As a rider i am always very excited for a ride, ride is only the thing which makes me excited even if someone only use this word before me, i always try to explore new & old places by riding two wheeler. From last two days i was excited to visit Haridwar and Rishikesh, i have a Hero Duet 110 LX scooty and planning to visit Haridwar. My scooty is in very good condition currently and i ride it total 22220
kilometers yet, recently i did it's servicing, therefore i am dare to run it for a long trip like this, I am very excited and enthusiast by thinking that tomorrow I am going to ride such a long distance almost 240 Kilometers from Gurgaon to Haridwar. I have planned to leave Gurgaon early morning tomorrow
( 21-Sept-2019 Saturday) almost 4 AM so that we cannot get the traffic, I am little afraid also that i have no other biker with me and i am going with wife, i hope everything will get fine and i will not face any issues related to it. It is 9:40 PM now therefore we need to pack our bags and sleep early so that we can wake up early…
So guys its time to stop writing and do some preparation… I will share my
views and detailed analysis later … for the time be safe, eat , read and write … bye bye …
Day-1 ( 21-Sept-2019 Saturday)
I woke up early in the morning today, yesterday i set first alarm at 2:30 AM and second on 3:00 AM, but I woke up at 2:25 almost, i freshed up and i awoke my wife, we have set our target to leave room as earliest as possible, therefore we were in little hurry, finally we set up all the stuffs, packed the daily purpose stuffs in the bag and came down from the room ( 2nd floor) and came into the parking area, i have tied the luggage on scooty and sat on it, I took the picture of its meter so that I can easily calculated the travel distance when I will come back from Haridwar, it was 4:23 AM, i have captured beautiful memorable pics of my loaded scooty,
i started the scooty and started moving towards Haridwar, I was very excited but was little afraid also, because there were no other biker with us, in case if something emergency the help was little far from us, also it was my first bike trip therefore was was no mental support, i was literally afraid, any how these fights was inside my mind. I started scooty and started moving forward, first we been stopped at petrol pump for fueling scooty's petrol tank, i was also afraid about the smaller tank of scooty, one mistake i did i.e i should carry few litres of patrol with me, because there is no gurantee of smaller fuel tank, there was no gurantee of the tank to betray me. However we left Gurgaon and we are hitting the roads. I had plan to refuel the tank again near the Gaziabad. We reached Gaziabad till 6 AM morning, i refueled the tank. Then with the help of Google map we were moving, the roads was like never ending, first time i faced the road which was like unlimited distance, i was feeling like road will never end, google map bring us on the road near canal, it was deserted way kind of road, we were alone on that road that time, it was the scene to make us afraid, we were also feeling the under power of our hero machine, scooty was not going up than 80 KMPH, here in such road 80KMPH was like walking on road. It was very beautiful riding experience on the bank of upper ganga canal road, the scenery was very green, monkeys was both side of the road and the environment was wet, Nidhi said that she wants to ride the scooty now because road was free because it was so early of the morning, I stopped the scooty and gave to her, she started riding and I became busy with mobile camera, I have shooted many videos, Nidhi was also sharing her experience before the camera.
Finally we tired and after hundreds of kilometers we planned to stay in some restaurant, so we stopped in a restaurant near highway before Roorkee, it was almost 9 AM of the morning, i was in hurry therefore i have ordered Aaloo Paratha and Chai to him but later we realized this restaurant is not good, things was not clean there, we were not feeling well there, even the toilet was not there, but we already have ordered him and he was preparing the things therefore we stayed there, we took tea and paratha, neither tea nor paratha was good, we eat and drink tea partially and left the food, gave him the money and started the journey from there, we have stopped in a petrol pump and refueled the scooty with full tank, refueling is only the piece of mind in this situation which i noticed with me.
Finally we have entered in Haridwar town, a holy spiritual feelings were started coming towards us, we were looking out there the statues, Ganga Ghats, Saints etc… there.
