Probiking Chandigarh - Rishikesh

9th Sep 2010

Day :- Thursday

Me and my roommate neelabh were sitting and having evening snacks at our room. we were talking about the tourist spots seen by us till date, the discussion was on meanwhile i asked him to cover a new destination this coming weekend.? He didn't gave a second thought and agreed. Then what..........we considered few parameters like whether, climatic condition, temp n of course distance, and finally we decided to go Shivpuri 30 Kms ahead from rishikesh.for Water spots on my FZ.

"River Rafting"- Coolest water sports in my view where u can experience a good team building exercise. One can also learn the imp of team work while having fun.

I started my journey on 10 Sep, friday at 5 PM after completing my office, neelabh joined me in between from Sec 27, chandigarh round about. After giving diet to my FZ we headed towards panchkula for nahan. As we stated with our belly full of necessary calories we decided to stop take first rest in Nahan.

Nahan :- A small village cum town surrounded by Himalayas n rivers. There we saw few small shops with an option of ready tea with fan and biscuits and decided to took a rest for 15 min and had our first refreshment of tour. Now we are again charged up to cover next 70 Kms in one go. Now Neelabh decided to drive till Poanta sahib where we our cocktail dinner was planned as per the itinerary planned by us before leaving.

Poanta sahib :- Place famous for Poanta sahib gurudwwara founded by sikh guru having Dastar astha and Talab astha in it where sikh guru used to watch turban tying competition and distribute salaries to his followers. Due to recent heavy rainfall in Himachal, condition of roads were very pathetic, while driving a continuousness thought was hitting in our mind of getting our FZ punctured. But with a desire to visit Poanta sahib gurudwara we took a sip of M. DEW and kept on driving continuously withour fear. After a tough driving we reached destination at 9PM. Poanta sahib luckly was also working territory of Neelabh due to which we got a cheap and best hotel to spend night over there. The hotel is exactly in front of Poanta sahib bus stand with a variety of items to opt for at an economic rates. We were feeling very hungary but we dicided to visit gurudwara first and after that we had our dinner in that same hotel . Friday 11 Sep 2010, the day ended well with a visit to gurdwara and a belly full of delectable food.

12 Sep Saturday: 4:30 am : We started our journey with packed sacks on our back driving with a speed of 80 kms per hr to cover max distance on plain silent roads. We reached dehradun at 7 am and had breakfast at local dhaba. Pratha is very famous in dehradun with a price tag of Rs 15/- only. After eating one pratha with a glass of sweet lassi we were feeling to have a nap for 1 hrs but due to distance constraint we kept on driving to reach Rishikesh by 11 am as per the itenarary provided by our booking manager. One can easily book 1 night 2 days package for rafting, rock climbing, bone fire and all meals with in a starting range of  1500/- per couple. 11:00 PM, We reached our destination - Rishikeash -

RISHIKESH :- A sacred town at the convergence of rivers Ganges and Chandrabhaga, Rishikesh is a naturally attractive place at the foothills of the lower Himalayas in the state of Uttaranchal in India. The importance of this holy city lies in the fact that it serves as a gateway to other religiously important centers like Kedarnath, Gangotri, Badrinath and Yamunotri. Besides biking we were enjoying the sight seeing. we could easily see on the left side the huge crowd of people passing through laxman jhula. Only way to cross The Ganges from one end to another. Once you reach the other side of road (where temples are located) u will see high rapids rising in river Ganges trying to touch the sky. We can't resist ourselves to take bath in it. We got ourself free by 12 pm and called our tour manager to help us in locating his office. Then we both were taken to tents in which our stay was planed for next 2 days.


Every thing was arranged so nicely the tents, the dinning area and the rest longe GR8. It took away all our tiredness when we were served with welcome drink made of chilled Nimbu pani "it was not less then an gulp of plain water in huge desert." Our itenerary for the day :-* Welcome drink - On arrival * Lunch - 2Pm *Rock climbing and rapling - 3pm - 7 pm *Bone fire - 8pm - 9 pm* Dinner - 9Pm onwards. 



