Place
Rishikesh
The yoga capital of the world, on the Ganges in northern India — white-water rafting, morning swims in holy water, sadhus in roadside huts, and Harry's answer to Delhi.
Rishikesh
A town on the Ganges in northern India, and Harry’s recommendation over Delhi — the video is titled as a straight instruction to go here instead. It is a Hindu pilgrimage site, an adventure-sports centre and the yoga capital of the world at the same time, and the crowd is overwhelmingly domestic: Indian pilgrims and holidaymakers rather than foreigners, plus a contingent of westerners in loose trousers training as yoga teachers.
The centre is Tapovan — cafés, tourist shops and markets — and Harry likes it for being a touristy area where people are still friendly.
The Ganges
The river is why everyone is here. It runs from the glacier at Gangotri, and the rituals follow the water down: bathing in it washes away sins, and the water is said to keep for years without spoiling, so people fill containers to carry home. Harry drank some, on the grounds that it was flowing.
He swam in it every morning of the trip and describes it as coffee for the body — hard for the first minute, then an hour of feeling high.
Rafting
The main adventure activity and the thing domestic tourists come for. Alternating stretches of hard paddling and drifting, with the river around 50 feet deep in places and considerably higher in the wet season. Guides run three trips a day through a three-month season. Harry rates it one of the best things he has done in India.
Dinner in the Sky
A table suspended from a crane over the river. 3,500 rupees — about $40 — for roughly an hour and five courses, including a vegetable biryani.
His verdict is worth repeating in full because it’s unusually precise: the food is average and you would not pay $40 for it in a restaurant, but the experience, the views and the company are worth the money, and you are paying for those. The operator runs seven or eight lifts a day in season.
Yoga and sadhus
Rishikesh is where people come to learn yoga and to qualify as teachers, and there is yoga happening in public spaces all over the town — Harry attempts some, badly, next to people who are visibly annoyed by it.
Sadhus live along the roadside in huts, considerably more roughly than Harry had assumed. They pray, rely on donations, and smoke. He gave one 100 rupees and made a joke about what it would go on.
Practical facts
- A hat 150 rupees; a lemonade 50; Maggi noodles cooked on the riverbank 50.
- The lemonade is salty-sweet and visibly murky. He drank it and enjoyed it and expected consequences.
- Road repairs run without any barriers or fencing.
- The message a local specifically asked Harry to pass to his audience: don’t pollute the Ganges.
- Atithi devo bhava, as it was explained to him: the visitor is a god.
Harry’s tips
- Come here instead of staying in Delhi. That is the whole argument of the video.
- Swim in the morning. Cold, holy, and better than coffee.
- Pay for the crane dinner if you want the experience, not the meal. He is explicit about which one you’re buying.
- Take the rafting seriously as the main event, not a side activity.