We decided to go Rishikesh instead of staying at Haridwar today, therefore we were continuously riding, finally almost 12 PM we reached Rishikesh, now I wanted to take hotels to the back side of Ganga or we can say the other side of Ganga from the main front, therefore I went to “Lakshman Jhoola” to cross the holy river , but Lakshman Jhoola is little damaged, therefore crossing with vehicle was prohibited on Lakshman jhoola, then I asked many people to how to cross the river, some one was saying that keep your vehicle here and go by walking but I realized there must be some way to cross the river, then after a long struggle we got information about the “Ram Jhoola”, then we have crossed and came the desired side, now a big challenge was searching the hotel, I have started searching hotels or Ashram, I wanted to take Ashram but I was thinking like my wife might not feel well in Ashram therefore Hotel will be good option, I visited a “Green View Hotel”, we saw the room, it was looking clean and good but room was on 3rd floor also room condition( broken AC, broken window etc…) was not good except bed, they said 1500 charge for one day, we realized to search another hotel, then we went little ahead and saw “Hotel Raj Palace”, we looked the room, and finalized the room, it was 900 rupees for one day, hotel room was arranged well therefore it looked like awesome and better to stay, but when we slept at night we realized the bad smells from cloths, blanket was wet with wound of someone, it was disgusting, we kept the blanket side and used our bed sheet, if you are planning to take room in this hotel than don’t do this, this is literally not a good hotel,
These hotel staffs are igonrant and not caring about their customers, we used the blankets whole night because we were feeling gold and it was raining heavily outside, therefore we did not cared the wet & smell of blanket, we saw thow wounds at morning then i was curse myself like why i did not checked the blanket and bedsheet at the time of room checkin. Here i learned a lession i.e "Always check your blankets and bedsheets at the time of room checkin", I hope you all will do the same always.
Okay... the story went little ahead... After getting the hotel we have washed face, drank water and did some rest, quickly we took the bath cloths and went to Ganga Ghat for bath, we came out from Parmarth Niketan Ashram to the Ganga Ghat side, we started searched a good Ghat, finally we saw a ghat where less people was present, we came into the water, there is a very good proverb i.e "it is thousands time better to see the things from eye then to hear from other", i have not word to explain the feelings and environment of that place, the holy water is really holy water, once you gets into the water you will really feel, it was very-very chilled water, we have enjoyed lot, this was my second time visit of Rishikesh and first time visit with my wife, this was my wife's first visit therefore she was more excited than me, after almost 2 hours of bath we changed cloths and went for eat something , we went to hotel took foods and went to hotel and took a deep sleep.
We woke up at 5 PM and prepared for Nilkanth Mahadev temple, we came out towards the scooty, our speed was little slow because this was the first time when I was riding scooty on mountain also we was viewing the natural beauty scenes, finally we reached Nilkanth Mahadev temple at 6:30 PM almost, I parked the scooty near the temple then took Prasad, I noticed that Prasad sellers occupies the parking area and they always demand to buy the Prasad instead of taking parking fare, this happens everywhere in India now a days.
We came out from the temple, started the scooty and started riding towards the hotel, the it was the time of sunset and very soon darkness will rule the mountain, I was little afraid because my scoot’s headlight was not powerful for the good shining on the road, but still I was enjoying the scene and riding the scooty very slow, Nidhi said to ride little fast otherwise we will be very late.
Same thing happened for which we were afraid, we forgot the root and we started moving towards upwards of the mountain, I felt like our direction should be downhill why it is like up, then we asked “Lakshman Jhoola” to one man standing near the shop, he said like go down and take left almost 2 kilometers from here, we did the same and then reached the place.
We reached hotel, we did our nature’s call, came outside for dinner, enjoyed the night life of the Rishikesh, i request you all to spend at least one night in Rishikesh, i believe it will be your best best night you ever spend in your life, let me try to explain the situation "You will be walking near the bank of river, beautiful sweet touching sound of water waves, you will be stand under dim light, everywhere is darkness but you will feel like light bulb removes few part of darkness, a big spread peaceful area with full of water and devotional sounds gives the heart touching experience, then you will decide to sit on the stairs of the river, you love to touch the sacred water,", i tried my best to explain the feelings in the word but it is really not possible to explain same to same which i felt there. Today we took fantastic dinner, the hotel was on the main road of the Rishikesh towards the way of Parmarth Niketan Ashram... Okay.. I forgot to mention one thing, if you are planning to visit Rishikesh then please try to stay in "Parmarth Niketan" Ashram, Ashram has always shortage of the rooms, all the rooms being booked online itself 6-7 months earlier, therefore book online or contact them via phone and they will guide Parmarth Niketan Ashram.
