Uttrakhand - Nainital and Rishikesh - Part 2

This is the second post that describes our trip to the Uttrakhand. If you haven't already read the first post, I would strongly suggest to do that now, I will wait. 

After visiting the majestic Jim Corbett National Park it was time to go to the mountains. Our plan was to visit Nainital and from there go to Rishikesh. We reached Nainital from Ramnagar via a public transport bus, the journey took about 3 hrs. 

The moment we landed in Nainital we could feel the fresh and clean air, its a beautiful little hill town. Mall road runs besides the lake, which makes the evening walks on the road out of this world experience. 

Nainital is full of small lake side cafe's like this one, which look so beautiful with all their lights and stuff.

The Nainital lake is super clean, you can see the reflection of the city in the lake very clearly during the night. 

Nainital can be easily mistaken for a small Swiss town, the lake and the night view reminded me of Lucerne. On the streets you could even enjoy live music.

The view from the snow point will make you feel like the pristine lake is in the middle of a thick forest!

There is a beautiful mosque as you turn from the Mall road towards the Bhotia Market.

One of the most awesome thing about Nainital are its awesome and abundant public toilets. Yes, you read it right, Public Toilets! From outside you might think its a vertical garden or a mosaic. Unless you see closely you cannot make out that its a public toilet. They are nothing I have seen anywhere in the world - very clean and very well maintained. Unfortunately I do not have a picture to share.

Next stop was Rishikesh, where we saw the Ganges in its full glory. Its a nice little - very lively town at the banks of the holy river. Its filled with numerous cafes and hostel bustling with trekkers, bag packers, tourists, devotees etc. The variety of different kinds of tourist visiting any place is highest in Rishikesh.

Around Rishikesh there are many prayag's: these are places where to tributaries meet to form a bigger river.

Notice the difference in the color of two waters, one is directly flowing from the Himalayan glacier - the turquoise colored water and another one is flowing from a slightly lower mountain where it rained heavily - the muddy water.

We also went to see the Ganga aarti, it is a beautiful experience - slightly overcrowded but worth a visit.

The evenings near the Ganga Aarti place are beautiful. You can see the sunset on the banks of the holi river.

Final activity that we were scheduled to do was white water rafting in Ganga. I have done this before in Sikkim but I must say, rafting in Ganga is at a different level all together. The rapids here are pretty awesome, our guide also allowed us to jump into a couple of them as well. The water was freezing but it was fun none the less!

I would totally recommend visiting Nainital and Rishikesh. They are two lively little towns which are very beautiful!