The Drive to Haridwar and Rishikesh

Oh my freakin' lord were that exact words I was saying either out loud or in my head....

Maddy and I were the only 2 volunteers who had the weekend free to travel to a far distance and come back late sun night, so we literally planned this trip on Thurs and left at 3:15pm on Fri. We were really excited to go to Haridwar and Rishikesh only after learning about it in 5 min from one of the staff people here at CCS. He said many volunteers go there all the time. It is a hot spot because it is one of the most spiritual places in India, the capital of yoga, mediation and spirituality. The Ganges River is there and for Hindu's it is the most holy water there is...(even though it is freakin muddy, brown, gray and out right polluted.) But anyway it is holy nonetheless and hindu's go there to bathe, swim and bless themselves in the Ganges river. They say that if you bless yourself with the water, then you will wash away all your sins....

So Maddy and I said great let's go check it out and see what this is all about. We decided that we wanted to take a yoga lesson, get a massage, see the prayer ceremony in Haridwar, and go trekking in the Himalaya's to a beautiful waterfall in Rishikesh. That was our plan and we pretty much stuck to it.

Anyway, getting back to the drive. So everything was going smoothly the first 1-2 hours of the trip (mind you this is a 7-8 hour car ride...). I was trying to sleep and Maddy had dozed off too. Then all of a sudden I heard a big BOOM!! I woke up, and was like what the heck was that? Apparently we had just run over a huge pot hole going full speed. All Jessie (the driver) could say was "oh sorry mam, there was a just big whole". From then on Maddie and I were alert the rest of the car ride there....

According to Jessie this one small road that could only fit 1 car on the road going in one direction was the best way to go...Jessie would drive at full speed until we saw another car coming straight on and with in seconds would swerve half way off the road so the other car could pass us by. Then if there was a car in front of us he would tailgate the driver beep his horn several times go full speed and we would be half on the road and half on the side of the road.

Then, Jessie would pass a car going full speed, while another car would be coming straight towards us at full speed and Jessie would swerve to the left just in the nick of time before we crashed into the on coming car!!! I cannot tell you how many close calls there were. Maddie and I were hanging on to the handle above our heads for dear life!! This was wild! I mean something you would see in the movies!!

Jessie kept looking back saying "You alright mam? This is the best way other roads are bad and have too much traffic." What could we say? He was our driver, I couldn't tell him no I think we should take a different route, what the heck do I know, I'm in India!!

I must tell you it was very interesting to see the land of India on the car ride. It was so interesting to see so many monkeys on the side of the road!! They were the cutest things ever. We even stopped and took pictures of the baby monkeys and their mothers. Jessie even threw a banana at one of the monkeys and we got to see him eat it. It was too cute. Then we would drive along and see villages where people live in huts, we saw a ton of cows and even a few bathing in water. We also saw horse and buggy, cow and buggy, fruit stands, little cars caring 10+ people inside, and motorcycles with the dad driving and the mother holding the baby in her hands/lap. Yes, all on a motorcycle...It's India!! Anything Goes...

After stopping a couple of times, eating dinner, and driving on paved roads, half paved roads, dirt roads, gravel roads, muddy roads, or no roads, and bouncing like crazy all while holding on to the handle above our heads we made it safely to Rishikesh.