Parmarth Niketan is in the front, verious devotional activities are done on regular basis in the ashram, best Ganga ghat is in front of the Ashram, you can experience the heart touching time whole night from the Ashram.
Now we came to hotel back, we had a plan to visit Haridwar tomorrow for full day and night therefore we thought to sleep early.
Parmarth Niketan is in the front, verious devotional activities are done on regular basis in the ashram, best Ganga ghat is in front of the Ashram, you can experience the heart touching time whole night from the Ashram.
Now we came to hotel back, we had a plan to visit Haridwar tomorrow for full day and night therefore we thought to sleep early.
Day-2 ( 22-Sept-2019)
We woke up little late today, we have planned something else but things been very late, it is 8:00 AM, we came outside from the hotel to take tea, we started looking the tea shops, the strange thing that the tea shops are very less here, and we need to search good shop for this, after walking few mitres we saw a resturant and believed that here we can get good tea... entered into the shop and ordered, tea was awesome... enjoyed fantastic tea of Rishikesh, morning hour is always near of the nature for the nature lovers, but if you are on the bank of river then you will find the differrent environment, a small layer of dew above the river water, adorable dewdrops on the grass looks like gem, similarly we found the evening and morning hours of the Rishikesh is fabulous, morning experience was awesome, because the environment was very cool, it was raining in the morning, therefore the scenery was very clean and green, the Ganga water's touching sound makes the situation more relaxed and enjoyable, believe me this is the place where you can forget the daily stressful life and enjoy the next level factors, just sit near Ganga Ghat and hear the sound of the water, you will feel completely relaxed and will be stress free.
My wife did some shopping which took lots of the time, it was almost 11 AM, we came to hotel and packed the stuffs, checkout the hotel, tied up all the stuffs in the scooty, my scooty was outside of the hotel, it was raining whole night and temperature was too low ( approximate 12 degree) therefore my scooty was not being start, i tried a lot, there was the situation when i thought that it will not be start now and i need to take it to the machanic, but finally i got success and warm the engine, we sat on the scooty and went came to the main road, we were thinking about revisit, "Our trip of Rishikesh is awesome except the Blanket & bedsheet of the hotel" i said to my wife, se said "Yes, that was horrible experience, but it was our fault, we should check at the time of room checkin", "Yes, you are right, but hotel's staff should also take care of these things, i will be very very careful for these things from now" i said. Now our main target was to refuel the patrol tank and carry few litres of patrol with us, we bought 2 litre gallon there ( these plastic gallons are basically carry the holy water), then we directly went to the patrol pump, tied up all the stuffs, took air on both tyres and started riding towards the Haridwar, I set the google map and set on the mobile holder which is mounted in my scooty, we were riding through the road which was going along with the Ganga canal, i do not have the words to explain the beauty of the nature, the greenery was on extreme beauty, it was looking fabulous, so amazing, both side of the road was mountain, and in between the mountain there was canal and road where we were riding, it was looks like the haven, we were feeling very hot sunlight there, but environment was not that much hot, after few minutes of travel the road got end into a small field where water was crossing over the rounded shining stones, I was afraid to cross the scooty on that, i thought google map kept me the wrong side, and how I will cross the flowing water with my scooty, I decided to wait and watch the other bikers while crossing, I asked few bikers who crossed the water, I asked “can I cross the water with scooty ?”, biker said “Yes you can cross, but keep good control on handle, it is little bit slippery”, i had no option, anyhow i need to cross the water because returning from here is a long distance ( almost 30 kilometers), therefore i started moving towards the water, luckily i crossed with my wife as a pillion on the scooty, it was a great experience, this is the first time I crossed water on scooty. I did not captured any pic there and it was my mistake, i will always take the pics of these situations ahead.
