Trip to Haridwar

                             

                     The Door to Spiritual World

                                            Lansdowne—Haridwar—Noida

While sitting on the bench at tip n top point (Lansdowne), two things were going in Sujit and my mind A) Should we spend next day in Lansdowne and relax ourselves, or B) Should we leave for Noida? Sitting idle and doing nothing is not our forte and leaving for Noida didn’t felt right. Then, suddenly I recalled one milestone which I saw in Kotdwar which said “Haridwar- 66Kms”. Hell Yeah!!! Haridwar is on. I pulled my cell phone out and quickly booked a room in the hotel. The reservation was done and we were all set to roll.

We left early at 08:00 AM for Haridwar. As usual, driving through hills was an awesome experience. We were cruising down the hill. Just before entering Kotdwar we did a refill of the fuel tank. Sujit wanted to take some pics of a bridge which looked pretty much old by the way of its construction. After a 15-20 min break we started to ride again. We crossed Kotdwar quite easily. We headed towards Najibabad. As per google map, we have to go to Najibabad and then take a right turn towards Haridwar. We were about to enter Najibabad, then I suddenly saw one milestone: - “Haridwar – 42Kms”. It can’t be right!! We were in a dilemma because Najibabad was good 8-10Kms from there. Nevertheless, we asked few locals around there and they said that this was some sort of shortcut which will join the highway after few kilometers. Who doesn’t love shortcuts?? We took a turn and proceeded towards Haridwar.

Bridging gaps since ages

The road was not a national highway, but the condition of it was way better than Village roads. Lush green fields on both side of the road. At that moment I said to myself “this journey is planned by the almighty himself”. No hiccups, pitch perfect road, breathtaking scenery, what else you can expect for a perfect road trip?

This Village road deserves all sort of accolades

As told by the locals at Najibabad, the road did meet a national highway. We stopped for tea at some random dhaba on the highway. After sometime we were entering the holy city of Haridwar. Our hotel was located in railway station road. There were a plethora of hotels near that road, as expected we were not able to locate our hotel. We saw the hoarding of our hotel “Hotel Midtown”. The name of the hotel was chosen way too seriously I think. It was located in the main market of Haridwar. “Har ki Pauri” was at walking distance from there.

National Highway connecting Haridwar

At 10:30 AM we checked in the hotel. The room was quite spacious, properly ventilated and clean. We then decided to take some rest. There were 2 things to do in our list. First, take a dip in “Holy Ganges”. Second, to see the world wide famous “Ganga Aarti”. Pretty cliché, right? Around 03:00 PM we started to march towards “Har ki Pauri”. We were all set to take the holy dip, the flow of water was at its peak. Nevertheless we managed to get into the water and took the dip. Sujit was trying all sort of positions to enter into the water, after few attempts he finally succeeded. I was more than happy to use my hands to pour the water over my bodyJ.

The Ganges on full throttle. Literally!!

Around 05:00 PM, people started gathering for the “Ganga Aarti”, we too did the same thing. We thought we were the smart ass there. We went to the bridge and took our place for a better view of aarti. After few minutes some workers of the trust which manages the ghat came and asked us rather politely to get down from the bridge. We followed their orders and got down from the bridge. As most of the people were doing, we also bought one plastic sheet, placed it on the floor and started waiting for the ceremony. After 2 long hours of wait, the “aarti” started. The view was unbelievable. It cannot be expressed in words. After an hour or so, the ceremony came to an end. People started leaving the place and so did we.

Waiting for Aarti to begun.

Nothing beats this view!!

There is something special about the Ganges I must say. You will feel pretty much relaxed by just only a mere view of it. While sitting on ghats you will feel a sense of calmness inside you. “Haridwar truly justifies its literal meaning: - The Abode of Lord Vishnu”.

View from the Bridge.

Next day, we left early for Noida. Around 06:00 hours we were on the national highway. Two or three stop by and we were in Noida at 12:45 hours.

595.1Kms that is what my trip meter was indicating. This was one of my best trip ever. Few days back we were novices in road trips, and now we have a whole lot of idea of dos and don’ts of riding. We visited two tourist place in one go and that too in a span of two days. 

One hell of a ride!!

Credits:-

Pic Courtesy :- Sujit

Editing:- Sujit

Wasting my valuable time during the upload of this post :- Utkarsh aka Chak  :P