Rishikesh - Day 1

The overnight train ride went smoothly and we were able to sleep a bit on the way to Haridwar.  Once we arrived in Haridwar, we bought another ticket to Dehradun (which is closer to Rishikesh).  We didn't realize quite how crazy the regular class tickets would be at this time of year due to the Shiva Festival. We were luckily able to sneak into a sleeper car and just pay the difference in ticket price once we were caught (well worth the 4$ different to not be hanging outside the window/riding on top of a train).

I wasn't exactly in a "whip out the camera and capture the moment" kind of mood when our train came to pick us up at the terminal in Haridwar, but luckily the packed trains made it into the paper the next day.. This is what our train looked like - hopefully this will convey our appreciation for having been permitted to stay in the sleeper car instead of one of these cars.

Despite the hundreds of thousands of extra visitors due to the festival, Rishikesh has still turned out to be a very peaceful place compared to what we've been experiencing so far in India.

We're staying at a hotel called the Divine Gange Cottage.  We couldn't have asked for a better location view-wise.

The place is decently priced and the location is quite convenient as well.  Lonely Planet for the win!  We ran into a couple of travelers on our way to our hotel who suggested that we follow the flow of traffic (all pedestrians, the roads are closed to cars during the festival) at 5:30 in order to see some of the celebrations that take place by the Gange River.  When 5:30 came around we did this and ended up teaming up with travelers from England, Italy, and Switzerland on our way.  The 5 of us made our way through the crowds to the groups bathing in the river

 and eventually to a large group sitting around a statue (of Shiva?).

A small group of musicians played for well over an hour, and a young girl in front of us danced for a good part of the evening as well.  I wish my camera had a video function - this young girl sure had some awesome moves!

The girl and her family seemed to encourage me to take more pictures, so I ended up getting a couple of nice close-up shots of her and her mom.  Both very photogenic!

Then the group of boys behind me got jealous of all the attention this family was getting and asked that I take some pictures of them too.

The 5 of us tourists went to dinner together where we discussed our plans for the next day.  They were trying to convince me to go bungee jumping with them and I was way closer to agreeing to go than I thought I would have been.  I think this may have had something to do with the overall desensitization that I feel these days.  Bungee jumping just didn't seem as scary as it normally would.  Regardless, Jenn and I already had plans for the next day.  Bungee jumping will have to wait for another time.