Sunrise at Kunjapuri

The next morning's plan was to wake up at 0400 hrs and go up the Narendranagar hills to Kunjapuri Temple (a.k.a. Kuchchapuri Temple). Why? For A) It is one of the highest peaks (1645 meters above sea level) surrounding Rishikesh from where you can see Rishikesh, Haridwar and Dehradun, and B) It gives you the most spectacular view of the sunrise. And indeed it was. We were expecting the sun to come out from behind the mountains. But, it's always the case that clouds form a band where the sky touches the mountains. Hence, the sunrise, that is the first rays of sun, is seen when the sun is at a good height in the sky. It's wonderful to watch how the night colors of the sky change to the daylight colors, and the rays tear apart the clouds and pierce through them to make their way towards the earth.


There are other reasons why this temple is famous, and these would really interest you.
1. It is one of the twelve sacred temples called the Shakti Pith (where your wishes come true)
2. It is Sati Devi's temple (consort of Lord Shiva)
3. This temple has the chest part of Sati Devi

The last point would obviously raise some questions like why just the chest part and how did that part end up there. It has a proper story in Hindu mythology behind it that I would describe here in my words. It goes something like this:

Apparently Sati's father was throwing a party to all the gods (Guys! The drinks are on me tonight!) and he purposely did not invite Shiva because a) He didn't like him, b) He was a Rishi and not god, and the party was strictly for gods only, c) he wanted to insult Shiva. Sati came to know about her dad's party and also that he didn't invite Shiva due to some unjustifiable reasons, and felt pissed off and embarrassed that her hubby was insulted, and in turn she was insulted. She could not take this embarrassment and destroyed herself in fire (that's how the Sati system came into picture). Learning that his wife has committed suicide, Shiva got angry, carried Sati's body along with him, and did his dirty dancing, the Taandav Nritya, because of which the world was about to get destroyed. (Death by dance it shall be!)

Vishnu came to the rescue of the world with his Sudarshan Chakra and cut Sati's body into three parts, viz. the head, the chest and the rest. Now Shiva was carrying all these parts of his dead wife with him and trying to find a cure. On his way he happened to stumble (or couldn't balance all the three pieces) and dropped one piece of her body at every sacred location where there is Sati's temple today. One of these locations is Kunjapuri, where rests the chest. Interesting na?

We had been giving our guides enough hints that we wanted to try the one thing people come to Rishikesh for. Baba Ka Prasad! So they gave us a taste of how it is. Atop the Kunjapuri hill, they handed over a cigarette filled with tobacco and Ganja (Marijuana) to us. We lit it and had a couple of drags. The smell was peculiar and the taste was good, but the effect was negligent (may be they added just a small amount of marijuana). Looking at this the guides told us that they'll get better version of prasad in the evening for us.


The First Boredom

The sunrise view was to be followed by a 16 km downhill trek through the Narendranagar hills. Manish's leg was sprained and so he, along with Roopali, took the car back to the hotel. Gayatri and Faheem had not joined us for the sunrise, so the downhill trek was done by Pedro, Nanu, Gaury and me, and the two guides. This trek was horrible, since it involved just walking down the hill. No hurdles and, to add to the frustration, the whole path was covered with small chipped stones that made the ankles twist every now and then. Gaury came down with a swollen leg and we teased her saying she is carrying the disease of Elephantiasis. That's about the trek. I don't wanna describe it further.


The 'Cloud 9' Feeling

We had told are guides that the last event had been a complete mood spoiler. So do something that will cheer us up again. Bring some good Baba ka Prasad for us (We always like to try different stuff that makes people go woo. We just try such stuff once, so don't think of us as Charasis). They came back with the real thing. Charas! Radhe prepared five cigarettes, with every successive cigarette having double the quantity of Cannabis in it. The volunteers (or the people interested in trying) were three from our gang (including me) along with Vijay and Radhe.

First round begun. It begun with Radhe doing some ritual with the cigarette and remembering Lord Shiva. It was funny to see that these villagers remember God even before having a Sutta (by the way, Shiva used to smoke weed. FYI!). The smell was quite differentiable from other cigarette and marijuana. And of course, the taste was strong too and it tickled the taste buds.


