{"id":29644,"date":"2025-06-07T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=29644"},"modified":"2025-05-01T07:17:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T14:17:22","slug":"india-2025-amritsar-to-rishikesh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/06\/07\/india-2025-amritsar-to-rishikesh\/","title":{"rendered":"India 2025: Amritsar to Rishikesh"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Mike Huber<\/h6>\n

India Part XII<\/p>\n

Loading the bikes the following morning, we were still basking in the Golden Temple\u2019s magical glow.\u00a0 We were amped up for our next leg. This portion would be a relaxing two-day journey via Shimla to Rishikesh and would give us a glimpse of the lower Himalayan Mountain ranges. The roads would mostly be mountain twisties. This was what we wanted for riding (or so we thought).<\/p>\n

\"\" The roads, although having great twisties, were extremely narrow.\u00a0 So narrow, in fact, that on more than one occasion oncoming busses would find themselves in stalemates as to who would back down and reverse to allow the other to pass.\u00a0 When this happened, we usually could squeeze through while they were conferring on who would back up.\u00a0 There also were the usual obstructions:\u00a0 Monkeys, cows, goats, and an occasional camel. This made for very slow going and by the end of this portion of the trip we were starting to miss the major roads we had previously ridden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A sure way to tell you are off the beaten path is when you have to refuel your bike by purchasing fuel that is brought to you in plastic water bottles.\u00a0 Along these roads this refueling process became the norm, which I always find cool.<\/p>\n

All in all it was part of the journey and we had a blast on this portion of our ride.\u00a0 Upon arriving in Rishikesh and seeing the Ganges River, we were exhausted and looking forward to a few down days to explore the city and have a couple of cold Kingfisher beers.\u00a0 I think my friend may have had another Bhang pastry as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The only thing I knew of Rishikesh was that the Beatles wrote most of their White Album there.\u00a0 We did the tourist thing and visited the Beatles\u2019 Ashram (where they during that period).\u00a0 The Ashram was mostly overrun by jungle, but it was a decent side quest, and a reason to listen to the White Album that evening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We took a different way back to our hotel from the Beatles\u2019 Ashram.\u00a0 It allowed us to cross a narrow (mostly pedestrian) suspension bridge over the Ganges.\u00a0 We were about 100 feet above the river on this narrow bouncy bridge, moving very slowly due to the immense pedestrian traffic. \u00a0It allowed us to observe Rishikesh from our high location, including the ceremonial burning of bodies along the Ganges\u2019 banks.\u00a0 The crossing took about five minutes, but there was so much to take in during that five minutes that it felt as though we were on the bridge for hours.\u00a0 It was other-worldly, to say the least.<\/p>\n

After reaching the other side of the bridge, we parked the motos.\u00a0 We sat along the Ganges and took everything in.\u00a0 Rishikesh was where we would begin to part ways on this journey, as my friends needed to return to Canada, their jobs, their wives, their children, and their world.<\/p>\n

It was a crossroads for me.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have a next location or activity planned, as the trip through India during the past month had consumed every waking hour.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t concerned; this was the norm for me and I knew I would figure it out.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t expect to learn of my next destination by my phone exploding with calls in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

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