Rishikesh, Know Before You Go
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Monkeys of Rishikesh and rabies
On both bridges in Rishikesh you will find lots of cheeky monkeys waiting for someone eating ice cream or holding a bag with food. Rule number one: the monkey always wins! Never carry any food across the bridge in a plastic bag as they will instantly know what it is and take the bag from you. If the monkey happens to scratch you or worse, bite you, you will need to go to Rishikesh town hospital straight away. You will need between 3 and 5 shots of rabies vaccine depending on the severity. It really pays to have your rabies and hepatitis A+B vaccines done before coming to India.
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adhus and temple priests
Being blessed by a sadhu (wandering holy man) or a priest in a temple is great but be mindful and expect to pay for the blessing. There are numerous sadhus in Rishikesh begging for money in the streets and sadly these are not always sadhus but just beggars dressed as sadhus. Also, both will try to bless you without your permission by simply walking up to you, putting color on a finger and press it on your forehead, then the question for money comes.
Walking into a temple is fun but sometimes priests (also sometimes fake) will tell you that they will show you around for free and bless you. Do not fall for it, i have had it a lot and every time was expected to pay. When i didn’t they got very angry. So just politely refuse if you want to avoid this. It often helps to avoid eye contact and keep walking.
Beggars
Unfortunately there are plenty of beggars who flock to Rishikesh during the tourism season. Now believe me, i would like to buy every beggar dinner but i always like to do some research before doing something. What i have discovered is that most beggars are part of street gangs, the woman en children are ‘owned’ by the gangs. The money they get, they have to give to them at the end of the day. The children they have with them are often not their own children and are sold by poor families to these gangs. When you try to buy them dinner, most will refuse and ask for money and if you say no, ask you to buy something from a supermarket. Sadly, what happens next is that they will go back into the supermarket and sell back the product to the shop owner who is in on the scam. He will sell the product to you at a more expensive price and then they split the difference when it’s sold back.