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Rishikesh
Rishikesh is known as the Yoga Capital of the World.
Located at the foothills of the Himalayas where the Ganga and the Chandrabhaga rivers meet.
Along with Yoga, there are many other reasons why people visit Rishikesh, like river rafting, bungee jumping, trekking etc depending on personal interests.
I am a spiritual minded person and the spiritual feel of the place has always attracted me, so I made a plan for Haridwar and Rishikesh during the month of October in Navratri.
How to reach there?
- By Air – Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun is the nearest airport which is 35 kms away from Rishikesh. International travellers can fly to Delhi and take a train ( around 8 1/2 hrs ) or bus ( 6 1/2 hrs ) to Rishikesh.
- By Train – Rishikesh does have its own railway station, but it’s more like a local train station. Haridwar is the nearest big station which is further linked to major cities like Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lukhnow and Varanasi. So one can reach Haridwar and take a train from Haridwar to Rishikesh .( takes around 1 1/2 hrs )
- By Road – You can take an auto/car to Rishikesh from Haridwar ( 41 mins ) but on festival days it can take more time depending on the traffic. One can also reach Rishikesh from Delhi it takes around 5 1/2 hrs ( depending on time of travel etc ) by car and Bus click here for booking .
I personally took a train to Haridwar from Kolkata ( I stay here presently ), prefered Upasana express, Kumbha express or any other shortest time trains but had to take Doon Express as seats weren’t available.
From Haridwar ( I have a separate post on my Haridwar experience ) I took a Autorickshaw to Rishikesh.
The auto travel experience was nice and fast, took around 45 mins in the morning started from Haridwar at around 9 am . It was amazing with all the fresh mountain air going through the lush green forest roads!.
* Please feel free to contact me if you want me to organise a trip to Rishikesh or just book travel tickets.
Staying in Rishikesh
There are many Ashrams, hotels etc where people can stay, I would suggest staying in an ashram as most of them have regular yoga and meditation classes and vegetarian food, unless you are into trekking, adventure and camping you can also stay in tents and camps click here for booking a stay in tents or camps.
I personally would recommend Sivananda Ashram, YogNiketan Ashram ( beside Sivananda Ashram ), Parmarth Niketan Ashram and Gita Bhavan ( if you have a tight budget ).
I had stayed at Yog Niketan, the whole experience was good plus its not very bounding so I could go out and visit Temples etc too along with following the ashram activities . 🙂
Things to do there
There are a lot of things that people enjoy doing there from visiting the various spiritual temples, ashrams, learn yoga, river rafting, Ganga Arti and more!
Below I am going to share my own personal experience of visiting different places in Rishikesh.
Places I Visited
Kunjapuri Devi Mandir
View of the Temple from the Entrance Picture Courtesy – Shubham Dhamija
How I got there
I got up around 3:30 am, had a bath and all, went outside where I was staying and boarded the private car which I had booked the previous night.
Thankfully the driver was on time, we started towards Kunjapuri Devi Temple.
The Kunjapuri Devi Temple is height of 1676 mtrs on a hill so it is also a great place to see the sunrise, infact it is one of the most important attractions of that place, looking at the sunrise and doing suryanamaskars!.
The road was quite empty but had a lot of turns, though I was feeling fine, but whenever I felt nauseatic I would try to sleep ;D.
I reached the hill in 30-40 minutes.
Did darshan of Kunjapuri Devi and went to see the sunrise.
The Sunrise
Picture courtesy Shubham Dhamija
It was such a wonderful experience!. As soon as the Sun came up everyone was struck in awe, people started taking pictures, I offered my prayers and water to the Great Sun God, the Living God :).
A group was performing Suryanamaskars .
A group was practicing Suryanamaskars Picture Courtesy Shubham Dhamija
So after spending time there and exploring the whole temple campus I headed back to my car.
I had already told the driver that it would take me 2-3 hrs at the temple.
Neelkantha Mahadev Mandir
The Neelkanth Mahadev Mandir ( Temple ) like the Kunjadevi Mandir is situated at an altitude. It is surrounded by dense forests, and is surrounded by the Nar – Narayan mountain ranges.
How I got there and my experience there
I and a friend who was more enthusiastic on visiting the temple took a shared car from a place where shared cars were specifically dedicated for commuting between Neelkanth Mahadev Mandir and back to Rishikesh, it was much economical that way..
Personally speaking I found it much harder to get there maybe because the long journey ( it’s at a distance of 32 km from Rishikesh ), the roads were a bit damaged because of the rains but then the journey felt fruitful once I got there. Speaking of fruits you can buy Rudraksh fruits over there!!
I bought a couple of them for Rs 50 per piece 😀
I and my friend then headed towards the temple, there were monkeys but luckily the passage to the temple was protected by iron grills on both sides.
We did the darshan, it was comfortable without any pushing and pulling.
I bought some wet dhoop too over there, it has a very nice smell :).