Finally we reached the “Harki Paudi” Haridwar, i started looking a a good Hotel there, seriously… searching hotel is itself a big task, i always hates this. I don't like the agent's manner, they starts forcing and disturbing, the all agents should ask one time politely and if we denied they should not ask again but in India it is not like this, and this kind of manner in Haridwar is a lot, again i felt into the agent’s gear and took a hotel, near the Ganga Arati place, lots of bikes were parked in the road that time, I talked to the hotel staff before booking, I said “Where I have to park my scooty ?”, He said “Bikes are parked there, you can park there only, there are no issues", i thought "it must be a parking area and i can park bike here, there should not be any issue on this", i booked the hotel in 900 rupees for non AC room, we already checked the room which we found good to stay, the hotel staff said the full payment also took the original document to keep, guys really I was shocked, i didn’t understand what kind of hotel and what level of things they managed, i didn’t understand why he demanded the payment such early even before entering inside the room, literally I was not feeling well, i doubt there is something wrong here, but still I gave the money and document to him and went inside the room, the room service person was keep standing inside the room, he was demanding the money for room service, I said “are you mad, we just came and you are demanding money, come on checkout time”, he said “give me the money now only, we don’t know when people comes and goes”, i forcefully said to go out and come on checkout time, i was completely not feeling good in this hotel, hotel name is “Asli Chotiwala”,
name is "Asli" i.e original in english but everything was duplicate inside the hotel, i guessed the situation of Haridwar and how most of the people being bluffed here, almost everyone in the Haridwar are crook and they try to make fool of all the pilgrims, we need to be very very alert on all those things and always keep your eyes and ear open. We kept all the stuffs inside the hotel, and took few cloths and towels for taking bath on the bank of Ganga, we took the historical dip in the holy water, it was like living the dreams, it was awesome moment, we spend almost 2 hours in the water, we enjoyed a lot there. After that we thougt to eat something, i had no hunger but Nidhi was hungry, we saw a resturant near the Ghat, we went there and ate Samosa, the food quality was not good, we were not feeling hunger inside, don't know what was the reason, it might be due to the exhaustion, we wanted to take rest therefore without wasting time we came inside the hotel, we took rest for few minutes and we made plan to visit went to Maata Mansa Devi temple. Haridwar is very -very crowded place, and we should not believe on anyone, we always need to use our brain, i was completely alert in Haridwar because i found more bluffs here then any other places.
Mata Mansa Devi Temple Visit
We had been ready and took the key of scooty closed the hotel room's door and came outside, i started the scooty... i did not know the way to go temple, therefore i asked from a shopkeeper, he suggested a way to go through the main market, the main market of Haridwar is very crowded places and the way between shops are very narrow, but there was no problem with me to ride as always, i passed through the narrow path, in over crowded places we often face the problem for parking, same problem i.e where to park the scooty, searched a lot and found a parking,
in most of temple related palces we the shopkeepers allow to park vehicles free but we need to take prasad, one boy was following us for selling his prasad to us, but we searched a parking area, it was paid parking area therefore we do not need to take any kind of thing from the shopkeeper. We parked the scooty and went to a shop to buy something, that boy came to us and started offering the prasad but it was not like something which we were searching therefore my wife was not buying from him, but he was started forcing to us and said "i was following you from last 20 minutes, please take this, it is good and best price for you", but we were not ready to purchase, therefore i strictly denied. Nidhi took Prasad from that shopkeeper, we started walking upwards the mountain towards the temple, it was great slope and hiking was difficult because the road was almost 60-70 degree angle where walking was little be difficult, the distance of the temple was not very far, it was almost 5-7 kilometers only therefore we reached in almost 2 hours then we decided to come down using the rope way ( rope car ) , actually we were not aware about the rope way, therefore we went via road. Once we reached the temple a new challange came to us that was "where to keep shoes" , we saw the shopkeepers having shoe stands and they again started telling us to keep shoes to them and take prasad, we already had prasad therefore we cannot take again, there was a big problem... i went to a shopkeeper and we submitted our shoes there, he said to take prasad but we denied, then we went to temple and worship the goddess maa Mansa Devi, it was my second time visit to Mata temple. My previous trip was also good, last time i came here with my friends when i was in college i do not remember well but i think it was 2011 , 9 years back from now.
