Toes South Down the Ganges

Fresh off of the Tin Amigos tour, I decided to hit the road with my roommates. With the hot weather in full swing, we headed for Rishikesh to do some white water rafting at the gateway of the Himalayas, and perhaps to experience yoga at one of the bjillion ashrams lining the Ganges. Louise, Austin, Heather, Elliot (a short-term visitor from Mountain View), and I headed out on Friday afternoon with Amit, Heather's driver. Train is probably the best way to get to Rishikesh, but with five of us and erratic train timings, we decided to go for the comfort of a mini-van and a driver we knew. It took us about 7 hours, but we arrived on Friday night to clear, cool air, a starry sky, and a rustic, but nice place to stay - the Ganga Beach Resort. After announcing our intention to go rafting in the morning (which the staff promised we could), we hit the sack.

The next morning, we slept in and rolled out in time to make breakfast. When we went up to the front desk to formalize our rafting arrangements, things started to get a little dodgy. What had been sure-fire rafting reservations became vague possibilities. Then we started a three way dance of disaster between me, the booking agent in Delhi (who we also asked to reserve the raft), and the hotel. In the end, we got it settled - 2pm at the entrance of the hotel, a raft and van would be waiting. We headed into Rishikesh to check out a few of the sights and get oriented, before meeting our guide for the afternoon rafting trip.

When 2pm rolled around, we headed back to the hotel, but no raft awaited. We hung out for 20 minutes or so, and decided that maybe we needed to check a little further down the road. What ensued was the wildest goose chase I have ever been on. With cell phone connectivity only possible every 5 km or so, we proceeded down the road based on instructions from our ever-helpful hotel staff. We end up going to the farthest town on the rafting route, trying to contact the person that the hotel referred us to, getting nowhere, of course. Then, we get told to back-track to the next-to-last launch location, where a 'yellow raft' will be waiting for us. We careen madly down the road to the aforementioned launching spot, only to be told that our boat left just 5 minutes before we got there. At this point, it's close to 4pm - our whole day has been shot, waiting for rafting, driving toward rafting, and then yup, you got it - literally 'missing the boat.' Needless to say, we're p-i-s-s-e-d. India 2, Expats 0.

After drowning our woes in the hotel pool, which was pretty green, but had plenty of chlorine to compensate, we headed into Rishikesh to try and find a good place for dinner. We chose Chotiwala, which is pretty famous and supposedly a good bet for Indian food. For those of us who stuck to the house specialties, we did fairly well. For Elliot and Louise, who are not lovers of Indian food, the Continental choices were less fortunate. In fact, Elliot's macaroni and cheese and Louise's cheese and onion mashed potatoes were so indistinguishable that the waiter couldn't even tell them apart to deliver them correctly. Nonetheless, we rebounded with aplomb, and even found another rafting company to take us river-rafting the following morning.

On Sunday, we got up bright and early and headed (along with two random Indian guys and our guide) to the Marine Drive launch site. It took some time to get the boat blown up, gear on and safety briefing complete, but in fairly short order, we were drifting down the river, enjoying the sunshine. The rapids on the river have names like "Roller Coaster" and live up to their billing. Some of the waves we went through were well over our heads and doused everyone in the boat. But, our guide seemed more than capable and, while we got some solid thrills, we never came close to flipping the boat, which was definitely a possibility. When we came through the last large rapid, the river widened and slowed to a meandering pace. Our guide encouraged us to roll out of the boat and float downriver in our life vests. The water was cool, and that close to the Himalayas, fairly clean. I laid back and let the Ganges carry me along - not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning at all. At the last bend in the river before you reach Rishikesh, a rock promontory overhangs a deep pool. Every boat on the river was pulled up so that eager rafters could take the plunge. It was scarier than it looked, but lots of fun; the life vests make you pop up like an oversized cork, but even still, it seems like it takes forever to get back to the surface. Back in the boat again, we wended our way around the last few bends of the river and were deposited, soaking wet, on the steps below our hotel. We made our soggy way upstairs to get cleaned up and check out. India 2, Expats 1 - rafting mission accomplished.

As a parting shot, we decided to have lunch in Rishikesh before heading back to Delhi. At the base of one of the footbridges which cross the Ganges, we found a little grass shack with a river view and... Mexican food! That's right folks, I ponied up to the table for a 'burroto' and my first taste of Mexican food in 5 months. And, to top it off, they served the best cold coffee (like a coffee milkshake) that I've had in India - mounds of icy, coffee-flavored loveliness, literally spilling over the edges of a chilled stein. Whooeeeee....was it good! Score one for the good guys - India 2, Expats 1, Lonely Planet 1 - for the Mexican food, and we'll call the weekend a success.