Monday, September 26, 2011

Vaishno Devi, Katra, India | July 30th, 2011

I along with my beautiful wife (Aarti) planned to visit Vaishno Devi as a part of our trip to the state of Jammu & Kashmir. Vaishno Devi is one of the most revered Indian goddess. Nearest town to Vaishno Devi is Katra which is roughly 50 km from Jammu (winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir). Jammu is well connected with rest of India by railway network as well as by air.

We boarded Jammu Rajdhani train from New Delhi at 8:40 PM. Dinner served onboard wasn’t that good and the condition of seats was also way below good standards. To say, Rajdhani trains are supposed to be the best train with Indian railways but at least the one plying on this route is significantly below standard. We reached Jammu Tavi, main station in Jammu, at around 6:15 AM.

Right at the gate of Jammu Tavi station, one could see huge crowd, most of them just disembarked from the Jammu Rajdhani, waiting to be taken to Katra from where Journey starts. Like everyone else, we hired a prepaid A/c taxi to Katra. It took us 2 hours and cost us INR 1200 to reach Katra. I had already booked hotel Saraswati (Tourist Bungalow, JKTDC) in Katra. We checked-in our hotel room around 9:00 AM. It took us some time to freshen up and be ready for holly pilgrimage. We left our hotel at 10:45 AM for Katra helipad which was approximately 2 KM from our hotel. We hired an Auto (3-wheeled vehicle quite commonly available in India) to reach helipad. Auto-driver charged us INR 90 for this ride which was really expensive as the same journey would have cost merely INR 30 in New Delhi. We planned to go up the hill using helicopter and come back walking down. The helicopter booking can be done here . One would require creating login at this website before making a reservation. Booking opens up 1 month in advance and cost INR 699 plus taxes. This service is generally completely booked within 1 or 2 days of booking opening. We had helicopter booking to ferry us up the hill at 12:07 PM. Due to bad weather, staff informed us that there were very less chances of any flight taking place. In fact, there were lots of people in queue before us who were waiting for their turn to come. Finally, we decided to cancel our reservation and move on to do both side (Up and down the hill) on our own. Helicopter staff was really polite and refunded our money. We again hired an Auto to Banganga (place from where the pedestrian start their journey). One needs a slip (sort of free registration for Journey) to embark on Journey. This registration is done at an office which is located just next to Katra bus stand. We didn’t require these slips as we had priority passes (which serves the same purpose as slips but with priority) arranged for us.

We embarked on the holy journey to Vaishno Devi at around 12:10 PM. There were few security checks done before we were free to travel up to holy temple. The total journey up to Bhawan (Devotee calls holy temple with this hindi word) is 12 KM. There were plenty of ponies available which could be hired to climb up the hill.

1. Baanganga(Base camp) to Ardhkuari – 6KM
    a. 3 hours by walking
    b. 1 hour by pony costing around INR 400.
2. Ardhkuari (Base camp) to Bhawan – 6KM
    a. 3 hours by walking
    b. 1 hour by pony costing around INR 400.
    c. Battery operated vehicles - Only for handicap or elderly people for INR 100

We could see a lot of shops of T-series music, food, juice, water etc on the way. From time to time, one could hear hymn addressed to Maa Vaishno Devi. There were lots of devotees marching up to the holy temple. Slogan likes ‘Jai Mata Di’ (Hail Viashno Goddess) could be heard everywhere on the route. At 1:30 PM, after walking 3 km up the hill, we stopped by CCD (CafĂ© Coffee Day) for having lunch. Just for information, this CCD is the only Air Conditioned joint until Ardhkuari. We had usual at CCD and move on with the journey after 45 minutes break. It was close to 3:20 PM when we reached a junction just before Ardhkuari where right side turn would go towards Ardhkuari and left side one would proceed to Bhawan via Himkoti. This junction was approximately the midway to Bhawan, so roughly we have ascended 6 KM and yes, another 6 KM to go. The route through Himkoti was little shorter than other and we decided to take this route. From this point onwards, walkway is far more comfortable as ponies were not allowed on this route.

With the progress in journey, I noticed that the frequency of breaks was increasing. There was coffee, biscuits, water, ice cream etc available on this part of the journey. There were plenty of toilets as well. We were enjoying the whole trekking cum holy journey to Maa Vaishno Devi when it started to downpour heavily. There were shelters made on the way where most of the pilgrims stopped to take a breath and save themselves from getting wet. There were a few people offering service of quick leg massage for as low as INR 20. I was feeling a lot more relaxed after leg massage but alas it only made the rest of the journey even more difficult. Believe me; it was even more difficult to climb up after massage.

At 6:35 PM, we had the first glimpse of the holy temple. There was a security check before entering the temple area. In fact, I forgot to tell you that there was one more frisking earlier at Himkoti. There were lots of shops from where one could by offerings to God. But as suggested by other people, we bought it from shrine board shops where the prices were very reasonable. It’s a usual practice at Vaishno Devi to have prayer said by caretaker of temple everyday from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. In other words, we had around 2 hours to explore the temple complex, eat some food and relax ourselves.

Although, all the facilities such as boarding, lockers, eating joint, washroom etc. were available at the complex but they were very badly maintained. There was lot of smell and untidiness in underground boarding available. We sat right behind the sanctum sanctorum to spend some time. We had some refreshment here and enjoyed the evening time in the hills. We could notice change in Sky’s hue and color while sun set over the hills.

Before proceeding for Darsan, We quickly store our belongings in the locker which was available next to boarding rooms and came back to the spot from where the queue start for priority pass holder. It was not before 8:45 pm that the temple was open for devotees. We followed the queue and it took us 20 mins to reach the sanctum sanctorum. On the way to sanctum sanctorum, we passed by a small cave which served the purpose to enter the sanctum sanctorum years ago. There was a small 20 meters marble stone tunnel which led us to main area of temple. We paid our respect to goddess Vaishno Devi and came out of the holy temple.

As the legend goes, a trip to Vaishno Devi is not over until Bhairon temple is paid a visit as well. Hence we moved on the way to Bhairon temple which is roughly 2km from Bhawan. As soon we came out of Bhawan complex, we hired a horse for ferrying my wife who was feeling exhausted after day’s long ascent. Moreover she started to develop blisters in her right foot so walking was even more difficult. Anyway, we were on our way to Bhairon Temple around 10:15 PM in the night.

It was much easier to walk in night then in day time under sun. The way to this temple was not as crowded but definitely more steeper. We reached around 11:15 PM and paid our respect at this temple. There were few shops here where we bought some refreshment and water bottles.

It was close to midnight when we started our journey back to base camp i.e. Baanganga. We hired horse for both of us for descent. If one is not used to horse riding, it hurts badly in lower back riding horse especially on descent. We took only a 5 mins break after Ardhkuari and were at base camp by 2:20 PM. We were happy for completing our journey to holy hills although we were dead tired. Since we booked our hotel quite close to Baanganga, we walked back to hotel room. At that time, streets were pitch dark and silent. We felt little uncomfortable walking back since it was very late but were too tired to care a lot about it.

It was one of the most exhausting days of our lives but how would we know that in this trip only we would have even more tiring day when we would pay homage to Lord Amarnath within 7 day’s time.