"Rishikesh" a Rishikesh Travel Page by David&Pauline

We never really believed in time travel, until we found ourselves transported back to 1967, the moment we arrived at High Bank auto rickshaw stand and hiked the last mile across the Lakshman Jhula Bridge into a place where time has almost stood still. Motorcycles and the odd shared jeep are the only motor vehicles allowed into Lakshman Jhula and Swarg Ashram, the pilgrim centres of Rishikesh. What were probably Milk Bars in the sixties are now Internet Cafes but the shops are selling more or less the same things, as the first wave of hippies would have bought in 1967. The new wave of designer hippies, mostly from Israel and France, look very well off and enjoy posing but the sixties visitors were pretty much an elite too. At least Rishikesh is no longer the exclusive holiday destination of pop stars and Hollywood soap actors. What was unobtainable for Pauline and I in 1967, is now quite easy on the pocket. It?s a fine world we live in, we never thought we'd get here and if we did, we were sure we'd be disappointed, not a bit of it. We'd been given our youth back and Sam, who's the age we should have been, had the chance to see the beauty this place has to offer. Our challenge was to survive eight days in an alcohol free town and did we miss it? Certainly not, we were high on the atmosphere here all the time and blown away by some of the finest vegetarian food we have ever tasted. Forget a couple of weeks on a so-called health farm in the wilds of Wiltshire, for the same amount of money you can come to Rishikesh. Detox here, tune in to the temple chanting and turn on to one of the most relaxing spots on Earth. Welcome back to 1967!