Rishikesh - a few insights

What to bring:

A torch - half the time there's no electricity - so it's useful.

An umbrella.

Clothes pins - unless someone nice leaves some for you -there probably won't be any around.

If you're here in the summertime or any other time it's hot, go into the market in town and get yourself a matka - a mud pot - it keeps the water cool - if you're at a place where you can fill your bottle with filtered water (at the Omkarananda Ganga Sadan they have an RO filter), you can just pour that into the pot and in a few hours you'll have really cool water - the hotter it is, the cooler your water - only costs Rs. 20!

A knife, a plate, a cup or glass, a spoon and/or fork and maybe a pair of scissors - except for the knife, you'll have to go to town to get the other things (at least if you're staying at Ram Jhula - I don't know about LaxmanJhula) - the knife can be gotten at a little store on the way to Ram Jhula the taxi stand (on your left - you can ask at any store and they'll direct you) - Rs. 40 for a quite-nice pen knife. All these things will be quite helpful when you want to make your own fruit and vegetable salads - the healthier and cheaper option.

What not to bring:

Too many clothes. If you're staying at a place where you can wash and dry your clothes (and most likely you will be - if not, you could always use the ghats on the Ganga like some people seem to be despite the signs warning against this), you can just wash clothes every day and get away with only two or three sets. If you need more clothes, you can just buy them at the hundreds of stores all over the place near the Ram Jhula taxi stand, on the other side of Ram Jhula around LaxmanJhula. They are cheap (by both Indian and Western standards), may not be the best quality - but if you're looking to travel light and don't mind spending a small amount of money you can just buy what you need here - you get everything from shorts and
t-shirts to salwar kameez and yoga



The sun rises - from my balcony.

Where to stay:
I stayed at the Omkarananda Ganga Sadan - in a really nice, clean room facing the Ganga on the 3rd floor - great views, super-clean newly redecorated bathroom, quite quiet if the bathroom door is closed (and hence not letting the terrific noise from the street side in) and your room is cleaned at request. But, by other folks accounts, this is expensive (at Rs. 395 a night, I thought it was cheap - but it depends on what you can afford I suppose), though perhaps not for the amenities. Most of them preferred to stay on the other side of the Ganga at Ram Jhula there are lots of little guest houses and ashrams. The guest houses offer rooms in the range of Rs. 200 a night (and they typically come with their own bathrooms at that price) - the ashrams are usually below that (and of course you don't have a private bathroom) - and lots of folks in yoga class were paying no more than Rs. 100 (with some paying only Rs. 50) a night at these places. Personally, I'm a little spoiled (at the moment I can afford to be), so I liked where I was, plus the yoga class was right there - but even at the Ganga Sadan, one can get a slightly cheaper room on the 2nd floor if one is willing to use a bathroom at the end of the hall (something like Rs. 250-Rs. 300). They also have a separate building with rooms and a courtyard away from the building that houses the yoga kendra, tried a room here the first couple of nights, though they're bigger and have their own bathrooms as well and a little kitchenette (so it was more like a suite) and was actually cheaper than the room I eventually moved to (which had no kitchenette) - Rs. 350 - there were lots of insects and it just wasn't that pleasant. Plus there was no balcony overlooking the Ganga, just windows. The rates were slightly higher the first 3 days - they come down when one stays longer than 3 days.

After the weekend crowds go home -
a lonely oarsman on his way home









LaxmanJhula, a 2 km walk or 5 rupee ride away, also attracts a lot of people and has lots of guest houses and ashrams. A couple of the young people I met said they stayed there because it was more 'happening'. It all depends on what you're looking for.

You could also stay in the High Bank area - where the Bhandari Swiss Cottage (and a few other hotels/guest houses are). I went there for food a couple of times. It's a nice enough area - great views, secluded and away from the noise of Ram Jhula and LaxmanJhula - but one either has to walk a bit (about 5-6 minutes uphill) from where the rickshaws heading to Laxman Jhula one off at the fork in the road, or get a 'private' rickshaw - i.e. pay for the whole thing, since most everyone except you will want to go to LaxmanJhula you use a shared one. When it gets dark and rainy, it's not the safest thing to walk up. I found that most of the people staying up here were not the 'spiritual' types - rather the bikers and t

he trekkers - at least that's the sense I got.

