In April 2018, my friend, her husband, and I decided to go river rafting in Rishikesh. We decided to first go to Har Ki Pauri as the couple wanted to conduct their daughter’s mundan (tonsure) there. My mother, my friend’s mother-in-law, my other friend, and her mother also joined us on this trip.
We were supposed to leave Delhi by 12:30 a.m. to avoid heavy traffic. Thinking of having a thrilling rafting experience in Rishikesh, we were so excited, but for us, the adventure started right in Delhi.
On the night of departure, the driver came so late, at around 3:30 a.m., with excuses of traffic. By 4 a.m., he had picked up all of us, and finally we set off for Rishikesh. It had not even been two hours since we started our journey. My friend saw the driver dozing off many times. When asked, the driver told us that he had not taken proper rest, so my friend’s husband took the wheel while the driver was sleeping on the middle row of the seat. He was in such deep sleep that many times he fell on my friend’s shoulder.
My friend’s husband drove till we reached Har Ki Pauri around 10 a.m. By that time, the driver had had a good sleep and was ready to drive us. My friend’s daughter was tonsured there. After that, we all took a holy dip in the holy Ganges, followed by breakfast, and then left for our hotel in Rishikesh.
We reached there around 11. Our mothers stayed back in the hotel with the kids, and soon the rest of us left for rafting. We stuck in a heavy traffic jam there for almost 30 minutes but somehow reached the rafting spot.
Like our driver, our raft guide also contributed to making the entire adventure memorable. Before going, he gave us a few instructions on how to raft throughout the trip. But only my friend and I did it properly.
Many times, our instructor lost his cool. It was really, really hilarious. His frustration with us can be easily seen in this video. ☹
Once it was over, we had a light meal and came back to our hotel.
The next morning, we checked out of the hotel. Then, we visited Ram Jhoola as much as we could because of the time limit and finally set off for Delhi.
Throughout the entire journey, the driver gave us tantrums. Therefore, while we were still in Rishikesh, he received a strong rebuke from my friend for his misbehaviour. Her strong dosage of rebuke worked, and after that, he drove us to Delhi without any drama. But no, there was still some adventure left in that journey.
We were supposed to reach Delhi maximum by 11 a.m. But due to severe traffic at many places in Uttar Pradesh, we were late by many hours. During the journey, I fell asleep only to wake up to the scaring views of huge fields at night. It was all dark, and nowhere could we find any roads or houses. There were only fields. To avoid heavy traffic, they took the route suggested by Google Maps and ended up there. This thing again happened to us during our Dehradun trip in 2019. So, I suggest you never take any shortcut route suggested by Google Maps when you are not sure about it. Except for the kids, we were all awake and a bit scared. But finally, we crossed that entire area and found the main road to Ghaziabad. We all breathed a sigh of relief!
From there, it took us around an hour to reach Delhi, and finally, we all reached our homes safely by 3 a.m.