Friday was a hectice day in office… loads of work.. for now.. lets talk some good things…

friday evening around 2000 hrs i picked up aseem from his office… we came home… kept his bag and then went to the T-shop… during that time to when i came back home around 2230 we had quickly changed a part of the plan…we were seven guys and could afford to get a cab instead of going to the ISBT and then take a bus… so the list of poeple going rafting was now:

Me
Ankur
Rohit
Tushar
Shammi
Aseem, &
Harsh…

and believe it or not… the first six are members of Orkut… and i have met Rohit and Shammi through Orkut itself…

so we leave around 2300 hrs from my place after enjoying the great Indian laughter challenge… meet our driver.. MAMU 🙂 yes.. thats what he liked to be called… and then picked up tushar… and then Shammi and Harsh… and then Ankur and then Rohit… this is around 1145 hrs… and we were moving at a good speed towards rishikesh…

the traffic less…
the road good…
the driving quick…

made sure that we were moving at a very nice speed… and were able to cross meerut in less then 1.5 hrs time… the journey so far included a lot of gaalis and loud singing by the people in the car with the nice songs that were playing… *courtesy : your truly :P*

we decided to take a small stop for tea before we reached MuzaffarNagar… the road between Sakauti and MuzaraffarNagar is a pain… the rest for some reason looks and feels better… i am sure some work has been done on the highway… felt that on the last month’s trip to mussoorie as well…

the stopover would be remembered because, THIS is where… Shammi is supposed to have eaten BALLS, which he did not like and for some reason as soon as he ate them, he ran away only to reappear in about 5 minutes… a secret that he guarded till the last minute yesterday.. and still its safe with him…

the next stop came at Haridwar… 0330 hrs… nice lights… cold air… i had learnt from my last trip in october that mornings are supposed to be cold around the Ganges.. and hence my nice warm red jacket kept me just fine… and the colour combo i was wearing.. yello t and the red jacket.. was nicely complimented by tushar.. who was in a red T with a yello jacket… some fotos have made me realise that NOW is the time i have to do something about my tummy !!! 🙁

the fotos make it evident 🙁 *crying out loud* and the waise pouch that i had on my waist helped look the tummy look worse :(( not done… kuch na kuch to karna padega… and that too soon !!!

some fotos were clicked.. and the sleep was fought with… and we moved to rishikesh in abt 45 minutes time…

the moon was out.. the air was again cold… and the sulabh was closed… so all of us chose to be inside the cab itself… and rest and sleep.. harsh was the first one to brave the outside cold and get out and take a few pics… rohit followed…

oh.. i had also called Deepak from Mohan Nagar to tell him that ODM was happening outside delhi for the first time 😀

and then in turns we went out of the car… stood in the cold air… which was now turning to a nice cool breeze… and then the sulabh shauchalay in the parking was open to public and we guys being the only public around.. had unsigned exclusive rights to the loo there 😀

some fotos clicked… with Ankur trying to click something inside the ladies toilet.. and tushar coming out of one of the ladies toilets… hehehe… some nice pics of the place around followed… and then we moved to Govindam…this is one of the restaurants that Me and Tushar like to like… but the cook was not in so we decided to walk a li’il towards the ganges.. and enjoy the breeze…

this is where i saw a whole army of buses… i counted 30 buses myself… and all with West Bengal plates… and full !!! oh boy !!! what crowd… too many people… and that made us just come back to the restaurant… this place is called Govindam… complete with a temple, a guest house, a few shops and all.. just like ISKON… and has this small restaurant called Govindji’s Prasadam…

breakfast followed… lots of paranthas… cooked very well.. some lassi and pickle… that reminds me that i really really want to go to Murthal to have some paranthas… i think i will stop there on my way to Dharamsaala next month…

we finally met Pradeep, who arranges for my rafting trip everytime i go to rishikesh…

oh one thing which is not to miss a mention here is Ankur’s shorts.. hehe bright blue swimming shorts.. shorter then shorts and a li’il bigger then the v-shaped undies.. and the best part being that he was walking barefoot.. and this big white tshirt had very nicely covered his shorts… so for obvious reasons there were people staring at him.. and actually turning back to see what kinda person was roaming around in the otherwise sane rishikesh 😀