Another option is to stay in Rishikesh town - which one Canadian girl I met was staying in and she used a bike to get herself to yoga class everyday. One can also rent apartments on the road from Ram Jhula town, some of them within easy walking distance from Ram Jhula(cute apartments run about Rs. 10,000 a month - but can probably be shared).

Where not to stay:

In an airconditioned room - it's just not worth it - since there's no electricity half the time - and especially when you most need it - unless you're staying at a place with a generator - like the Ananda Spa and Resort (perhaps there are other places too - like Vasundhara place), but then you'd be shelling out huge amounts of money every night (like perhaps $300 instead of Rs. 300) and probably have an agent booking things for you, so you wouldn't be researching things on your own.

In a room overlooking the road on the taxi-stand side - at the Omkarananda Ganga Sadan (or anywhere else in that area) - the noise will do you in!

Recommendations (and not) - places to eat:

Next to the Ram Jhula taxi stand are 3 or 4 little holes in the wall:

Ganga Vaishnav Bhojanalaya - this is an Indian dhaba and the two kids who run it are the two hardest working people I've met in my life (I also almost nearly fell in love with the younger one, who is quiet and sweet, when he started greeting me with a hand to his heart - until I realized that this was a common way of greeting people in these parts). But this is Indian food cooked early in the mornings usually (almost always channa daal or some other daal and a potato and capsicum curry) (not to order - only the chapatis or rotis are made on demand) and is quite hot and spicy. Not the most nutritious, but it's not bad. They also make aloo paranthas for breakfast and chai. These kids work from 6am in the morning till 11 at night. And they're always there on time - though it's usually 6:30 by the time they serve their first cup of tea since they're cleaning up till then.

Shanti's Health Food cafe - run by a couple. Clean and good made-to-order food. They cook everything from scratch - soups, salads, sandwiches, pastas etc. Even the pasta is made from scratch (not dried pasta).

Mukti's Health Food cafe - Similar to Shanti's. Mukti makes the food here, his wife doesn't help out. Mickey's special is tasty - roasted potatoes with other vegetables and a sauce.

Madras Cafe - a little beyond the taxi stand. I think the prices are slightly overblown for the food. But they have a generator and so it's a great place to go when there's no electricity - and it's also a regular restaurant so there's comfortable seating. They have a good Himalayan Health porridge (or something like that) and a Himalayan Health pulav (lots of dishes are pre-fixed with the word 'Himalayan' down here) and the Chow Mein can be a cheap option when on a budget.

Flavor's (yes, that's how they spell it) - I had dinner here once. And I would have gladly skipped it. We ordered felafel there. The felafel tasted like Manchurian (it was Manchurian - though the server insisted it was felafel) and the hummus was ok, except that it was absent all the ingredients that hummus normally has, except for watery chickpea paste (no garlic, tahini or olive oil).

Sanskriti - a formidable looking 'spa' - I guess the large, expensive-looking front deters a lot of people. But the best coffee in all of Rishikesh is to be found here. At Rs. 40 a cup - the Americano or at Rs. 35, the espresso are both real coffee and really delicious. I spent twenty unhappy days in Rishikesh before someone told me about the coffee here because I couldn't get my morning fix - since most places only have chai and the places that do serve coffee (even 'filter' coffee - serve substandard versions of the real thing). I still really couldn't get it even after discovering this place since it opens only at 9:00 - but it was still better than nothing. After that, I was downing two or three cups a day here regularly. They also have good mushroom and paneer puffs.

Madras Hotel (different from Madras Cafe) - one has to take a rickshaw into town to get here. It's just before the Chandra Bagha bridge (sp?) on the left. A little place, but very clean and cheap and very good South Indian food (idlis, dosas, upma etc. etc. etc. - much better than Madras cafe for South Indian fare).

Pappu Lassi - I actually didn't visit this place, but I heard from a few people that the best lassi in town is served here - also downtown and needs a rickshaw to get to.

