes. I was honestly afraid we were hurtling toward untimely doom when we repeatedly played chicken with oncoming buses. The auto driver just laughed at me whenever I instinctively put my hand on the dashboard to brace for impact/obliteration, but somehow we miraculously managed to avoid head-on collisions for the duration of the hour-long ride. These things shouldn't surprise me anymore, but I still can't get used to a bus passing a car in the dark while going around a corner on a bridge without shoulders. Like, do you WANT to die?

Anyway, after one final (the fifth of the day, so embarrassing) call to Seema to get directions for the last little bit of the ride, we arrived at the Divine Ganga. Seema greeted us and I apologized for the flurry of calls, and she showed us to our three rooms. Sagarika, Rachael and I (inconsistent use of Oxford commas, I don't know what do with myself) shared a super deluxe room, though we reserved a deluxe room so we got an extra good deal. The other two rooms weren't as nice, but they were very livable and we each were only paying Rs 500-600 a night ($10-12), so it was ok. They made us a very basic dinner, and we spoke with Seema about hiking options the next day. Seema's husband set up a trek for us, and we had to meet at 6 a.m. the next day to be driven 28 km to the top of the hills, where there is a temple and lovely views of the surrounding hills and Rishikesh. We would then hike down, all the way to the hotel itself, with a guide. My next post will go into that to break things up a bit! Preview: It was amazing!