Two weekends ago, we took our first weekend trip to Rishikesh–up in the Himalayas and on the banks of the holy Ganga (pronounced gun-guh) River. As you can imagine, it was absolutely beautiful.
Laxshman Jhula–an incredible suspension bridge in Rishikesh over the Ganga
A temple in Rishikesh.
We saw so many beautiful monkeys!
Until they turned vicious.
We were lucky enough to be invited by our good friend and co-worker, Anita, who was going to Rishikesh with her brothers and friends. It was such a fun group!!
The bus ride was only supposed to last 6-7 hours, but the main highway was closed and there was a ton of traffic so we pulled up about 14 hours later. Luckily our bus was blasting Bollywood music the whole time. It was also a big adventure trying to take our huge 12 seater van off-roading down the mountain to get to our campsite. But, as per the Indian usual, it all worked out. Once we finally arrived at the campsite, Lisa, Katrina, Anita, her sister-in-law Jaspreet, and I bathed in the Ganga. At first I was hesitant because I’ve read a lot about the pollution of the Ganga (one of the five most polluted rivers in the world; more than 2.9 billion liters of human waste discharged into the Ganga each day; about 66% of those who interact with the Ganga contract an illness), but I finally decided to join in the fun. Even though we did get sick this past week, it was so worth it. It was an amazing experience to be in the holy waters of the Ganga by moonlight with four amazing women.
Later, we were taught some Bollywood dance moves and enjoyed the outdoors before going to bed in our sweet tents.
The next morning, we were up bright and early and were convinced to go in the Ganga again. Also, my trip-long dream of learning how to play cricket was finally realized!
While walking across the campground, my left leg suddenly became trapped in the ground. Apparently, there was a hole that someone had barely covered, which made it look like the normal ground. Luckily the men were able to rescue my shoe!
On Sunday afternoon we went white water rafting on the Ganga. One of the basic commands our rafting guide told us to follow was to jump out of the raft. Which I loved doing, despite the freezing water, but it got even better when he told us to stay in the water as we went through some rapids. That is definitely something we could not have done in the US. In addition, we got to “cliff jump”–ya, that meant a large boulder that was no taller than the high dive.
Reppin the U in the middle of the Ganga.
We stopped on the side of the Ganga halfway through rafting for some Maggi noodles (which were delicious until we saw the old woman who made it for us “wash” our dishes in the Ganga. And then we saw a man pee into the Ganga. So that’s cool).
Of course, it was so fun and there were some great rapids, but it was incredible to be on the Ganga, looking at the Himalayas, and seeing the awesome town of Rishikesh. We loved our first trip in India!
Go Utes!
Kaitie Around the World 