Namaste friends!
I recently left Delhi after arriving at Indira Gandhi International Airport (and spending a night there) to make my way over to Rishikesh, which is where I’ll be spending the next five or so weeks for my Yoga Teacher Training program.
A full disclaimer: I am tired and I have a poor WiFi connection and I am prioritizing things other than updating the internet with my adventures right now, so this post is sparse with subpar-quality photos. So sue me. 😉
Because, again, anxious traveler, I made sure to arrive in India a few days in advance of my yoga teacher training program start, just in case of any unexpected travel delays or missed connections that might happen.
Plus, yunno, it was like $400 cheaper to book a flight out on Saturday instead of on Monday, and why would I not want two extra days in Rishikesh instead of spending my entire birthday on a 16-hour flight?
So, time to kill two days in Rishikesh!
After I left my airport hotel in Delhi, I boarded my delayed flight to Dehradun — the closest airport to Rishikesh — and landed at about 2 p.m.
I took a pre-paid taxi from Dehradun to my hostel in Laxman Jhula, checked into my room, and wandered around the hostel.
I ended up booking at the Hosteller-Ganges location, which has a really nice roof deck, game room, in-hostel restaurant and a stunning view of the Ganges.
After a little bit of hostel drama — for some reason I was originally placed as the sixth bed in a group of five friends who, apparently, came to Rishikesh to get completely shit-faced in a hostel dorm — I was moved to a women-only room (which is what I’d thought I’d originally booked) and my experience became a trillion times more comfortable.
One of the girls in my new dorm, Nikita, agreed to go to dinner with me, so the two of us walked down to a cafe along the Ganges where we had pizza (her favorite) and tea.
From there, we went back to our hostel to meet one of our other roommates, Riya, and then we went down the street to Sunset Ghat, which is a set of concrete steps leading from the developments down to the river bank, used for prayer, music, meditation and relaxation.
The three of us talked for a bit until Nikita told Riya it was my birthday (which she’d learned on Instagram), and Riya insisted the three of us immediately go get cake.
So… we did that!
We went to a small restaurant alongside Laxman Jhula street to get cake, which we brought back to the ghat to share.
We stayed up until about midnight eating cake and talking before going back to our hostel room.
I was absolutely exhausted from the flights and the last few days of travel, so I went to sleep at about 1 a.m.
On Tuesday, Nikita and I started our day at about 11 a.m. Riya (who decided to stay out until 5 a.m.!) slept in, but Nikita took me to a dosa restaurant.
Dosa is a savory crepe. Ours was made with a rice filling and served with chutney and sambar. We both devoured breakfast, and then went back to the cafe we’d been at the night before for coffee.
Nikita had to check out of the hostel to head on to her next destination, but Riya had woken up, and the two of us decided to go shopping because I knew I had to buy a few things — like a scarf — and I was eager to see more of Rishikesh’s vendors.
We walked around the neighborhood surrounding our hostel and then across Ram Jhula — one of the pedestrian bridges that connects one bank of the Ganges River to the other — and explored the markets there.
I bought a scarf, and then we had some pineapple from a street vendor.
At that point, we both walked back to our hostel for a nap.
Riya’s been to Rishikesh a few times since she lives in the southern part of the country, and it’s seriously been so incredible to have her show me around and essentially hold my hand since it’s my first time in this part of the world.
She explained that she always stays in the Laxman Jhula area, because it’s much quieter than the Ram Jhula side, with fewer people and less congestion.
She mentioned that the crowds in Laxman Jhula also tend to skew younger.
When we woke up, we got dinner at Purple Dhabha, which was another restaurant close to our hostel.
Afterward, we walked back across the Ram Jhula to watch a Ganga Aarti ceremony at the Shatrughana Temple Ghat.
The ceremony is a beautiful spiritual ceremony that honors the Ganges River. Five men waved oil lamps around in tune to the chanted rituals. It brought me to tears three times, it was just such a moving and beautiful expression.
After the Ganga Aarti, Riya and I had sugarcane juice and ice cream before making our way back to our hostel. We were both so tired that it was a very early night and we were both asleep at 9!
Wednesday was my final morning in the hostel. I woke up to pack my bags, and then I went to get coffee with a new girl in our hostel room, Kristina.
The two of us spent a bit of our morning on a balcony at a German bakery near our hostel, where we both had coffee.
My coffee came out with a side of milk and two packets of sugar, and before I even knew what was happening, a sneaky little monkey meandered across the railing and stole the sugar packets right off my saucer!
After that, the two of us went our separate ways. I met up with Riya again for breakfast — we had sandwiches and more coffee (my last for a while since I’ll be giving up caffeine at the ashram).
Afterward, we picked Kristina up again so the three of us could go run errands (aka: take photos and get local SIM cards).
We spent most of our morning getting our SIM cards working (I have an iPhone 15, so SIM cards aren’t even an option and I am relegated to using an eSIM), and then afterward, the three of us went to get lunch.
(Yes, I know I can use Airalo or Nomad or whatever, but just for reference: A local eSIM through Airtel gets me unlimited data, calling and texting for 28 days for $11.90. Airalo was $15 for 5 GB of data only to be used in 30 days. The local eSIM is worth it for the amount of time I’ll be here.)
We shared several dishes at Namaste Cafe, and enjoyed the last few moments of our company together.
Then, that was that! We went back to our hostel so I could grab my things, and the taxi to take me to my ashram’s trailhead arrived. We said our goodbyes and I ventured off down the road to get to my ashram, where I currently am and will be spending the next few weeks.
I’ll likely be somewhat sporadic with forthcoming updates. My ashram doesn’t have a very strong WiFi connection, and I have very little cellphone service. Plus, I want to spend my next few weeks fully present and in the moment here in Rishikesh.
But I’ll be back when I can!