We came down to shopkeeper to take our shoes, i offered some money to him but he denied, he said "no money for shoes, instead of it you can buy Prasad", i said "but we already had Prasad", "this is only 10 rupees cost, atleast you can buy this if you want" he offerred a small packet of elaichi dana ( made of suger content), i just bought it for his happiness. As we already decided to come down with rope way, because my wife was very tired and she had pain on her legs.
We took the ticket and came down, but it was our bad decision because the line of getting ticket and line of sitting into the rope car was so long, withine that time duration we can easily come down from the temple, because coming out from top to down is very easy, we do not have to put any force, we always feel like someone pushes us from back to go fast, anyway we did not had any option instead of waiting in queue, therefore we were there for long hours.
We reached down from the hill.
Ganga Arati
We came to parking, took the scooty, Nidhi said to go market to buy some stuffs, therefore we went to market for it, she bought lots of stuffs, now it was almost last time of the evening, our main moto was to see Maa Ganga Arati, i said her to complete shopping fast otherwise we will miss the Ganga Arati, but shopping always takes time, and all ladies love shopping, we closed our shopping stuffs and directly went to Ganga Ghat for the Aarati but we were so unfortunate for it, we just missed the Maa Ganga Aarati, it was so frustrating, Ganga Aarati is only the main focus of the Haridwar which we missed, but still we went inside the Ghat and took Aarati, Nidhi bought the milk for Maa Ganga and flew the milk in holy water to dedicate Maa Ganga, everywhere in the ghat was the human, such a great experience, there was a bridge loaded with the huge people, both side of the Ganga Ghat was over
crowded , someone was taking selfie and someone was pronouncing the spells, someone was making videos and someone was just doing meditation, it was really a great devotional experience, i was feeling so lucky to find myself there. We stayed hours there, I talked to Mammi and Papa to share their wish which I can deliver to Maa Ganga and lord Narayana. We spend hours there, now it was almost 9 o-clock, and we were feelling hunger, therefore we came to restaurant, ate food, then we came to hotel finally, we decided to sleep early so that we can leave Haridwar as early as possible, i was anxious about the scooty and i was thinking that i parked the vehicle on the road parking, it might be not safe because it was not the legal parking area, therefore i thought to see the vehicle at 10 PM before sleeping, Nidhi slept and i was started watching youtube videos, after few minutes i came outside, i saw only few bikes was in the parking, then i confirmed that my scooty must not safe here, then i asked the question to the my Hotel staff regarding this, he said “This is not the legal parking, these bikes are of shopkeepers, once they will close their shops all the bikes will gone from here, this is absolutely not safe place to keep the bike for whole night”, then I said to him i.e “But another staff of this hotel said me to park my bike there only, when I came to book the room”, he did not replied on that, then I asked “where is the legal parking area”, he gave me the idea, this kind of behavior i didn’t like, while booking the room they were agreed in all the terms and once we gave the money they changed their behavior, while the booking only they should clear all the things. I went upstairs and took the key, started the scooty and went to find the parking area, the parking area was another side of the Ganga Ghat, I crossed the bridge and went straight , there was a flyover and under that flyover there was a open parking, again I was not feeling the safe place to park my scooty but the parking tickets was given by the police man, I had little faith, but still I went to near him and asked regarding that it is safe or not, he said “lots of bike are there, just park there only, it is safe”, I parked and took the ticket
The parking charge was 35 rupees, for that i gave him 50 rupees, he said that he do not have the change currently therefore he wrote pending 15 rupees on back side of the parking receipt, and he said "take money at the time when you will get your bike from here", i was okey for me, I had faith like police is there, therefore I came to hotel by walking, then I slept.
