I have been trying to write this since I got back from Rishikesh. Himalayas have always kindled what I call the wanderer spirit in me, how I crave to sit on a mountain facing those silvery peaks. Land of the Llamas they call the great mountains, I guess for the peace and grace they emanate. For a change this visit was to the lower himalayas, to a place called Rishikesh. A holy city for the hindus of the country, on the banks of the mighty Ganges. For me water has never been too much attraction, so i have kept away from water sports in general.
This was a company trip from "BrickRed Technologies", and Gulli and Ashish had invited us(well me and Apurv) along. I was a bit apprehensive at first, because its hard to mix in a group that big (35 odd people were supposed to go). but then i said yes because being closer to the mountains is anyday more desirable than staying back in noida on a weekend :). Well so we packed our bags and boarded the busses to Rishikesh appallingly high on beer. But then with subodh around you either have to choose computers or liqour, hence the beer, the pun intended.
We reached around 10pm at the camp site and had to walk down to the camp that was identifiable only because of the lights, that were coming through the trees. At the camp there were, introductions, allotment of the tents and warnings about the river being too close and all. i guess no was listening to Manjul because in a shortwhile everybody was on the banks anyway.
For me it was sheer luxury after having walked in snow, ice and rain, sleeping cuddled at Bedni and listening to the rain fall, the tiresome climb to Roopkund. I had never stayed in a tent that someone else had set up. to top it, there were actually two beds in the tent with mattresses and sleeping bags. The camp is located on the riverbank (of the mighty Ganges) some 14 kms upstream from Rishikesh.
The camp staff lit a small fire on the sands and junta just relaxed. We did not know a lot of people, me and apurv and we behaved as guests are supposed to :) that is we just sat quitely by ourselves, and were later joined by Gulli, Ashish, Ran & Vijay. Others got busy with drinks and the couples were anyway on their own :). After a hearty meal, we decided to hit the beds, some decided to drink through the night and to sleep on the sand, with the luxury offered to me i had no inclination to sleep out side my ***** tent .
Morning and I found almost everyone up. People roaming around in the sand, lazily talking to each other. i offered to go to a walk and apurv, awasthi ranvijay and gulli came along. walked upstream as far as we could, before being stopped by the water. the water was green. saw rafts go by, full of people. we returned to the camp, a volleyball game was underway and people just refused to let me in. so i just walked some more. finally was able to get in the game though. after a good breakfast we moved and did some rock climbing, the instructor was impressive and had actually climbed mount kamet (or so Manjul told everyone, he looked the part atleast).
Lunch and we were roaring to go rafting. A bus ride two miles down the road and we saw the rafts on the jeep-tops(?). we were given a small demo by Ravi and divided into teams by him too, the couples though decided to remain tightly-coupled, much to Ravi's annoyance. Anyways we had to do our life-jackets and helmets before we were allowed on to the rafts. Well our raft was guided by Narendra. who looked at ease with himself, almost a veteran like Ravi. ours was the last raft to leave Shivpuri. we were Alok, Item(the guy from iitd, sorry yaar naam bhool gaya, vivek hai kya? ), ashish and his better half, and one more guy who never spoke (actually the next time we talked we were both body surfing :) kidding, the point being i don't remember the name, not even a nich name).
The First rapid as they say is the first rapid. Called "Return to Sender", Grade 1. It's the first time I realized the speed of the water, the height of the waves and the force that I had to apply to the paddles, and surprisingly the height of the raft. I had to really bend down to reach the water while on the rapid. Though, I do not swim very well, I was in the water the first time Narendra told us that we could go down into the water, sometime later Ashish pulled us all in. The other rapids were "Golf Course", "Roller Coaster", "Double Trouble" and the "Body Surfing". It was more Narendra's skill that we were able to go through the rapids with the ease we did rather than our paddling. I guess had we paddled better we would have gone (rather taken over) to higher waves in the rapid, but that's for the next time. Interesting I found people more interested in the grades. Just wondering if it is a phenomenon with people in the software industry or its more general.