First round was easy to handle. The next one begun. Now the kick started coming in. My palms had become cold and sweaty. I turned to Batla Danny (name changed ... LOL!) and saw his face was getting reddish. I turned to my other side and noticed Shahrukh's (name changed ... again) eyes were red. Second round complete. Shahrukh decided to throw the towel and sneaked out making an excuse of dinner. Third round begun. My hands were completely cold by now, and I was feeling hard to pull up my eye lids and keep my eyes open. It was like some 100 grams of weight hanging from my eye lids. Since it was my first experience (and I swear my last. Don't want this experience again) with Cannabis, I decided to quit after the third round and went in to have dinner. As I got up, I realized that I was as high as I am after two-three large pegs whiskey (that is not much for me, my friends know that). I quietly sat in a corner of the bedroom, to analyze how much high I was, and started to eat my dinner. Soon after the fourth round Batla Danny gave up and came in to have his dinner. His face was red like an apple. He kept saying that he wasn't that high, but everyone could see how he was completely focused on his biryani and he finished one whole plate in six to seven minutes.

Later on in the night, when the guides ate the dinner and left, I came out in the hall and slept on the couch. My throat had gone completely dry and I felt the urge for water in my body. I drank almost 1.5 liters without having to pee even once. I knew that my bladder would be about to burst by the morning. As I was sleeping on the couch, I started feeling depressed and sick. It was like I am in a hospital bed down with some illness. It was one feeling I never wish to have again. But it was fun trying it out.


The Second Boredom

Next day we went to Rajaji national Park, where the majorly cited animals are wild elephants and leopards. But our luck with wild animals has never been good. All we could see was deers and elephant shit. When we came out, the driver of our rented car told us that it's all just hoax. You can see some elephants, but leopards? Never. 'Sab paise kamaane ke dhandhe hai!'. True. We wasted around more than Rs. 2000/- for this ride to see nothing but shit. If you decide on a visit to Rishikesh, safely remove this place from your list. No further comments.


The Camp

From the Rajaji NP, we went to our Camping area at Shivpuri. We were loving this place very much as it was just next to the river stream, on the other side of which was a volleyball court. The weather and the scenic beauty of this place added more taste to the stay. We had already started getting positive vibes about the place and everyone was sure that tonight's gonna be a good night!



Morning<------------------------------->Evening

The evening started with a couple of hours being spent playing volley ball. The volley ball court was on the other side of the river stream (just a couple of bamboos kept as a bridge to cross over it). We played many rounds with even the local team joining in to show their talent. It was amazing.


We then headed to the camping area where we played some other activity games until the dinner was served. There was chicken for dinner. Yes, since this was a camp area, away from the buzz of the Rishikesh city, you do get non-vegetarian food on request. The food was good and spicy. The dinner was done under the moonlight in the warmth of the bonfire. We had been allotted four small tents, each with two beds. The tents were cozy and the blankets were good enough to make you survive through the night.

The next morning we first headed uphill, some 12-15kms upwards. We stopped at a rock, some 25 feet in height. This would be the rock where we would try our skills at rock climbing. It was a team effort! Though each of us was climbing the rock individually, the support from the others on the ground watching played an important factor in everyone's tasks of rock climbing and rappelling, without which it would have been a much difficult task to climb the rock.


After the rock climbing session, we headed towards our final ascent in the mountains of Rishikesh, the starting pint of our 30 kms Rafting. This time we had eight of us, plus two guides Vijay and Radhe, plus two Rafting guides Veeru and a new chap. In all 12 people in a raft for 10. The raft was already carrying double the weight form the last one we tried a couple of days ago. On top of that, we had 2-3 people without a row. So they were just going to sit in the raft doing nothing, just adding more wight to the raft and making it more difficult to row. The first half of rafting route hardly had any rapids. But we did enjoy ourselves in the free surfing area. This is the area where the water current is swift and without any obstacles. You just have to dive into the river, and let yourself float with the support of life jacket. Even though the water was icy cold, it was quite relaxing. Even Roops dared to dive and get a feel of it.

The next half was the adventurous part. It had more rapids and we had already tried it once. It was a repeat telecast for us, while the new comers (Gayatri, Faheem and Gaury) got their first shot at the splashing cold waters of the Ganges.


Note: There is nothing great about the 30 kms rafting route, except for the fact that it has a longer free surfing route. Most of the rapids are on the second half of the route, which are covered in the 17 kms rafting route. So our suggestion would be go for the 17 kms route. You would not miss much.

After the end of rafting we spent some time to some Indian music played on guitar and flute by some foreigners near the river bank. A cute firangi chic and and one Indian kid were dancing to the music. Later on, we went to our rooms, took a bath and headed out to the market for dinner. This time we wanted to try something new. So we went to a restaurant called Tip-Top, opposite the Topiwala restaurant. It serves a good variety of cuisines from around the world. That too, at affordable prices.