Day-3 ( 23-Sept-2019)
We woke up early at 3:30 AM almost, our plan was to leave Haridwar at 4 AM, but we was little late on it, we been fresh and been ready for the ride, Nidhi and me packed all the stuffs and came out to getting the scooty from the parking, we walked over the Ganga bridge, it was awesome experience of morning, the environment was so clean and devotional, the surroundings was very silent, only the Ganga’s water sound was reverberate and touching the heart, we were stopped over the bridge and started enjoying the sound, this is the feeling which is little bit difficult to explain in words, although the morning is itself is the joyful and happiness time and river like Ganga shines the happiness. We went to parking, started the scooty and came near to the police man, I gave him the receipt to get the balance, he was denying to give the balance, he said “This is not my slip, someone else gave it”, I said “yes sir, someone else gave, but this is the slip of same parking i.e your parking”, another cab driver was hear my words and he said “These people are bluffs they only fudge the pilgrims and tourists”, I was agree with his words, I again said the Police man i.e “Will you not give me the balance money”, he said “no, he did his calculation and submitted and I will do my and I have to submit, I cannot give”, I turned on the scooty and came to hotel. I was thinking i.e the town where sacred holy river Ganga is residing, in that place all the people and their activities should be true and very-very original, but it is completely reverse, all the people are duplicate and fudge, first time the hotel and second time this parking, I was not happy with the people of Haridwar, in the place of god no such things should be happen, this is my thinking.
We bring all the bags out from the room and started looking the hotel staff, but no body was on the reception, I have tried many numbers which I found in the reception but nobody picked, we also looked over the road and outside of the hotel but nobody I found, I asked the nearest hotel staff regarding him but he replied that “the receptionist might went for tear or something else, wait few minutes”, i made many calls on all the differrent differrent number which i had and which i gathered from the reception, after few minutes he came, he gave me the document, I tied the stuffs on scooty and started riding towards the Gurgaon, it was almost 5 o-clock morning, we were little late to leave Haridwar, I was thinking to join office today, but it was little difficult to join now, i we left the hotel at 3 AM then only i can reach Gurgaon till 10 AM but now i guess i can reach 11 AM or might be late from this also.Very fast we started coming out, we passed the city at the early morning only, but we got some traffic in Roorkee, after that we came into the Upper Ganga canal road where no traffic, and we ran the scooty on the high speed of it i.e 80KM/h. We stopped on a highway restaurant to take tea, because Nidhi was feeling sleepy, that time we realized that it is not possible to go office today now, because we will reach Delhi very late, so Nidhi told me to take leave, therefore I wrote a mail regarding not feeling well and sent to manager, it was almost 7 O-Clock, we took tea and again riding start. It was great that we crossed Haridwar city before 6 AM because traffic spoils the time. There are mostly two timeslots which we should always care i.e morning 7 AM to 10 AM and evening 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM, in this time slots the city is often most crowded, therefore we should arrange the thing likewise.After hours of ride, we stopped in the road after covering almost 120 kilometers, did some photo capture,
It was our first road trip, we enjoyed the ride , we enjoyed the scenes and made each moment very very memorable.
Total 22846-22220 = 626 kilometers in 2 days. this might be the record of heromotocorp for scooty variant.
then we took bath and slept because we were very tired.
Brief & Conclusion
Rishikesh & Haridwar is their different level in devotional way, the Ganga Bath and natural beauty of Rishikesh is marvelous. Aarati & Pooja of the Haridwar is antique among all the pilgrimage.
But both place is full of bluffs and there are 100% changes of your to be fudge, therefore you need to be very very sharp in all context of the things, every where you need to be active and attentive.
I have enjoyed a lot in both of the places but Haridwar trip is not such happiness because the people of that place hurt me in terms of hotel and parking behavior.
Both place is very cheap to stay and enjoy, even you can cover both place in 4 complete days under 12,000 rupees including hotel, foods & travel.
If you have vehicle then always take those hotels where you can have parking area, and verify twice the parking area is valid or not, because sometimes hotel staffs lied to book their hotel room.
At last, whatever the situation you will get... just ignore it and enjoy a lot.
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