Gateway to heaven - Haridwar

The previous post in this series is here..

We had seen Kedarnath in the morning and Badrinath in the evening on day 5 of the Chardham trip (we had a washout fourth day).

The next morning we had to make it to Dehradun. It was our extra buffer day per the travel company but our plan was to go see Haridwar and Rishikesh also (we were not going to come to these parts in a long time, maybe never given our travel and vacation schedules and age!). We were at the Helipad bright and early. However the helicopter did not land.. they came into the valley and turned around. There was black smoke from some forest fire nearby which made flying dangerous.

Again we had to beg the flight co-ordinator along with a bunch of other folks stranded at the helipad. They took us back to Phata and then from Phata to Dehradun. We had to wait for refueling at Phata but all was well. We were to be in Dehradun by 9AM. We made it at 10:30 or so. We had the Thumby folks pick us up from the Sahasradhara helipad and take us to the hotel where our luggage was in cloak room. We were met by the coordinator who thanked us for putting up with the issues and gave us a parting gift (water from all four sites in bottles and a rudraksh necklace). We took it packed it and loaded all our stuff into the trunk of the van my FIl had arranged for the day.

The driver was nice. We told him we wanted to go to Haridwar, then Rishikesh. We were going to spend the night there and leave for the airport the following morning. He said he will do his best.

We were hungry on the way to Haridwar and stopped at a Punjabi Dhaba. The food was divine. My stomach enlarged a few sizes after that meal as it will be obvious from the photos..

Then we were off to Haridwar. There were three places to see. Two devi temples on either side of the freeway which both needed a ropeway ride to go to the top. He told us we might make it through one if lucky. The other must visit place was Hari ki Pauri or the gateway to heaven. the place where the river ganges comes from the mountains and gets to flat terrain. The water flow is very high but they have built nice steps for the thousands of pilgrims to take a dip here.

First we went to the Chandi devi temple. It was well organized. A ropeway to take us up 2000 feet in 7 minutes. A short hike from there to the temple. Then wait for the next ropeway to come down. Wait on either side was 40 minutes which was not bad. Once we made it down, it was extremely hot. This temple told us that the ropeway ticketing for the other temple was closed. There was no point in going there. So we saw the other temple from the freeway and said a prayer and drove on to Hari ki Pauri.

Our driver said “this is the second step to heaven”. My MIL innocently asked “where is the first step? can we go to that too?” and he said “maa ji. First step is heaven itself !!” . We all had a good laugh and made our way to the river. It was extremely crowded but we found a gap to take three dips (me and MIL).

There are two types of people in the world. When someone says “take a dip in this water. Mythology has it that if you take three dips here, heaven is guaranteed!” , some will say “let me get a towel”. Others will say “that damn thing looks too dirty compared to a common sewer. Maybe the germs there will get you to heaven sooner than you want?! I will pass”.. MIL and me are the first type. San and FIL are the second. The towel I got in Gangothri came in very handy!

San and FIL just set foot in the water and sprinkled some water on their forehead. Then we got back to the van and were off to Rishikesh. There was a chance to see Ganga aarthi in Haridwar or Rishikesh. Given our tiredness levels, we just told him to drive to Rishikesh… so we could catch a break and sit down for sometime.

Here are the photos from this leg starting with the morning in Badrinath. Our hotel in Badrinath was also very nice. Photos from this leg..

and a video highlight reel ..

Irony is a terrible thing. Before leaving Chennai for this trip my mom told me that there is going to be some planetary changes end of May early June that will take me to “vera level”. Then there was this Hari ki Pauri dip which was supposed to give me a lot of good as was that tharpanam for dad on Ganga Dusshera.

I landed back in US on June 2nd and my life has taken a nasty turn with multiple hospital visits first for the infection, then for a swollen knee and a lot of sleep deprivation in general and its associated side effects, an abysmal yoga attendance and other exercise by my standards.. if “vera level” is this, I shudder to think what the alternative was!!! At this point just happy to exist.

Will post about Rishikesh next..

Never been happier - Doilom elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai

The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting the long neck tribe, our next stop was the Doilom elephant sanctuary. We had told Joy that we wanted less crowd. So he went to a place farther away. We were the first customers and after waiting 15 minutes for another group that never showed up, they decided to give us a private tour for the two of us. It was nice of them. I am sure Joy explained our time crunch to them.

There is only one thing that has made me happier than a 90 minute hot yoga class. That is spending 90 minutes with this amazing gentle elephant. Had an great time making medicine for her and feeding her and walking with her and taking a bath with her.

Had already walked in there with a cold and had taken tylenol. After getting in the cold water with the elephant and getting completely wet, not sure if I helped my own cause. The recovery was going to take longer. San was not happy with my move to jump into the water but I don’t get to do this every day! So there was no reasoning with me.

After the water, we got changed quickly and luckily they had really nice towels to keep us warm for a few minutes to dry.