We had our lunch as per the itinerary. The food they served were so delectable that we duo had a diet of 4 people together. Our satisfaction level rise to 90% after having so much tasty food. Then we proceeded for rock climbing and rapling and returned to our camps and gave a rest to our back. It was about 8 o clock in night, arrangement were going on for Bone fire outside our camps. It was such a awesome experience - cool breeze passing bye touching each part of your body staining your clothes and the sound of continuous rapids rising in river Ganga passing just besides you, relaxing your mind and soul. Few students from IIM 

rohtak also joined us in the celebration and shared their experience and planning for next day. 9 PM, we all were just enjoying the ambiance of dark night with bone fire sitting on a river side when one guy came and made call for dinner. WOW, such a great experience i cud see the tent with lanterns all around hanging on bamboo sticks giving a feeling of candle light dinner with open air restaurant giving a feeling of white sand beach, arrangement specially made for us serving hot dinner with buffet system. We were even served with ice creams and a sweet dish. All this were very difficult to manage as they had to brought all stuff from rishikesh 20 kms above shivputri as no market is there in shivpuri - its the place only ment for river rafting. After dinner we had to talk an evening walk in moon light on white sand as our tummy took more then access diet :(( Then we putt off the lantern and went to sleep after zipping out tent.
Itinerary for 2nd day :- * 7:30 Am - Buffet breakfast, 9:00 AM - River rafting. The day has finally arrived for which we traveled 270 Kms from FZ "Psycho" 


Morning 6:30 am when i unzipped my tent i saw a volley ball net just outside our tents, i called all fiends to have a hand to hand VB game and we played without even passing shit lolz. Again one guy came for a call to breakfast. today the menu is bread with jam, omlete, aaloo prathas with dahi. We were told to gather all necessary calories to row the boat efficiently. Then what i saw a van arrived on road upside our camps to take all of us on the hight from where we were supposed to start adventurous 32 Kms rafting. Proper training was provided to us for complete 1/2 hrs how to row paddle in different rapids, Our instructor also made us familiar with different terminology like straight forward, back forward... initially we were pissed off from his 1/2 hr training session but later when we got stuck in very first rapid only then we came to know the imp of that 1/2 hr training session :)) Now we all are in our raft and going on with the flow of river, I never imagined Rafting would be so easy but when our raft got stuck in roller coaster rapid, a black pic came if front of my eye which recalled me all about my past life in one go, i was like " kahan fass gayee yaar, iss baar bachale rabba" but instructor gave us confident and asked to row the paddle continuously making us enable to come out of that. Finally we came out of that mesh and prepared ourselves for next challenges.Then we all were like " can we 

row back to experience the same once again.. While rafting one point "cliff jump"  comes in between where u can have the experience of jumping from a height of 25 Ft. straight in to water having hidden rocks too in it. It was scary but after 1 jump i tried it for 2-3 times to take feeling of being a professional swimmer. I enjoyed swimming too for 20 min in chilled water on river Ganges. We finished with rafting at 2:30 Pm at rishikesh and had our lunch to fill our screaming stomach. None of us neither Neelabh nor me was ready to drive because of tiredness but that was not the solution so i decided to drive with gr8 memories and experiences in backup of my mind. We were very tired while returning so we decided to take a night rest at saharanpur, 4 hrs drive away from panchkula via ambala. One of neelabh friends stays at saharanpur who requested us to stay at his place n share the experience of tour. It was the best option we could ever had and decided to stay back and leave in early morning. After continuous drive from 4:30 am, we reached Chandigarh at 10:30 am in which we had a 10 min break in between for a cup of morning tea. Our tour ended up with awesome experience and sweet memories. While writing these blog i have make up my mind to visit once again there in this coming April-May month but now with more days in my hand so that i cud explore more adventure....River rafting is a life time experience which everyone should have once in his life. And if you plan to do so you can contact me 9991610017 for any queries :))))