When we returned back to the camp it was night and people sat down to drink some more. I grabbed a beer and hung along. Apurv was feeling bad, I guess he over-exerted himself on the raft. I walked along the bank for a while and we discovered fishes in the river. It was fun watch Ranvijay trying to catch one in the night:). Dinner was served and we went to sleep, some people decided to sleep out on the sand like the day before.
Next morning was fun, it was planned that we will go upstreams 14 kms, and raft all the way down to
Rishikesh, taking our lunch midway at the camp. We started with a game of volley-ball, Ravi playing with us. After breakfast we moved on for rafting. Though the highpoint of the day was to be "slithering". Now slithering is something that really was cool. You do your seat-harness, put on a helmet, throw a rope down towards the river from a bridge and just rappel into the water. Simple!! one should have looked at the faces when people climbed over the railing. It was tough for many of us. I was the first one to go down. It was easier than what I had did from the Auditorium roof (and made some kids do it too for galaxy) back in IIT Kanpur, at least there was water to fall in :). There was Ravi in a kayak doing the rescue as people fell in to the river. The rope was in intentionally left short so as to get everyone in the water. Some slithered, some just watched over. After every willing person had gone down we moved on to rafiting again.
Rafting down was as much fun as it was on the day before. This time, the raft I was in, had people who were paddling real well. We tried summersaults from the raft, swam, had fun. New rapids were "three black mice" and some more. About the camp we went down bodysurfing in the water. It was cool. I wobbled up and down with the waves, and it was quite discomforting not to see anyone else in front of you. Almost every body was in water in that rapid. We stopped for lunch at the camp. Some people decided to stay back and do sight seeing in Rishikesh. 10 of us decided to finish the rafting.
Wind was blowing against us when we started and for the rest of the day. It was fun rowing against the wind, really made us paddle. We were only two rafts and we were paddling hard.
We returned to noida that same night. The trip was fun, thanks Ashish and Gulli for the wonderful time we had.
Ps: Might fine tune the writing some time also will be adding some tips and trips for rafting to this post. Well it means do come back some time and read it :)
This was a company trip from "BrickRed Technologies", and Gulli and Ashish had invited us(well me and Apurv) along. I was a bit apprehensive at first, because its hard to mix in a group that big (35 odd people were supposed to go). but then i said yes because being closer to the mountains is anyday more desirable than staying back in noida on a weekend :). Well so we packed our bags and boarded the busses to Rishikesh appallingly high on beer. But then with subodh around you either have to choose computers or liqour, hence the beer, the pun intended.
We reached around 10pm at the camp site and had to walk down to the camp that was identifiable only because of the lights, that were coming through the trees. At the camp there were, introductions, allotment of the tents and warnings about the river being too close and all. i guess no was listening to Manjul because in a shortwhile everybody was on the banks anyway.
For me it was sheer luxury after having walked in snow, ice and rain, sleeping cuddled at Bedni and listening to the rain fall, the tiresome climb to Roopkund. I had never stayed in a tent that someone else had set up. to top it, there were actually two beds in the tent with mattresses and sleeping bags. The camp is located on the riverbank (of the mighty Ganges) some 14 kms upstream from Rishikesh.
The camp staff lit a small fire on the sands and junta just relaxed. We did not know a lot of people, me and apurv and we behaved as guests are supposed to :) that is we just sat quitely by ourselves, and were later joined by Gulli, Ashish, Ran & Vijay. Others got busy with drinks and the couples were anyway on their own :). After a hearty meal, we decided to hit the beds, some decided to drink through the night and to sleep on the sand, with the luxury offered to me i had no inclination to sleep out side my ***** tent .
