This is one place every person should visit. it simply has its charm. i being a non believer never thought that visiting haridwar would ever come in my list of memorable places. we were like always going to dehradun when my mom suddenly came up with a request to halt at haridwar for the night. as it is we were late to carry on our juorney dad obliged and we took a turn to the holy land of vaishnavs. there is something very peculiar about haridwar. you will see a lot of devotees from all sorts of backgrounds... some rich, some foriegners and a lot of poor people. we had to stay in our beloved railway rest house which is always available to dad, so i had the opportunity to realise how comfortably we live. there were hundreds of poor people just lying near the railway station waiting for trains (i guess).
next morning we got up late as usual and decieded to leave the car and go by rickshaw to halkipaudi (im not sure if i spelt it right). instead of that we took the tonga which is a type of a rickshaw with a horse as its driving force. it was fun. the horse was also a very obdient fellow. finally the sight of the river.... it brings overwhelming emotions to oneself. and taking the 'dupki' which is a must when u visit the ganga was litterally, like they say "a holy water bath". the water was damn cold but its all gud once ure in it. nothin can describe the place as seeing it yourself. the saints at almost every corner. the yogis and the beggars.the mais selling flower baskets.the small shops with beads and everything holy.its worth a visit.
we did try to buy some momentos but in vain. all the stuff was too cheap. a local guy tried to scare us with a snake in his hand(i did miss a heartbeat there, but we quickly turned away from that place). mom finally got a lantern to keep a diya.
food might again be a problem for people like us, who would rather not eat than to dine at a filthy place. u must believe me when i say we actually got out of three resturants before having our breakfast. we quickly wrapped our trip during noon as it had started to rain. the road to dehradun was also a pleasure cause it had trees on both sides and made us feel close to nature.
