Rishikesh - 26.08 - 28.08.
In the morning of the 26th of August i arrived in the beautiful "village" called Rishikesh which is located in the state of Uttarakhand. Well, if you compare the population of Rishikesh to other cities in india i guess this is really a village. It's definitely not as crowded as other places in India.
Rishikesh is the place where the Ganges river leaves the Himalaya mountains before it flows into the northern parts of India. The origins of this river can be found if you go deeper into the mountains from here.
Rishikesh is also very famous because in 1968 the beatles visited this place to learn about indian culture.
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| the Ganges river flowing through the valley of Rishkesh |
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| the Ganges river flowing through the valley of Rishkesh |
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| bridge in Rishikesh to cross the Ganges river |
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| monkey sitting on the bridge, which crosses the Ganges |
Of course like in most cities i have seen so far, there were many animals on the streets like wild cows, dogs, monkeys etc. Of course it is always recommended not to get too close to any of these animals. Who knows whether they might be infected with rabies or other diseases.
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| monkey sitting on a wall in Rishikesh |
Well i guess almost for the whole day i was walking around just exploring the city. People had told me before that many people come to this city to learn something about yoga or meditation. So i was trying to find a yoga school, which someone had recommended to me. Unfortunately i couldn't manage to find that school. So at around the time when the sun set i decided to go back to my hotel.
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| sun set in Rishikesh |
Well the whole city was spread with places where you could take classes in yoga or meditation. So on the next day , the 27th i decided to go and take a yoga class for beginnres in the morning at a nice looking school which i had seen the day before. This was really fun. I had never tried anything like yoga before, but in my eyes this is just like doing some improved gymnastics, and it strongly reminded me of martial arts (which i used to practice when i was younger) just with the difference, that you don't fight anyone, but do excercices for the well-being and self control of your own body. It includes things like physical excercies, breathing excercices and also meditation. To do any of these excercices can be very relaxing.
I also took a class in meditation in the evening of the very same day, because i have always wanted to know what this meditation is all about and how it works. And yeah, it was very nice. That teacher explained to us, that in the state of meditation you try to forget about everything around you and try to just focus on your self. While meditating there is no past and future. It's only you and the present. You try to focus that you are here right now in this moment. Maybe try to concentrate on your breath. For me it felt like I was leaving my body for a while and i was seeing myself from a completely different perspective. The teacher said that to very experienced people this state of meditation gives kind of god-like powers. So some people might stay in this state of meditation for like 2 weeks, not feeling any need of thirst or hunger. I really can't imagine how this is supposed to work. But it sounded interesting. And i must admit after i was finished with the meditation i felt like almost new born. I was kind of relaxed and felt like a bit more "alive". It's a nice thing i guess to sometimes forget about the world around you and just concentrate on yourself. Because the world can be a bit stressful sometimes.
Well as i said i had this yoga and meditation class in the morning and in the evening. Througout the day i went for a trip deeper into the mountains to see a nice waterfall.
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| waterfall in the mountains near Rishikesh |
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| waterfall in the mountains near Rishikesh |
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| me and some indians at the waterfall |
This lovely picture with the valley of the ganges i took from the mountain area near the waterfall. Usually at other times of the year in rishikesh they offer nice river rafting tours where you can go rafting on the Ganges trough the mountains, which must probably be super amazingly beautiful. Unfortunately when i was in Rishikesh the river had way too much water. So there were no rafting tours offered at this time.
Mussoorie - 28.08 - 30.08.
In the afternoon of the 28th of August i took a local bus to the hillstation called Mussoorie, which is also in the Himalaya mountains. Many indian tourists come to this place to enjoy the beautiful mountain scenery and also in order to get some cool air. Compared to other places of India the air in this mountain village feels like air conditioned and is really refreshing from the heat of India.
When i took that bus up to Mussoorie, the roads were curvy and that bus driver had a weird way of driving. He was always doing some kind of accelerating, "full breaking" and then sliding into the next curve. Felt a bit like a roller coaster. Good that i had not eaten too much before that bus ride.
On the bus i met a local indian who told me that he lives in Mussoorie. He spoke very good english.
I asked him how big Mussorie is and whether it would be hard to find a hotel there. Then he was joking and said: " If you get there you won't find a hotel - the hotels will find you ;) " .
And he was right. As soon as i arrived there were like hundreds of hotels. And some indian guys at the bus stop pressing me visiting cards from hotels into my hands.
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| mall road in Mussoorie |
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| view down the mountain from Mussoorie |
Very close to the bus stop there was a viewing platform from which you could see all the area around the mountains and they also had a nice statue of Gandhi. I must say Gandhi looked very epic and mysterious with all that fog in the background.
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| Mussoorie as seen from the viewing platform |
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| statue of Gandhi |
On the next day, the 29th of August. I first took a cable car to a higher peak of Mussoorie. The ride inclusive return ticket with that cable car was 75 ₹ i guess, which is around 1 euro.
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| Cable Car in Mussoorie |
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| Hill reached by Cable Car |
Some friendly indian people took a picture of me from the top.
So after taking that cable car i wanted to go and see some more of the area around Mussoorie. I had read on tripadvisor about this place called "Kempty Falls". So first i asked some Cycle Riksha driver whether he could take me there. He stared at me as if i was insane. Well, reason is, because that waterfall was like 8 kms away. And it goes down hill a lot on the way to the waterfall. That means, of course, uphill a lot on the way back. So, too difficult to go there by bicycle. That's why i rented a taxi to get there. To get there was maybe half an hour. I can't remember so well.
Well, the driver dropped me close to the bottom part of this waterfall. So i walked down all the stairs to get to the bottom part, but it was not so nice there. I mean the waterfall itself was nice. But i didn't like what people had built around it. It was so touristy. With so many shops around that waterfall. And they had this kind of swimmingpool there with like hundreds of people taking a bath in the waterfall water. So didn't want to go in there.
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| Kempty Falls - Buttom part |
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| Kempty Falls - "pool" |
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| Upper parts of Kempty Falls |
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| Upper parts of Kempty Falls |
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| Upper parts of Kempty Falls |
Dehradun - 30.08.
On the 30th of August i left Mussoorie and went for a short day trip to Dehradun. This is really a very big city and i only saw a small part of it by walking through the big shopping street. But that was enough for me that day, because it was quite hot outside. When i arrived at that street with all these shops, i was so shocked because some woman almost ran into me who had a face which looked kind of rotten, as if she had been infected with a disease like leprosy. I was so scared that i jumped to the side overrunning some passengers on the street.
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| Street in Dehradun |
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| fruits shop in dehradun |
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| Mosque in Dehradun |
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