One day pleasure trip at Haridwar and Rishikesh

A few months back, I visited at Chandi devi Mandir, Haridwar and Parmarth Ashram & Ram jhula, Rishikesh. It was a plan which made all of sudden. I was at my in-laws' home (Najibabad), wanted to go for some pleasure trip, so we decided to go Haridwar or Rishikesh. And as we didn't have much hours, so we chose Chandi Devi Mandir and Ram Jhula. I wanted to experience the fun of rope way at Chandi Devi Mandir and haven't seen Ram Jhula yet. Whenever i visited Rishikesh, only used to be at lakshman Jhula, may be it was because that's more famous. Finally me with my wife and her brother left home for Haridwar. Haridwar is approx 42 KM far from Najibabad and can be reached via Mandawali. You will cross Rajaji National Park on your way to Haridwar.

Within an hour we reached at Chandi Devi Mandir and parked the car in parking. Parking was for free as they didn't charged any thing from us, so nice of them :). Then we took 3 tickets of rope way to Chandi Devi. Four persons can share one cable car. The ticket fare includes up and down journey. Going through cable car was an experience in it self. There is a dense forest on the other side of the hill and the rope way offers panoramic views of the Ganges River and Haridwar. I was so exited to saw the city from top. You may also chose trekking up to Chandi devi mandir instead of cable car rope way. To reach the temple one has to follow the 3 kilometre trekking route from Chandighat and reach the shrine by climbing some steps.

Chandi Devi Temple is situated on the top of Neel Parvat on the Eastern summit of the Sivalik Hills, the southernmost mountain chain of the Himalayas, at a distance of 4 kilometres from Har ki Pauri. Goddess Chandi Devi is the main deity of the temple. The temple was built in 1929 by Suchat Singh, the King of Kashmir. It is said that the main murti of Chandi Devi had been installed in the 8th century by Adi Shankaracharya. The temple is also known as Neel Parvat Teerth which is one of the Panch Tirth within Haridwar. Chandi Devi Temple is highly idolised by devotees as a Siddh Peetha where all wishes get fulfilled. It is one of three such Peethas located in Haridwar, the other two are Mansa Devi Temple and Maya Devi Temple.

The Temple is visited especially during the festivals of Chandi Chaudas and Navratra and the Kumbha Mela in Haridwar, to seek the blessings of the goddesses who is believed to fulfill their wishes. Near to the Chandi devi temple, the temple of Anjani, mother of Hanuman is located and devotees visiting Chandi Devi temple also visit this temple.

After spending some time there, we moved to Rishikesh. Let me tell you that I find Rishikesh more peaceful and environmentally beautiful than Haridwar. I love Rishikesh so much that I dream of having a home there. I have already said why I chose Ram Jhula to visit that day. I was driving slow while enjoying the ride and hilly views of Rishikesh so it took half an hour to reach Ram jhula. We parked our car there. Parking was paid this time. An advise - Never park car on road, as the roads are narrow, find parking instead.

We crossed the Ram jhula to be at other side of river Ganga. My wife praised for Parmarth Ashram, so we finalised to be there. It was really a beautiful place. So beautifully decorated gardens and statues there were. We sat there for some time for meditation. Rooms are available in ashram on cheap rates. Then we found some place for lunch. I have tried chotiwala before so we reached there, but that was fully crowded at that time. So we found its substitute, Topiwala. Food was not up to our expectation. After having lunch, I felt sorry to others as it was my suggestion to eat there. But as you learn from your mistakes. They let it go...so kind of them.

Post lunch, we decided to give look to the street-side shops. I bought some artificial jewellery for my wife, she liked some bangles there. There were small shops of artificial jewellery, antic items, statues and framed photos, wooden items and other art & craft work. My wife got tired so it was time to go back home. This time we preferred boat to cross the river. We enjoyed the boating, had some photos, and go straight to parking. I was feeling low as always while leaving Rishikesh. I made a promise to come back soon and this time I would love to visit Neel Kanth Mahadev mandir.