The Sage of Haridwar

View of Haridwar, North India, from Mansa Devi temple

Don't ask me what that red shrine's for, I've no freakin idea! Neither does my Indian colleague.

The Yoga Capital of the World

Ram Jhula at Rishikesh, Uttaranchal, India

Rishikesh teems with foreigners, all here to practice yoga, and experience spirituality (most probably with the help of grass, hehehe). The place to be for musicians, first made famous by The Beatles, I think. Sting visits occassionally.

Himalayan Snow

Auli, Uttaranchal State, North India

The Road to Badrinath

Somewhere in the Garhwal Hills, between Karnaprayag and Joshimath


Outskirts of Joshimath


The Road to Badrinath (this was the nearest we managed to get to our desired destination - blasted landslide blocked the way!)

The Birthplace of the Ganges

Harki-Pauri, Haridwar (Gateway of the Gods)

Recently (on the Easter weekend which so happened to coincide with a major festival in India called Holi), I tried to visit one of the sources of the holy Ganges River. The Ganges begins its journey in the state of Uttaranchal (aka The Abode of the Gods). The state border is about 5 hours drive from Delhi. It has 4 holy sources, all in the same state: – 1. Badrinath (source of the Alaknanda River); 2. Kedarnath (source of the Mandakini River); 3. Gangotri (source of the Bhagirathi River aka Ganges after it joins with the Alaknanda); and 4. Yamnotri (source of the Yamuna River). All these rivers are formed from glaciers in the Himalayas (high mountains, …and snow, what more can you ask for huh?) My mission was Badrinath and a national park next to it named …Valley of Flowers, thrilling ain’t it? I decided to close the office and force my one and only colleague to accompany me on the trip.

(Note: In Hinduism (or the version I understand of it), the Ganges was supposed to spring forth from a toe (ya, you read correctly) of Vishnu (one of the Hindu Gods). It came down to cleanse the dirty earth of the ashes of the dead (at that time ashes had accumulated to such an extent that nothing could grow, ….and I thought ashes make great fertilizer…). It first had to flow through the hair (ya, you read correctly again) of Shiva (another Hindu God), who stayed (stays, who knows) in Mt Kailash (in the Himalayas), so that the torrent of the mighty Ganges would be weakened and not wash everything into the ocean (was there already an ocean at that time, …..who knows? Hindu friends, pls illuminate me if I’m wrong.))

Trip summary - list of accomplishments: -
- Did not reach Badrinath (it only opens in May! …besides a landslide blocked the road).
- Did not reach Valley of Flowers (same road as above, and park opens late April).
- Got a chronic backache from driving for 3 days from daybreak to dusk on bumpy roads (with occasional stops) (still having the backache, but I think it’s recovering slowly now). Colleague doesn’t drive and doesn’t read maps.
- Had two punctures in 3 days.
- Got ‘Holied’ (Holi is a major festival esp in North & East India where people throw coloured powder / water on others – I had yellow powder plastered on my forehead, luckily it was powder, not coloured slush).
- Stuck in a traffic jam for more than 2 hours at the state border crossing (the result of Indian driving habits – 6 lanes of cars / trucks/ tractors / bullock carts / buses / bikes etc, each side, having a face-off on a two lane provincial road – it was a wonder we could get thru in 2 hours. We finally decided to just park at the side (forming the 7th lane) to watch the buffalo man quarrelling with a car owner, border official quarrelling with everyone else, etc. The patch we parked our car so happened to be overgrown with ganja plants, …don’t need to go to the golden triangle in Thailand for this stuff, it grows everywhere in India, especially the hill states, nope, didn’t pick any)
- Got stuck in a queue for about an hour and half waiting for a cable car up to a temple (that you can walk up slowly in about 30 mins – we’ve bought the tickets before we realized how bloody long the queue was. We decided to walk down although the ticket was for both ways – took us at about …15mins with a stop to snap some photos)
- Got lost in New Delhi at 1am while returning home (told you my colleague doesn’t read maps)
- Played with Himalayan snow (after driving for 45mins on the bumpiest roads I’ve ever driven on – that’s one way, it’s another 45mins down the same road).
- Managed to get a room to stay at 10.30pm in the hills (where every place was about closed) because of the major public holiday and hill people like sleeping early.
- Was lucky enough that we had enough fuel to last one whole day of driving in the hills, thanks to the public holiday when every pump station was closed or out of fuel (…wonder why they still bother to open??)
- Was lucky enough to be able to reverse all the way out of the muck of a road where the landslide occurred.
- Was lucky to find a shop to fix the punctured tyre after the first incident, the puncture happened again later that day.
- Was lucky that the spare held good till we got home.
- Bathed in the Ganges at the point where the Alaknanda joined the Bhagirathi to officially form the Ganges – and in the process got ALL my sins absolved (isn’t this just wonderful?), and got blessings of long life for me, and my family (that was after parting with 100 rupees and after repeating word for word whatever the priest / guardian mumbled – the only thing I understood was "100 rupees or 200 rupees" after I asked how much, …was thinking of blurting out 50 rupees, but thought the better of it and just paid the cheaper of the 2 options, wonder what sort of blessings I’d get if I paid 200 rupees, blessings of eternal life maybe?)





Devaprayag, where the Bhagirathi River becomes the Ganges after meeting the Alaknanda River

Incredible India!

This is India!

A picnic in the park ....ing lot dumpsite, Haridwar
(See how at peace the cows, pigs and chicken are with each other...)

India, this is too, ....incredible huh?

Pipalkoti, Garhwal, North India