Morning and I found almost everyone up. People roaming around in the sand, lazily talking to each other. i offered to go to a walk and apurv, awasthi ranvijay and gulli came along. walked upstream as far as we could, before being stopped by the water. the water was green. saw rafts go by, full of people. we returned to the camp, a volleyball game was underway and people just refused to let me in. so i just walked some more. finally was able to get in the game though. after a good breakfast we moved and did some rock climbing, the instructor was impressive and had actually climbed mount kamet (or so Manjul told everyone, he looked the part atleast).
Lunch and we were roaring to go rafting. A bus ride two miles down the road and we saw the rafts on the jeep-tops(?). we were given a small demo by Ravi and divided into teams by him too, the couples though decided to remain tightly-coupled, much to Ravi's annoyance. Anyways we had to do our life-jackets and helmets before we were allowed on to the rafts. Well our raft was guided by Narendra. who looked at ease with himself, almost a veteran like Ravi. ours was the last raft to leave Shivpuri. we were Alok, Item(the guy from iitd, sorry yaar naam bhool gaya, vivek hai kya? ), ashish and his better half, and one more guy who never spoke (actually the next time we talked we were both body surfing :) kidding, the point being i don't remember the name, not even a nich name).
The First rapid as they say is the first rapid. Called "Return to Sender", Grade 1. It's the first time I realized the speed of the water, the height of the waves and the force that I had to apply to the paddles, and surprisingly the height of the raft. I had to really bend down to reach the water while on the rapid. Though, I do not swim very well, I was in the water the first time Narendra told us that we could go down into the water, sometime later Ashish pulled us all in. The other rapids were "Golf Course", "Roller Coaster", "Double Trouble" and the "Body Surfing". It was more Narendra's skill that we were able to go through the rapids with the ease we did rather than our paddling. I guess had we paddled better we would have gone (rather taken over) to higher waves in the rapid, but that's for the next time. Interesting I found people more interested in the grades. Just wondering if it is a phenomenon with people in the software industry or its more general.
When we returned back to the camp it was night and people sat down to drink some more. I grabbed a beer and hung along. Apurv was feeling bad, I guess he over-exerted himself on the raft. I walked along the bank for a while and we discovered fishes in the river. It was fun watch Ranvijay trying to catch one in the night:). Dinner was served and we went to sleep, some people decided to sleep out on the sand like the day before.
Next morning was fun, it was planned that we will go upstreams 14 kms, and raft all the way down to
Rishikesh, taking our lunch midway at the camp. We started with a game of volley-ball, Ravi playing with us. After breakfast we moved on for rafting. Though the highpoint of the day was to be "slithering". Now slithering is something that really was cool. You do your seat-harness, put on a helmet, throw a rope down towards the river from a bridge and just rappel into the water. Simple!! one should have looked at the faces when people climbed over the railing. It was tough for many of us. I was the first one to go down. It was easier than what I had did from the Auditorium roof (and made some kids do it too for galaxy) back in IIT Kanpur, at least there was water to fall in :). There was Ravi in a kayak doing the rescue as people fell in to the river. The rope was in intentionally left short so as to get everyone in the water. Some slithered, some just watched over. After every willing person had gone down we moved on to rafiting again.
Rafting down was as much fun as it was on the day before. This time, the raft I was in, had people who were paddling real well. We tried summersaults from the raft, swam, had fun. New rapids were "three black mice" and some more. About the camp we went down bodysurfing in the water. It was cool. I wobbled up and down with the waves, and it was quite discomforting not to see anyone else in front of you. Almost every body was in water in that rapid. We stopped for lunch at the camp. Some people decided to stay back and do sight seeing in Rishikesh. 10 of us decided to finish the rafting.
Wind was blowing against us when we started and for the rest of the day. It was fun rowing against the wind, really made us paddle. We were only two rafts and we were paddling hard.
We returned to noida that same night. The trip was fun, thanks Ashish and Gulli for the wonderful time we had.
Ps: Might fine tune the writing some time also will be adding some tips and trips for rafting to this post. Well it means do come back some time and read it :)
posted by Sankum at 8:38 AM
