Day 1 : I arrived in Haridwar after a 6 hour journey on Shabadhi Express, a tourist class train. It was a rather comfortable journey on that train. I checked in Hotel Ganga Azure, which is right opposite the railway station. The hotel was clean, and comfortable, but the food was superb. The Big Ben Restaurant is very famous in Haridwar, and you can check out the reviews on tripadvisors. everyone in Haridwar is a full vegetarian and there is no liquor in this city. However, the food in Big Ben, will never make you miss the meat. We only had vegetable pakhoras for lunch, and ginger soup...and wow...oh..wow..it was great!
After freshening ourselves up and the scrumptious lunch at Big Ben, my friends and I decided to visit a few famous temples around the area, before proceeding forAarti in the evening.We visited two very significant temples, the Mansa Devi temple and the Chandhi Devi temple. Both of these temples can only be reached by cable car..interesting...
Mansa Devi Temple is found located on the Bilwa Parvat (Bilwa Hill). This temple holds great importance for every Hindu as it has a statue of goddess with three mouths and five arms.
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| Mansa Devi Temple |
In the evening, we took short walk to the Har-Ki-Pauri ghat, to witness the evening Aarti. The walk, though was short, was indeed a colourful, and interesting event. All along the way, there were many,many shops selling all kinds of stuffs, interesting souvenirs, medicines(countless of medicine halls), prayer items, but what was most intoxicating for us, girls, were the countless varieties of bangles being sold all along the way. Haridwar, is the city of bangles...you will be spoilt for choices.
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| People we met along the way |
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| Devotees all the way from Rajasthan. I think they walked all the way... |
The Ganga Aarti in Hardwar’s Har-ki-Pauri is one of the famous rituals in India. It starts at around 6.30pm after sunset, with large crowds gathered around both the banks of a canal that carries the waters of Ganges. Loud speakers blare songs in praise of
Ganga Maiya and Shiva.
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| The crowd at Hari-Ki-Pauri Ghat, just before sunsets. |
I bought a pack of "diya" to be lighted and let off into the Ganges.A pack of diya comes fully equipped and is self-sufficient! It has a wick lamp surrounded by flowers. There is even a matchbox to light the lamp, so you don’t need to run around looking for one! Two incense sticks also come with it and the whole thing is assembled in a bowl like pack made of stitched leaves. I lighted the diya, floated it down the river like many other pilgrims and continued witnessing the Aarti.
After a beautiful evening of lights, lights and more lights, and of course, lots of shopping, shopping and shopping for ethic merchantdise, we went back to the hotel for a good days rest.
Day 2 - Rishikesh & Mussorie in the next blog....
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1 comment:
I also spend my vacation in Mussoorie. I like the place. It's very cool and calm. Thanks for sharing your views toward Mussoorie with us.
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