Morning soon arrived and we checked out leaving the baggage with "concierge". We hit the street and was immediately confronted by rickshaw men to which we enquired about any gujarati restaurants from breakfast. The guy said hop on and for 20 rupees ill take you, so we did...only to figure out it was like 4 alley ways down the road (we could have walked it).
Inside, the guy hadnt let us down..we were served with chora, dhal bhat, bateta shack, and papad. Unsurprisingly dad got talking to the owner, only to find out they were from the same gham (district/village) originally. Further, the guy was related to a well known caterer we know back in London.
Once we left the restaurant, we immediately saw this gujarati ashram/hostel to which they said it was only 80 rupees to stay in (around 8% of what we paid at Sachin!!) and so we booked. They wouldnt let us see the room however, so again this was another chance.
Outside the hostel, another riskshaw guy (auto), approached us saying he could show us Haridwar and all the mandirs (temples) in one day, so we negotiated with him to take us round..but firstly he had to goto sachin pick up our baggage and let us get settled in our room.
10 mins later we had our luggage and went the room. The watchman unlocked the padlock, and told us we needed to buy our own to lock it, and so we entered. I wasn't impressed. It was freezing, had two rock hard beds, and 4 walls. Never the less, we thought its only one night, lets use our suitcase padlock and get sightseeing.
The sightseeing started by seeing various mandirs, one which had a stone that Ram bhagwan stepped on. Cool. One of the main mandirs that stood out was Parvati, this had a effergie of parvati and so it kinda brought things to life. Moreover, this was my first proper sight of the ganga...and where me and dad engaged in some pooja, lit a float and sent it down the river in memory of our nearest and dearest.
After seeing around 9/10 different ashrams/mandirs, we decided to head for the main Aarti area on the banks. The rickshaw guy dropped us off on a random bridge and told us to squeeze in between a gap and walk down this dusty path to find it. We soon did and was immediately confronted by beggers, sales men and wanna be gurus.
The were something special about this place, despite the hustle and bustle, dad and I hardly said a word as we were deep in our own thoughts. We also dipped our feet in the ganga here too, which was absolutely FREEZING. I couldn't believe people were actually taking full on baths here! We also decided to light a divo here too and let it flow down the river, we had a guru making us repeat a mantra which, from what I took away was remembrance of my grandparents, striking an emotional cord.
We still had about an hr to the Aarti and so we decided to pick our spot (on the bridge overlooking) and watched hundreds of people fill the banks. The Aarti was amazing, everyone was so engaged and the flurry of lights was a spectacle to see.
After the Aarti, we aimlessly wondered around the adjacent baazar until we decided we had enough and decided to walk it home. Getting directions, the chaiwala told us it would be only a 5 min road, but I soon calculated that any time given in India should really be multiplied by 3 or 5, and I was right, 25mins.
On route we stopped at this juice guy, who told us to trust him ( I didn't, I just said Carrot & ginger would be fine, but for dads he made an amazing concoction, made of pretty much every possible fruit + ginger.
We also decided to get dads hair chopped, but this was no 10 minute haircut, this turned out to be a cut, face massage, face pack, face massage, electric face massage....and you guessed it...a face massage. I think when dad agreed to put some cream on post-shave, he hadn't bargained for a full on lady like facial :)
The time came to head back, and to be honest I was dreading the room and how cold it would be. This is where I discovered dads best kept secret... a make shift hot water bottle....literally.
Wondering up and down the alley way, we realised we weren't gonna find a heater so instead we bought a large water bottle, drank it and woke up the nearest chai walla. We explained that we wanted him to boil some water and fill the bottle, to which he refused..he couldn't understand the logic or reason of what was doing. However, as soon as we showed him 10 rupees, the gas was on full power and he filled us up. I was quite sceptical as to dads method...but you know what, the bottle served its purpose, and was still warm in the morning. genius.
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