Rishikesh Calling…… Part 1

Delhites are lucky enough to have many hill stations at around 250 – 350 km range, both in Himachal & Uttranchal, where you can travel on a weekend, stay there for a night & return on Sunday evening. Since, I have travelled to most of them till now (Once or multiple), so my desire to visit any new hill station was raising day by day.

My friend Prashant Dwivedi called me about having a small trip to Rishikesh and enjoy river rafting. Idea was brilliant. And we started research on it. But, not much info was available on internet and whatsoever we could find, was more a publicity.

Luckily, one of Prashant’s Friends had visited rishikesh for Rafting and he strongly recommended PHOOLCHATTI RESORTS.

So, we finalized the itinerary and decided to have this wonderful trip with 1 night stay at above resort.

Travellers: Me and Prashant

Vehicle : My Alto

Distance: Don’t know till now but Rishikesh is approx 225

Day 1:

I stay at Bhajanpura in East Delhi and Mohan Nagar is just 12 Kms from my home. Prashant, who is based at Lucknow, reached Delhi earlier night and stayed at his friend’s place at Vaishali. So we decided to meet approx 7 am at Mohan Nagar.

With Tankful of Petrol, all glasses cleaned and pressure full air in all 5 tyres, I started  around 6.30 am from my Home. It was bright morning with minimal traffic on roads. The distance was covered in approx 20 minutes. When I reached Narendra Mohan Hospital, Prashant was waiting there. He joined  and we started further. After crossing Hindon, a new road is available now on your left which joins at Meerut road near Hapur turn. Since traffic was low, we could drive at 80 – 90 kmph comfortably on this stretch.

But after coming on Meerut road, the usual Delhi Meerut journey started. Queues of trucks, overtaking from left, local autos blocking your way and much more. But we could manage to reach Meerut bypass in around 50 minutes. We took left towards Subharti medical college i.e. Meerut Bye Pass road. This is newly built road and condition is excellent. Although some local traffic was there, but you can easily drive at 80 kmph on it.

After crossing Meerut, we came on EXCELLENT Meerut – Mujaffarnagar stretch. Road condition is better than excellent. Traffic is very very minimal & normal speed for us was 100 kmph. In no time, we reached at MOOLCHAND resorts near Mujaffarnagar, where we had our breakfast.

BreakFast:

1. Aloo ki sabji & Poori with Pickle & Onions

2. Masala Dosa

3. Tea

Moolchand Resorts

In the Lawns of the Moolchand Resorts

After a break of approx 40 minutes, we started back. Road till Mujaffarnagar bypass was excellent. But after that, single road started. Traffic was increasing. Road development work was ON. All this was enough to reduce the speed and increase the travel time. We spend approx 70 minutes for that stretch of approx 50 Km. But we reached Roorkee and kept travelling towards Haridwar. Weather was getting hot & hot and our desire to take dip in River Ganga was increasing.

After Haridwar bypass, traffic was very dense. Multiple Jams welcomed us in Holy city & we lost approx 30 minutes in crossing Haridwar. After it our journey till Rishikesh was at average speed of 40 – 45 Kmph, due to single road and traffic.

Just before reaching Rishikesh, we called our resort for location. He guided us the route and we took a right turn from UDPL gate. After crossing Seema Dental college, we took another right turn on NEELKANTH road. We crossed the Barrage and then took a left turn. Here, we found a toll booth but the people there, were busy and they could let us go without paying any toll.

This was start of mild Hills. We were travelling through Rajaji National Park. We could easily see the span of Ganga and city of Rishikesh on our left.  This view was awesome. I was willing to open the window glasses and enjoy the hilly air, but temperature was very high. So we kept the AC on. After taking couple of turn, we came on curvy hills. To our relief, we could see rains at a distance to us. I increased the speed of my car.

Halting on the way

On the way to Rishikesh

Start of Summer at Planes and Hills start calling you in their lap with green valleys, full of long oak trees, cool and refreshing breeze, greenery all around you.

After some 5 – 7 Kms, we stopped for clicking some pics & parked the car on the side of this busy road (Because lot of people visit Neelkanth Mandir).  Surprisingly, at this place only, we could see a small fall. We could not resist ourselves to go near it. (Caution: This fall is not at all visible from the road. This was our luck that we stopped there and could see the Fall.) The water was very cold and clean. We spent some time there and clicked some pics.

Photo-shoot on the way

Invisible from the Road

The Falls

Then, we started back for our resort. And rained arrived. Heavy showers gave us much desired relief. We slowed down the driving speed and enjoyed the beauty of hills. Soon, we reached to Hotel Hill top which is on other side of Laxman jhoola. We again called the resort person for reconfirming the location. He asked us to keep travelling on same road.

We again started. Now Ganga was travelling with us on our left and we could see many people enjoying the river rafting in River. We were just dying to reach resort and go for rafting.

Then came GarudChatti. After it, we reached to Phoolchatti Ashram. Our resort was 2 kms ahead from here. Please note that we were travelling on the hill road and all these places were on our left, much below the road. Soon, the road was no more parallel to Ganga. Instead it took a right turn.

Another 2 Kms and we saw a Board of Phoolchatti resorts. We could also see many tents and Huts on our left on the bank  of a small stream, which we thought, will go and meet Ganga (Which we found right). There was enough parking space there for approx. 7 small and 5 big cars. A small village was also there downside. We parked the car and started going down the hill on a Pagdandi. After crossing the small village of approx 5 – 7 houses, we reached the resort.

Phoolchatti Resort

After completing the check-in formalities, we asked the resorts people to arrange the Rafting but our dreams were shattered when they informed that we will go for rafting next day.

So, we spent the rest of our day and evening, sitting near the stream behind the resort, sitting inside the water, trying to fishing (Unsuccessful every time) and enjoying the rains which came again in evening to drench us.

Taking a pause here and eagerly waiting for time to share the experience of next day, which had  more adventures, I hope that you will enjoy the experience till here.

Yours,
Pravesh