This was the time to say goodbye to Rishikesh. Our next destination was Joshimath. Early morning we left for Joshimath. Joshimath is 255 km from Rishikesh. Government buses are there from Rishikesh and it takes 11-12 hrs to reach Joshimath. Most of the buses are in the morning so that they can reach the destination before the sunset, as it is the completely hilly route and it may be dangerous to drive in dark. Other way is to hire a private taxi/cab, but try to leave as early as possible and take necessary medications as it is a hilly and curved route.
Joshimath, a city in District Chamoli Uttarakhand, is located at height of 6150 feet. Joshimath also known as Jyotirmath is connected to many Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions, trekking trails and pilgrim centers. Joshimath city is close to Badrinath; also travelers who are going to Guru Gobind Ghat or Valley of flowers can make this city as their base station. Main attractions are Shankaracharya Math, Narsimha temple, Tapovan, Gari Bhawani temple, Bhavishya Kedar templs and Kalpeshwer. We were going to stay in Joshimath for two days. We visited all the places except Gari Bhawani temple and Bhavishya Kedar temple.
We started our journey towards Joshimath around 5.30 am. It was a chilled morning. The journey was so beautiful. My sister started vomiting and other passengers were also not feeling good because of the curved route. I would suggest to those people who have motion sickness that please sit on the front seats and try to look from front. It would help. Yeah so my sister started feeling better. Bus had stopped as a small Dhaba, where we had breakfast and there we saw the first beautiful scene of our journey. Posting the picture below, have a look.
This was the starting. The route was under construction; Government was converting the route into highway and therefore our journey time increased by 4-5 hrs. We faced many blockages and we had to wait to proceed further. But it was all worth it. I was enjoying journey a lot. I had clicked so many pictures.
It was a long journey and we were tired sitting in bus. after 7-8 hours journey became boring and tiring. It was dark and we were still far away from our destination. We reached Joshimath around 9 pm. Bus dropped us somewhere on road now we had find our way to our hotel. There are no auto rickshaws or taxis in Joshimath, so we had to walk to our hotel. We were so tired that we won’t be able to walk but luckily our hotel was just 5 min away.
It was very chilled outside. We reached hotel, it was simply awesome. I didn’t expect such service and facilities at such a low price. This was a government resort, GMVN (Garhwal mandal vikas nigam Ltd.). This is a government of Uttarakhand enterprise. They have resorts and hotels in various cities of Uttarakhand. These hotels are budget friendly and provide best services at such low price. Rooms are very specious and clean. I loved the food there. I would strongly recommend to everyone to stay there. Best part is that these hotels are located at the best location in the city. We reached hotel at night. It was completely dark outside, so we couldn’t see the surroundings at that time; but in morning when we came out, we were amazed. As I said that these hotels has the best view in the city and I was completely convinced with that.
No other hotel could have such view and at that moment I was feeling blessed that I booked room there. It was BEAUTIFUL. Sleeping Beauty Mountain was in front of the hotel. It was the beautiful morning. We clicked lot of pictures. Here are some pictures, have a look.
Hotel manager had arranged a taxi for us. We ate breakfast and proceeded for the day. We started with Tapovan. It is 10 km from Joshimath. This was a beautiful route. Nanda Devi peak and Neelkanth peak was visible from that route. Also there was a hill that looks like a face of Lord Hunuman.
It is famous for natural hot water springs. Water was boiling and it was completely natural. It was surprising. There was lot of pure multani mitti near the water spring; this is very good for skin and hair. It was feeling so exciting to see that. I have been using this since my childhood and now I was seeing its whole mountain. It was simply a “wow” moment. The river Dauliganga was also visible from there. There were two hot water springs, one was on road. Other one was in the valley and we had to get down seeing the other one. That was kind of a trek. My sisters had never done any trek, so this was a little difficult for them to get down. But it was fun.
Water was not hot, it was boiling. Local people were saying that this water can boil an egg in 5 minutes. we didn't try that so I am not sure if it is true. it was around 3 pm, we started back to the hotel. After reaching hotel, we decided to go to Shankaracharya math and Narsimha temple. Those place were near to our hotel, so we decided to walk. First we went to Shankaracharya math. This is one of the four cardinal pithas “uttaramnaya matha” established by Adi Shankara. This is also in charge of the Atharvaveda. There are two temples in matha, Badrinarayan and Rajrajeshwari Devi.
Later in evening we went to Narsimha temple. This is the main temple in Joshimath. Narsimha temple is an ancient temple of Lord Vishnu in Narsingh Avtar. There is a belief that the right hand of that idol has become as thin as hair. The day it would break, the two mountains Jay-vijay, those are on the way to Badrinath, will join together and will become one. Then Lord Badrinath will disappear from the Badrinath temple and re-appear as black stone, called Shaligram at new place which is called Bhavishya Badri. This is situated at 10km from Joshimath. Also Kedarnath will disappear along with Badrinath and re-appear in Bhavishya Kedar temple at Joshimath. Badrinath temple remains closed in winter. Every year an idol of Lord Badri is brought to Narsimha temple for those six months.
Here our day 1 in Joshimath ended. We reached hotel around 7pm. We had dinner and off to our room. Although we were tired, yet this was too early for us to sleep. We watched TV, exchanged pictures and gossiped a lot. First day in Joshimath was superb and I was excited for the next day. I will write about the second day in Joshimath in my next blog.
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