Day 2 - Haridwar

Well, I didn't quite make it as far as Rishikesh.
I planned to take a train from Delhi to Haridwar using an eticket I bought over the internet, and then a bus from Haridwar to Rishikesh.
With the ticket clutched in my hot hand, I left the hostel at midday and headed for New Delhi station.
As I neared the station I was bombarded with touts trying to sell me tickets and taxi rides. I thought I'd got through them all, when I was detained by a smartly dressed man at the entrance gate who asked to look at my ticket. Thinkig nothing of it - I showed it to him, and he immediately shook his head and told me that it was not valid and that I would have to rebook in the International Tourist bureau. Craaap
He offered to show me to it, so I followed him out of the station to a poky office across the road. Darn - it was a ticket sales place - fooled. It took about half an hour to escape in which time they told me an unbelievable pack of lies including that the ticket was the wrong date (it wasn't), it wasn't actually a real ticket (it was) and that I should instead take one of their taxi's for a mere $70 (not likely).
I marched out of the office, past the hoards of touts (again), and straight into the station aand upstairs to the real, wonderfully air-conditioned, International Tourist bureau.
When my train came I found my compartment and seat eventually, and the 5 hour journey to Haridwar went by quickly, with excessive amounts of chai being consumed and fielding questions from the curious family surrounding me.
I got into Haridwar at 9pm. It was dark and I had to pick my way through hundreds of ripe-smelling travelling Sadhu's in their orange robes, stretched out on the station platform.



It was pitch black, and I didn't fancy catching a taxi, so I popped into the classy Ganga Azure hotel and booked a room with airconditioning. And I ate my first proper indian meal in their snazzy restaurant (most delicious it was too) !