Rishikesh

This past weekend Rachel, Grace and I went to Rishikesh.  We had to take an overnight bus from Jaipur to Haridwar and then another bus from Haridwar to Rishikesh.  The first bus was supposed to leave Friday night at 10 pm and arrive in Haridwar on Saturday morning at 7am, but the bus didn't end up leaving until almost 11pm and then there were about 3 hours of traffic, so we didn't get into Haridwar until after 12 noon on Saturday.  We were exhausted, but decided to still take the next bus 25 km to Rishikesh, and it was WELL WORTH IT!! Rishikesh is amazingly beautiful.  It is located in the foothills of the Himalayas along the banks of the Holy Ganges River.  We found a hotel (for 300 rupees which is about $7.50) for the night and then went out exploring.  We saw puja (prayers) and aarti (candle prayers/blessings) at an ashram down by the river and explored both banks of the river.  On Sunday morning we got up and went for a two hour walk in the hills and then after checking out from our hotel headed down to the bank of the river.  Both Haridwar and Rishikesh are considered holy places, and the Beatles' guru was from Rishikesh.  They went to an ashram in Rishikesh! We then went to lunch at a restaurant right on the river with a beautiful view of the river and foothills and then headed back to the Rishikesh bus station to go to Haridwar to catch our 5:30pm bus back to Jaipur.  We got into Jaipur at 5:30 am this morning, had to haggle with rickshaw drivers to take us back home and then slept for a few hours before heading to class at 9:30am!  It was a long journey, but definitely worth it!   Oh and the monkey photo is especially for Nate Monkeyton.  LOVE!