The Night Laughs

After dinner, we headed to our hotel rooms for a final nap at Rishikesh. Our nights never end without something funny happening to one of us. It is always a good laughing session before we finally doze off and go to sleep. This time it was again provided by Pedro. Remember I described his ability to be at the wrong place at the wrong time? He somehow managed to do it again and keep up to his reputation. This time he was sleeping at the end of the bed, which was facing the wall where all the electrical switches were mounted. He had to get up twice to switch on/off the lights and increase/decrease the fan speed.

Just the previous day, when he was sleeping in Manish's room, he woke in the middle of the night from a nightmare saying 'Mujhe Chhod do! Mere paas paise nahi hai!'. Manish shook him to wake him up and asked what happened to which Pedro said, 'Kuch nahi. Kisiko bolna mat mai sapne me bol raha tha. Yeh room ki baat isi room me rehne de.' But we all like to screw and take
each other's case, so now, it's known to the world.


All good things come to an End

The next morning we woke up early to board our last rented vehicle of the trip, from Rishikesh to New Delhi. We were surprised and happy to see that our guides had arranged for a 12-seater vehicle, with loads our luggage space, at the price of a 8-seater vehicle. It was actually a goof up that benefited us. We had enough room to stand and walk around in the vehicle to free our legs, and also stretch our legs while sleeping.

GaribRath Yuva

We boarded our train to Mumbai. the train was Garibrath Yuva, which is a completely Chair car train. We had switched from Paschim Express to this train because Yuva would reach Mumbai in 15-16 hrs as compared to 29-30 hrs taken by Paschim express. but we did not considered the fact fact that it is still too much time to sit at one place, which would swell your ass to twice its original size. Within two hours, we started feeling the pain in our asses. And we were starving too.

Note: Garibrath Yuva is the worst train to travel in because:
1. It only has Chair car seating arrangement.
2. Luggage space is lesser that what we have in the local trains in Mumbai.
3. There is no Pantry.

The train does not stop at any station for more than two minutes. It was just the Kota junction, our last hope to get food, where the train was going to make a stop for 10 minutes. We made up a plan and decided who will get what from the station. We proceeded towards the head of the train, so that even if the train starts while we are buying stuff, we could still make it easily to our compartment, which was sixth or seventh from the engine. What we discovered was an oasis in the desert. There were three consecutive compartments that were completely empty, without a single booking. We asked the TTE and he told us that there was no Tatkaal booking at all for this journey. We were overjoyed. We had our dinner in one of the empty compartments, after which we secretly moved all our luggage from our jam-packed compartment to the 3 BHK spacious compartment. Each one of us then had three chairs to sleep on. It was a lottery. Gentle advice! Don't take the chance of traveling in this train hoping to find an empty compartment. It was sheer luck for us.


Last adventure before the End

The Garibrath Yuva has just 5-6 stops between Delhi and Mumbai. The first stop at Mumbai was Bandra. most of us stay in Borivali and were praying that the train hits a red signal somewhere near Borivali. The train hit a signal at Dahisar station. As the train was slowing down at the Dahisar station, Roopali got off the running train, since we were not sure whether the train would stop again at Borivali. Just as she got down, the train started picking up speed. Now we had no choice, but to somehow try and get off the train, along with our luggage.

I was standing a door behind the others. Faheem, Gayatri and Gaury were getting down at Bandra. So we took our chance. Manish and Pedro threw a couple of bags down on the platform. Meanwhile I jumped off the train and started collecting the bags thrown. Then Nanu, Pedro and Manish, all of them got down since the train was catching up speed. There were some bags still left in the train. But with the help of Gayatri and Faheem, we managed to get all the bags thrown on the platform. This stunt came with a warning: These stunts are performed by professionals. Do not try this at home!

Sachin came to pick us up at Dahisar station, and that ended the trip. It was a great trip and I hope you enjoyed my narration. My lack of work at office has played a big role in allowing me to find time and finish this write-up, covering most of the events during the trip.

We are planning our next trip to Bangkok, somewhere in November 2010 and Leh-Ladhak in July 2011.
As always, everyone's invited!


See you then! Adios!

Comments (2)

On March 25, 2010 at 2:48 PM , Gaury Shetty said...

Hey Chandu,
It was super fun living the trip again as i read thru ur posts....:)

 
On March 11, 2015 at 5:56 PM , Unknown said...

Hey chandan. Awesome trip. Im in haridwar ryt not. Need some pointers. Plz reply asap @ svatee.sinha@gmail.com