road trip to garhmukteshwar
- Publishing Date: 21-Jan-2018
- Category: Religious
- Starting Date: 10-Dec-2017
- No of Days: 1 Day
- Location: Garhmukteshwar, Uttar Pradesh, India
I am not a very big fan of big cities but because of career opportunity I came to Noida in 2015. As a traveller the things which I am missing the most here is the lack of natural places around NCR to roam by bike. I always surf internet to get some idea of a good place on which I can do a road trip by bike, a place which is not so far so that I can go and come back in a day. After a lot of surfing I get to know about a place i.e. "Garhmukteshwar".
The name "Garhmukteshwar" sounds like a religious place and definitely I am looking for such a place.
How to reach: (Souce Wikipedia)
Garhmukteshwar (also spelled Garhmukhteshwar) is a town and a municipal board in Hapur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.
Garhmukteshwar is situated on the National Highway 24 joining New Delhi with Lucknow. The town is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) from the Ganges River and around 100 kilometres (62 mi) from New Delhi, making it the closest major place of habitation to that river from India's capital city.
Garhmukteshwar is also having a small railway station having few passenger halt.
It was a sunday morning, me and one of my old friend were having the b'fast at a roadside food joint and suddenly the travel bug bites me and I was discussing this place with my friend and we have decided to let's do it. With in 10 minutes we were all set with my Floating Shoes and some other required things to start our ride from Noida to Garhmukteshwar.
I don't have much idea about the directions and all things, but instead of checking the route on Google Map I always prefer the local auto wala's to get the directions. After getting the directions from an auto wale bhaiya we were heading towards Hapur, and following to Dasna and futher we reached Garhmukteshwar town. It's just like a normal town having the same kind of crowd as we can see in most small towns.
Without wasting a single minute we were again standing in the front of an auto wale bhaiya to get the directions of Ghat. The name of the ghat is "Brij Ghat" and it is around 5 KM from Garhmukteshwar town on the Lucknow highway, with in 5 minutes drive we were able to see Gange's. There is a small market available on the bank of Garhmukteshwar, form where you can get different kind of food items, there are some lodges, hotels are also available with some basic facilities. After crossing this market we were on the bank of Gange's, we parked our bike and the very first thing we want was a cup of tea and a place to sit and watch the scenic beauty of Gange's as we were a bit tired.
The scenic view
After having tea break we were moving towards the bank. There were so many people on the bank, some were doing there rituals and having a holy dip, some local boys were trying to search the money thrown by people's in the river, some people's were on the way of "Moksha" after completing the journey of life, Ganga Maiya listens to every one...
In search of Moksha
A local man approached us, it's a man in there 50's having a motor boat with them and they were asking us whether we want to cross the river and have a holy din in the mid of river as the water level is too low. After some bargaining we settled it at Rs.150 for a boat ride and to have a holy dip in the middle of river. I was trying to capture the entire scene in my mind as well in my camara also, we took the holy dip one by one and leave our valuable in the boat itself, the water is so cold so we were not able to spend more than 2 minutes in it. Yes we took one extra pair of cloth with us as its impossible to don't bath for me on a such place.
There are so many motor boats available, don't hesitate to bargain and spent some peaceful time with them
After that we were enjoying the boat ride and listening the story of boat man's. They tell us the importance of this place etc, while we were busy in these chats the boat comes to the point from where we have started. After paying the money we were again on the bank of river and trying to catch the surrounding as much as we can.
Trash collectig boat installed under "Namami Gange" project
It's around 02:00 PM and it will take around 2 to 2:30 hours to return back to Noida as we have to face the evening traffic also and the winter day's are bit shorter. So we started our bike to get back, and stopped on a road side dhaba after covering a few KM's as we were hungry. There are so many dhaba's as well as restaurants available on this highway. We had dal makhani and tandoori roti with some rice and it costs around Rs.200 for two person's. After having food we were started to drive back to Noida and aroud 04:30 PM we were in Noida. The trip ends here...
Old friends
Where to Eat:
There are so many dhabas and restaurants available on the highway and most of them offers good qulaity food, so you can try any one of them. Apart from that some small hotels and restaurant are also available in Garhmukteshwar also. Don't forget to try the Kullad wali chai available near by the bank. And please do not litter.
Expenses Detail:
Petrol (5 ltr Approx) - Rs 350
Boat Rent - Rs 150
Food - Rs 300
To read the same blog in Hindi, go to setting gear showing on the right hand side and change the language selection to Hindi.
Happy traveling
Fir milege kahi kisi roj ghumte firte :)
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