😀 oh.. and did i forget to mention that he was a carrying a very decent looking SLR with himself as well… Aseem asked him to ensure that he speaks in english only.. this would save him from the rage of any sadhus for offending the hindu community atleast 😀

anyway… we moved to shivpuri in a sumo… and were joined by Sheetal, who is back in India for good after his masters in finance something.. he turned out to be a cool guy and was a part of the gang as were by the end of the trip.. i also need to send him a orkut invite…

because it was an all guys gang.. the gaali galoch was at its best.. and i don’t remember but for some reason we decided that everyone someone swears.. the rest of them would point a finger at the sky.. i guess to let God know what he sweared and request that he should be fogiven… and find it offensive or whatever.. there was someone or the other rising to the occasion every second sentence !!! it was funn.. bigg time !!! atleast we were enjoying without offending anyone !!! so chilled out !!!

rafting.. started from shivpuri.. and braved the rapids like Return to Sender, Roller Coster, Gold Course ( the only grade 4 rapid on the Shivpuri-Rishikesh route), Hilton etc… we also had lunch @ brahmpuri where we took a lot of fotos.. and Aseem here was at his artistic best.. and made something unusual with sand… this was first a man lying down on the beach.. and after some peer pressure he did some small tweaking on his work… and turned him into a her… someone who could give Pamela Anderson a run for her money ( you know what i mean 😉; and what else do you expect in a beach full of all guys, hehehe) anyway… it was fun.. and after some more rest… we moved on the river again… to the jumping point…

Aseem was the first one to jump and repeated it twice… Shammi gave his fear a finger and managed to jump twice too.. Harsh managed it twice… and so did Sheetal… he was all excited and told us that this was by far the best he has done in rafting… while comparing it to the rafting trips in US… oh.. how can i forget.. ankur took sometime.. but jumped too.. the water level was kinda low there… and that meant that you had to jump from about 24 feet instead of the usual 22… as if that makes a difference from that height.. i did not jump this time… could not gather enough courage.. and was feeling very tired already… had not slept for over 29 hours now… so i took the role of a life guard.. and made sure that i could bring Ankur and Shammi to the shore… Ankur needed it.. Shammi could take care of himself.. with a li’il help from me…

the last leg was kinda slow.. and relaxed… where more of talking happened… with Ankur performing on the Kajraare Kajraare as well.. Ash beware.. you are going to get a run for your money if ankur performs his way in his bright blue designer shorts… and the wet white t-shirt 😀

got off the raft near the parking lot itself… changed and decided to move to haridwar to have food.. had the poories, the gulab jamuns, the halwa and Lassi at haridwar… no fotos this time.. and then moved to Delhi…

Aseem realised that he had dropped his phone near the railway crossing on the Muzaffarnagar by-pass… but he did only near Khatauli… we turned back… and tried looking for his phone where we had stopped for a while.. but as expected we could not find it… so basically.. Aseem pee-ed away 10K bucks on this trip… and even though its possible, he had not backed up the data which is biggest loss, other then the money ofcourse… Sayan also did not back up her phone … and when she lost the phone.. she lost a lot of data too.. guys please please please be careful with your wallets and phones… its very very difficult to get the numbers, the files, the tones back and we usually realise this only after we’ve lost the phones and wallets…

One thing that i did not like was that Ankur had made plans of meeting his relative for some work in Meerut and did bother to tell anyone till we left Rishikesh, even though he knew he had to do this when he left.. coz he was carrying his papers and the official docs needed… you cannot take a call for yourself, without talking to the rest of the people who are travelling with you… no one knew Ankur so well.. and did not say anything even though it was kinda evident that they were not at all happy with waiting for him in Meerut while he was with the person he had to meet… anyway…

we reached delhi.. dropped Rohit, Ankur, Shammi, Harsh, Tushar.. and Aseem and Myself… dropped Aseem to the NOIDA expressway crossing where his brother was waiting for him… and i was back home @ 2345 hrs… a 24-trip came to an end now !!! wonderful !!! this was my fifth time on the Ganges and i loved it out and out.. already waiting for the next time i go there… April may be… lets see…

ok now for a few stats…

Total time in reaching Rishikesh : approx 5 hours.. actually less if you start late night.. best time to start if you are travelling on ur own : 0300 hrs this gives you enough time to sleep for a few hours… and also avoid the traffic on this route..
now the money part…

Cab : 3700 bucks.. include the 2*100 bucks night charges for the cabbie…
Rafting : 450 bucks per person including food @ Brahmpuri…
Food: Approx 400 bucks in breakfast @ Govindam, and 250 bucks in Haridwar ( snacks.. but very very filling)

the total expense per person came out to be around 1050 bucks… ( Rohit: you need to be treated for spending 1100 :D)

i am right now tired… because of the cold water.. and air… need to rest today…

the fotos that i clicked would be availble soon.. i guess by wednesday… Rohit should be posting his by day end today !!!

Have a happy sunday everybody !!! God Bless…