They served us lunch but again I just settled for plain white rice with salt and pepper. Only the jeera was missing. After eating an energy bar and two more tylenols for desert and topping it off with a packet of emergen-C vitamins, was ready to move to our next stop..

A video highlights reel..

Our next stop was a place that I added to the tour list that is not in most folks list. Had heard about this place through a friend who visited Chiang Mai as a photographers delight. That in the next post..

Faith Faith Faith

Faith is an interesting thing.. it makes you do things that are ingrained in you from childhood. Everytime I lose something and I have to find it in a time sensitive way, subconsciously say a prayer to Ganesha and say "will light a camphor light(karpooram) for 10 paise at the local temple".. 

a. we don't get camphor lights in the US that easily

b. there is no 10 paise anymore

c. local temple can be anything but was originally intended for Vembadi Vinayagar, a little ganesha under a pipal tree that I have circled with prayers to remove obstacles real and imaginary..

But it gets done.. and we are not even talking about if we actually found the thing on time or not.

In 2014 my MIL was going for a bone marrow test and in pure panic mode I prayed to my family deity (Gunaseelam perumal) that if the test came negative for cancer, will go shave my head in the temple. That was more of an extreme case of the camphor lighting thing.. 

Have made at least 6 trips to India since that time but never got the opportunity to go visit Gunaseelam. Faith is interesting.. seeing your family deity is not up to you, it is up to your deity.. or so the saying goes! Guess on this short trip to see my dad, there was no agenda. 

Three weeks ago, was lying in a hospital bed myself, dreading some worse case scenarios, which fortunately turned out to be something a lot less threatening. While there, the thought of unfinished business with god somehow bubbled up to the top of the already buffering thought process.  What if I died and did not do the "mottai"? After all the bone marrow test for MIL had come out negative! 

The original plan was to just go alone with a driver and get things done and get back. Then my parents said the words "Can we come with you?".. In case you didn't get the reason Faith got mentioned three times in the title, "you cannot say no to someone when they ask to come to a temple with you".. My dad was bedridden two weeks ago and he barely started walking again. An adult in diapers who just started walking, coming on a day trip where we spend 11 hours in the car and 3 hours in a temple is no joke. 

Somehow, we told ourselves, if it was meant to be, we will make it. I did a risk mitigation plan that would make any project manager proud and we left at 3AM. It was still raininig in Chennai but we were off to a flying start.. We had one stop for 25 minutes and were back on the road. 

Given this is my n'th mottai at Gunaseelam, the whole thing was done in 7 minutes.. then came the best part. There was water in the river that flows to the temple! Had a great time taking a dip in the river and have the fishes nibble at me. We were on a deadline and I had to pull myself out of the water to go in and finish the rest of the prayer. 

Our driver and some total strangers helped me navigate a wheel chair through the temple. The priest knows our family and was extremely nice and made sure my dad got to see the deity up close. 

On our way out a puppy came up and lay down under our vehicle. This one knew how to put on a sad face like a pro..

It was time to drive back. My dad is like a kid who just got his tonsils out and knows that his parents won't say "no" to anything... we just got out of the temple and he mumbles "elaneer.. I want elaneer". He wanted coconut water. Was not even sure if this is coconut water season and we were watching the road for it and sure enough we found a vendor selling fresh coconut water. It is not a good idea for a person of his age to drink that instead of lunch. We stopped at an A2B for lunch and it was really delicious. Had a full course meal. As an added bonus this place had a wheelchair ramp!

Then came the bombshell from my dad "I want to use the restroom". That was not part of the plan. It was going to be diapers all the way. But a kid without his tonsils... is a kid without his tonsils. The restrooms here are not typically wheelchair accessible. They are simply not for anyone who is not fit and can manoeuvre around a potty, a door that swishes past the potty with millimeter tolerance and a bunch of taps and buckets on the floor that are trip hazards. In what can only be described as a houdini move, managed to get my kid to go potty and get him diapy changed. That coconut water was a bad idea. Our driver concurred. 

The rest of the drive back was calm and serene. There were cops every 100 feet. So I started counting cops. After 270, I stopped counting. That was only on one side of the road from Dindivanam to Melmaruvaththur. My mind boggled at the efficiency of this whole security apparatus with so many cops just standing on the roadside doing nothing.. then again, maybe this system works, who knows! We actually slowed down to ask one of the cops to find out what the big deal was. He proudly answered "The Chief minister of Tamil Nadu is making his way back to Chennai on the same route!"

We made a dash for it to avoid his motorcade and made it back in exactly 14 hours. For a few minutes after reaching could not find my legs.. had let my dad doze off on me. . . which reminded me of my kids dozing off on me on another recent trip.

It has been another interesting day. 

A picture that says it all..

and a short video of the days experience.. 

It is always a great feeling taking a dip in the river.. mottai or not. Was glad to see my parents smiling again, even if for one day! 

Now the only thought in my head is "the mosquitoes are going to get me good tonight with this exposed scalp.. they will suck my brains dry and I might actually wake up smarter!"

My head feels lighter already, both literally and figuratively...