I am staying in a reasonably pleasant hotel in a neighbourhood called High Bank. The place is one of the more expensive in Rishikesh, about 14$ USD per night for a double room. That goes up to 20$ if you want A/C. This is nearly top-end here in Rishikesh.
You're pretty solidly "in the mountains" here, with the Himalayas all around you.
The family that runs the hotel lives below me in this building and has a nice little garden area.
Giant cactus plant.
This is the hotel's breakfast room, a huge glass-enclosed dining area. Unfortunately, they didn't think about air circulation at all when they built it, so it's generally a monstrous sauna and nobody uses it.
Despite being in the mountains, this place is no cooler than the rest of India, really.
Here in High Bank, there are three primary restaurants you eat at. This is the one in the Bandari Swiss Cottage. It's not bad. Internet is only available in Internet Cafes.
Starting to walk down the hill to Ram Jhula (High Bank is up the hill right near Laxman Jhula, miles away from anything else).
Being India, there are cows. Everywhere.
My first views of the MIGHTY GANGA!!!
It looks mighty mighty indeed!
Two people suntanning down on a beach down there. That's the only time I ever saw that here.
Starting to see Ram Jhula show up.
Jhula actually means bridge, and these two neighbourhoods have equal amounts of stuff on both sides of the river.
There's a little ferry boat to take you across if you want.
The river looks calm today, although it seems pretty high.
There are always lots of people swimming in the river. It's very holy you see. I was wondering how dirty the river is up this far. It's probably awful down by the time it reaches the big cities, but here ... ??
Panoramic views of Ram Jhula.
Over on the other side of Ram Jhula are a tonne of ashrams and other places where you can get all spiritual and yoga-y if you want. They're dirt cheap too. A few bucks a day at most.
I was missing south Indian cuisine already, so I tried the Madras Café here in Rishikesh in the hopes of some good idli, dosa, and filter coffee. No.
There are hordes of locals visiting all the temples and shrines here.
It seems a reasonably common way to spend a vacation here in India.
Walking to the bridge.
Alright, on the bridge over the MIGHTY GANGA!!!
Those are all temples and shrines.
Looking back at Ram Jhula.
There are Statues of Krishna and Rama everywhere here. Its gets really complicated trying to figure out who's who in this religion. I think here in Ram Jhula, the emphasis is more on Rama.
Krishna is sometimes blue, Rama is sometimes blue, sometimes they're not. Krishna may or may not have had in excess of 16,000 wives. Rama's wife was SIta.
Takin' a bath ... in the MIGHTY GANGA!!!!
Even the ladies gotta partake.
What would a spiritual experience be with a bovine element?
I wandered into one of the ashrams to look around. They're generally very quiet and pleasant places.
I like this Rama on the river dude.
You can see the nasty thunderstorm rolling in back there in the mountains. It created for some great thunder and lightning as I walked around.
There were lots of beautiful paintings and things in this ashram.
There's a lot less English here than in Mumbai, for sure.
This tree was of great interest to all the the locals.
My first sighting of monkeys on this trip.
Continuing to wander around Ram Jhula, plenty more art.
And plenty more monkeys.
This is me just sitting down for a cup of milk tea (chai) in Ram Jhula. There's a thunderstorm rolling in, so you can hear the rumble of thunder every once in a while, but otherwise this is just the zaniness that is India. 
Uh oh, it's already raining up there in Laxman Jhula ... but the rainbow is cool.
I stopped for a cup of tea that this guy prepared for me. Cheap, only 5 Rs.
Cows.
My friend Kamal who used to teach in Beijing, came back to India in early 2007 and opened his own school. It's pretty cool.
And it's right on the MIGHTY GANGA!!!!
This cow had a bum leg, and was having a mess of a time moving around. I wonder who heals the cows here?
The storm continued to roll in, so I worked my way back up to the hotel.
