The morning of August 30th we got up at 6 am and started our drive to Hemkunt Sahib. Our first night we would stay along the way in a place called Rudraprayag. I took the opportunity to take pictures of things that may be considered mundane to people who've been to India, but make up a picture of the typical sights to those who haven't been.
All the trucks in India are painted bright colors and most of them are of the Tata brand.
There's always animals in the road, sometimes they're actually serving a purpose (like to pull a cart).
A typical view of the countryside is fields under cultivation with a row of Eucalyptus trees along the road.
Distances between passing cars are very narrow.
Tractors are another common sight, this one is pulling sugar cane harvest.
Sugar Cane.
Typical stalls selling whatever, in this case vegetables with a side of exhaust.
This is where our driver, Akshay, stopped for chai, it's a typical chai stall/grease pit.'
The kind of title of a place you'd find in India 'Central Potato Research Institute
Field hands live in these huts with their families, sometimes the whole family are field workers (men, women and children).
The place we stopped for lunch maintained a pretty nice garden for the tourists.
Lotus Flower.
A view of Rishikesh on the way up. We bypassed the town on the way in.
Pictures of the way up, everything started getting much greener, much less crowded, much steeper, and the road started becoming very winding and fractured.
Typical sheet metal huts that people live in.
We had great views of the Ganges and other rivers.
People still grew a lot of their own food in these areas, typically done without tractors in terraces.
Another standard tea shop.
This car was practically our home for days as we spent so many hours in it driving to and from Hemkunt. It is a Tata Indica diesel. The person I arranged this with wanted to put us in an SUV for $450 to Hemkunt sahib and back. I said I didn't want to pay above $250 and that we didn't need an SUV, just four doors and AC so we got this for about $250.
I took this picture just minutes after being on the road. After relaxing in Rishikesh all day it was back to curves, animals and trucks.
Another villager delay, this one lasted only a couple of minutes. They were playing the dhol and dancing around. We were told they were celebrating a Muslim holiday.
This is a picture of the India Gate we saw on our way out of Delhi on Friday morning.
We had a pit-stop at this interesting tourist spot. They sold all sorts of things that Agra and Rajasthan are known for, and they were all literally 10 times the prices elsewhere. Even the food was 10x the price. When I say "literally" I mean that a parantha which we got earlier for 15 rupees was being sold here for 150 rupees.
I had to get at least one picture of these messages which are written on every truck. "Blow Horn" and "Use Dipper At Night". This one had a bonus phrase, don't get confused and think they mean collie (like the dog) they mean "coolie", which is a name used for porters and sometimes generally for any unskilled laborer (some consider it a slur, so don't go using it willy-nilly). 
How many people can you fit on a rickshaw? More than this, I assure you.