Gita Bhavan - on the other side of Ram Jhula (from Omkarananda) - a big, noisy place that sells sweets. I would never have walked intot his place normally, but I went in with someone who wanted to buy some sweets one day and noticed that they served kachoris and samosas there also. So I went back one day when I had a yen for those and found that they were the best kachoris and samosas I'd had in a long time (and at Rs. 4 each, a bargain) - - the samosas are served in the afternoon and the kachoris in the morning. They also sell Amul's Masti lassi and Chaach (buttermilk) here - fairly safe options (since they have a generator) when you're looking for yogurt products but want to avoid eating fresh yogurt in case you get sick (I'm sure I got sick one day from some lassi I drank at a dhaaba). If I had discovered (or rather ventured into) this place earlier, I would have bought the buttermilk everyday.

Juice Center - there's a juice center across from Gita Bhavan that makes good juices.

The Office - also on the same side of Ram Jhula as Gita Bhavan - they have good samosas here (this I was told - I actually didn't try them).

Gurudev - on the other side of Ram Jhula (from Omkarananda) - a restaurant with an extensive menu and extremely reasonable - I had a cheese and tomato crepe here one day and it was really good. The Belgian and Italian people I was with were wondering if there was an Italian in the kitchen because the sauces on the pastas they had ordered they said were on par with the best in Italy. But the next day I went back for a thaali - it was cheap - but had nothing much else going for it.

The Little Buddha - off of Laxman Jhula. They have an extensive menu - the food was ok - they couldn't make us juices when we went because there was no electricity. But there was egg in an avacado sandwich we ordered (that fact not mentioned on the menu) and the person who I was with and had ordered that was allergic to eggs. The waiter was upset with us for not having asked him if the dish contained egg - and when we asked him why we would dream of asking when the fact wasn't even hinted at on the menu, he was even more offended!

The German Bakery - this is a much touted place, but mostly frequented by foreigners - hardly any Indians here. I went here a few times and thought it was overrated. But the sizzler that the person I was with once had was apparently delicious.

The Freedom Cafe - another restaurant in the Laxman Jhula area which a lot of people raved about - a place where you can lounge around for a long time, check your mail (on your laptop with wireless broadband that you bring with you) etc. etc. It was ok - just a lot of flies. But that's a problem in lots of places in Rishikesh.

The Welcome Center - towards town from Omkarananda (but walkable - just a 15 minute walk at most). A really nice place. Very nice setting. The food is cooked from scratch (even the ghee's made from scratch) and it's really good food with the best ingredients. They have dishes cooked to ayurvedic specifications. They also serve Panna, a delicious raw mango drink which I have never had anywhere outside of people's homes.

Omkarananda Ganga Sadan - the food here is the best. Home cooked in a really clean kitchen by a wonderful woman who cooks the food as if she's cooking for her family. Lunch and dinner have to be ordered well in advance though - by 10:30 am for lunch and by 5 or so for dinner.

Other things:

The shared rickshaws only cost Rs. 5 a person (to most anywhere) and that's what you should pay whether there's one of you or ten of you in the rickshaw when you get in, unless you specially commission it for yourself (also known as 'getting a private rickshaw', in which case of course the tarriff's going to be much, much higher, because essentially you're not going to let anyone else get on. I wasn't aware of this at first, and the first couple of times I was in it with just one or two other people, I paid a lot more than the Rs. 5 - thinking it was only fair since I got to be in an almost empty rickshaw and the driver didn't inform me otherwise! - o'h well. These aren't really rickshaws (like the ones in the rest of the country) - they're more like Delhi's phat-phatis - with a noisy motorcycle engine and carry 8 people - though sometimes even 20 squeeze in.

Do check whether the place you're staying at has a water filter so that you can minimize the buying of plastic bottles. Till I found out that the place I was staying had a filter, I was buying and disposing of many bottles a day.

If you buy clothes that you need altered (like shortened, have sleeves added to, etc. etc.), just ask the person at the place you buy it whether they will do the needful (they'll usually do it for free).

You can recharge/top-up (it's called different things depending on the state you're in - but basically add money to your pre-paid cell phone or extend the validity of your SIM) at a little shop to the left of Omkarananda Ganga Sadan as you come out of it.