A Different Diary Game (third season- 04/16/2023) - Travel Program with @sur-riti at the foothills of the Himalayas

As per our plan, I started from my residence and reached NH 58, where @sur-ritu and I had decided to meet at 8.30 on Friday.

ᵀʰᵉ ᴹᵉᵉᵗᶦⁿᵍ ᴾᵒᶦⁿᵗ

It was a plan we had been talking about for a long time, but we carried it out on Friday through Sunday as these three days were public holidays, and we had expected a huge crowd in Uttarakhand, the neighboring state.

People consider this state as one of the most attractive for religious tourism but for me it's one of the best for tourist attractions. Some of the best hill resorts of India are close to the spot where we spent two days including Mussorie and Nainital. We were right at the footsteps of the Himalayas, called Shivalik.

I reached the bypass, where he was already waiting for me, so I just pulled open the front door of his car (I have no car right now) and sat beside him and took a photo. You can see he has a bite of a sandwich in his mouth, which he brought from his house.

I took a few more shots in that area when we stopped at the toll area for a few moments, and then we sped off to our destination, which was about 180 km from that point, but the road was so crowded at a few points that we had no chance to cover more than 50 km/hr.

I took a few more shots in that area when we stopped at the toll area for a few moments, and then we sped off to our destination, which was about 180 km from that point, but the road was so crowded at a few points that we had no chance to cover more than 50 km/hr.

We crossed the holy city of Haridwar as we were heading right to the Swargashram area in Rishikesh, which is only 7 km from Rishikesh city, but due to the construction going on where we could park our car and cross the Ganges by motorboat, we decided to go to Swargashram by car, which proved our mistake later.

Let me tell you at this point that we really struggled on that makeshift road, which is used for occasions when the area gets overcrowded during long weekends, but it took us almost 4 extra hours to reach our destination. So our expectation of arriving around 12.30 or 1 PM was exceeded when we arrived after 4.

But what we saw was wonderful so I took a few shots of the area.

People were strolling in the area, so I took a shot at one of the statues which are a plenty of them in that area.

Actually this place is right at the foothills of the Himalayas where River Ganges touches the plane after descending and emerging from hills of the Himalayas and enters Rhishikesh and then covers a large part of India. It was almost 6.30 in the evening.

We found a room, and then we decided to go for a walk along the river Ganges. We spent a couple of hours walking in that area, and then we went for dinner in the most popular restaurant of the area, the Chotiwala.

Chotiwala literally means the man with long hair. They have made a man with long hair sit at the entrance, and everyone wants to take a photo with him. So did my friend @sur-riti.

We had our food there and then moved to our room, where we two talked about Steemit and I gave him a few ideas about markdown style, especially about image insertion and two-column text. I am sure you will watch his new way of doing posts on this site.

Another shot in the Asharam area.

Next morning we left for Haridwar, and this time we were told to take a short cut to reach Haridwar, which was an experience in itself. I will insert images of that particular road along the Chilla Canal, a picturesque road with almost no traffic.

It was a wonderful route which we missed while coming to Rishikesh.

Soon we reached our hotel, and we left our car in the hotel and walked to the River Ganges, where we spent about two hours. We wanted to spend more time here, but this area was too crowded and hot, so we went for an early lunch and went back to our hotel and took a nap.

We visited the most famous area of Haridwar, the Hari Ki Pouri but it was too hoot and crowded.

We spent some time watching the river from the bridge

Here you can see a temple on the hilltop, but we had no intention to go to there although a ropeway is available. You can see trollies of the roapway in circles.

He wanted a few shots in the crowded market so I took a few there

It was getting hotter so we decided to go back to our hotel and had our lunch and rested for few hours.

In the evening, we visited another common friend and had a party—yep, you guessed it right, a real party. and spent the whole of our evening with him.

We came back to our hotel, and then we had some more discussion about Steemit, and then we retired for the day.

Sunday morning, we woke up at around seven, got ready, left our room at about 8.20, and started back. We stopped for our breakfast.

That was a nice restaurant where we stopped for about 45 minutes and then covered the distance in about one hour and thirty minutes. I got down at the same spot where I had met him, and we said goodbye to each other. I reached home at about 2 in the afternoon and went to bed immediately.

We drove back to the point where he had picked me on Friday and after making a promise to meet again, he drove back to his home. I took a bus for my home and had a nice sleep before starting working on this diary post.

I am writing this diary at about 10 p.m., but I will post it tomorrow, Monday, April 17th, under diary 04/16/2023.

This is your friend @dove11 now signing off wishing all my friends a nice day ahead.

@franyeligonzalez this is for you

Thank you all for reading.

Note: All images mine

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