Day Two: With the Fun Five

The Drive: Haridwar To Hrishikesh
Camp Rendezvous
The Bungy

27th of September

4 a.m.
We all were deep in our sleep when the conductor started-
"Everybody to Dehradun please get down, another bus down there will take you from here."
After a while he came back and,
"Everybody to Dehradun please get down your bus is waiting people to Hardiwar may get down as well."
We looked at our watches and wondered, twas just 4 a.m., how could we reach Haridwar so easily?

Alright we said, picked our bags and got down. The bus rushed off the road and within seconds was out of sight. There was not a soul to be seen, not even the people who got down for Dehradun. The five of us stood there, on a deserted highway, twas chilling cold, dark and was as silent as a grave.

That's when Kaddu opened her eyes to the surroundings and asked, "Where's the bus the conductor mentioned a few minutes back?"

This one question broke our hearts, we knew we were deserted as we stood in the middle of nowhere. We kept on walking in the same direction for a few minutes till we reached the crossroads. We had to pick one of the three roads and keep moving till dawn! We chose the one on the right.

"God Gracious! Look, there's a rickshaw down there" and we knew that was no mirage, we rushed to it and woke the driver to ask him where we exactly were, and where could we find a bus to take us to Haridwar.

With an angry look he said, "Madamji Haridwar me ho, Haridwar kaise jaoge?"

All this time we had been in Haridwar itself? Ha!
(I realized the conductor had forgot to pause between phrases when he asked us to get down!)

So, now our task was to cover up till Hrishikesh. We hired a tuk-tuk to take us inside the city where our car was waiting to take us to Hrishikesh.
7 a.m.: Breakfast and then off to Sureshwari Devi Mandir.

Twas almost afternoon when we realized our way back home wasn't over the rez! Our tickets weren't confirmed yet! There was a huge rush of phone calls and messages and we all could breath in calmly only after that panicky half hour!

12 p.m.: After that eesky brisky topsy turvy ride on the mountain we landed at Camp Rendezvous.

The cab dropped us on the road where a narrow path lead us a few meters down the mountain, after crossing a few creeks and small waterfalls, rolling down a few pebbles, we reached a stable, and a few meters down we could see a board that welcomed us to the camp.

We could see huts and tents and from somewhere I sensed water burbling nearby, I looked around and noticed we stood 10 kilometers away from the heart of the city, there were mountains all around, there was Ganges flowing right down the camp which was a low lying grassy pad!

All in all, we had chosen the perfect spot for our adventure!

We had our lunch and got ready! Oh wait the most interesting part, we washed in the river, in the open, in the cold waters and used the open toilets. Mwahaha, what a bath! I can still feel those little fishes nibbling on my feet or any other part that was exposed to them, lol, I had to check if everything was intact when I left the river!

                         

After the bath, we had to get ready for the bungy! Sukhdu, me and Moats got into our dungries and all five of us got ready to leave for the bungy as soon as we had had our lunch.

After watching the videos, all of us were sure that we were jumping off with that cord tied to our feet within minutes.

Sukhdu dived brilliantly in the air with her head upright that gave her amazing flips and then it was me who had to go down. I had hardly reached the edge, before which I was worried about my life, whether I'd be living to see my friends again, I promised we'd meet in 10 and was ready to dive in but my tears began to roll down my cheeks and I wanted to talk to mom before taking the death dive, fortunately, she wasn't answering my call and I had a reason to move back, I gave up, to me it seemed as if I was paying them to let me suicide in a game. Kaddu was next, she went down praying and she got a bungy kiss, I'm glad she survived that, in the last few seconds it seemed as if she was going to back off! Moats was the last, her weight gave her an advantage and she jumped off and flipped up and down like a yo-yo!

That was with the bungy, we waited for our certificates, mine- of course a no-bungy certificate, but they were good enough to give me mine.

We were very tired and you can imagine the stress caused to these poor girls after the jump! Thank God I didn't give up on life so easily! Ha! We drove back to the camp, the plan was to go camping but we gave up and planned to have a bonfire instead!

The caretaker served us a plate of yummy peanut fry, topped with the perfect spices, so tasty that it just went down our tummies and we longed for more.

It was getting dark, we had a few clicks and then got dressed for the fire dance that was going to start within minutes.

The music system was set and the fire was on, we could sense our noise disturbing the silence that extended for miles in the dark forests and lonely mountains. The party went on till late in the night, we sang and danced making the most of our time together.

There was nobody to stop us from anything, after a long merry making we all sat around the dying flames and discussed our stories, talked our hearts out before we hurried ourselves into the huts to make us warm again as the fire was dying and the night was getting colder!

While Sukhdu and Kaddu took one hut, me, Moats and Tanny took the other, both of which were side by side and we could still hear each other talking. After a few stupid jokes we fell asleep and you'll have to read my next post to know what happens in the morning!