Tuesday, June 17, 2014

A trip to Vaisno Devi

            

Jhor se bolo...........Sare bolo...........Jai Mata Di !!

Hello friends,
I am back after a refreshing journey from the mountains of Vaishno Devi. I would like to share my experience and give  you some important tips so that you can enjoy the journey like we did.

My journey began from Chandigarh. We have  a reservation from  Amabala to Jammu Tawi by an early morning train. So we got up early, all excited , rechecked our bags and headed on.

The train was on delay as usual and we reached Jammu Tawai railway station by eveining 7. We found out that there  were buses running to Katra  every 15 mins . We took a bus which charged Rs 50/seat. Although we travelled in dark, we could visualize the  beauty by the roads. After nearly an hour ride , we arrived at Katra.

We needed to find a rest room to get fresh and have a bath before begining our trek. Once we landed off the bus there were no. of lodge wala asking for their service. We felt better to move on a little and do some enquiry. At nearly 200 mtr toward the main market we found a place where we were given a room to stay till we freshern ourself. They asked us just to buy prasad from them in return which cost around Rs 200 - Rs 500 and more as per your need. We kept our luggage , had our dinner nearby and took a shower. The water was really cold . You can either take a shower at hotel or take a holy dip in the stream nearby. We checked out depositing our luggage at the lodge iself. It was quite safe and convienient to trek without these heavy bags.

The weather was cool and there was proper lighting to avoid any difficulty. Most of the time we took road. Before begining your jouney, dont forget to get your ticket for the mandir. As we had army pass, we got them easily. After all set and done, we began at 10 pm. Treking in night was a great advantage as the days gets really hot. We preffered to go by walking but you can also book a horse or a caravan to travel. They cost somewhere between Rs  2000- 5000.So plan accodingly.Its better not to have kids as they can get tired petty soon and then you have to carry them all the way up.

There was immense energy while climbing with people slogging  " Jai Mata Di" all the way. Important thing to practice while trekking is to have plenty of fluids, do rest at times for short times, and while moving keep breathing deep to avoid fatiqueness. It was  night and we missed on the scenic view but the absence of sun was a great help.

At around 3 in the morning , we reached Mata ka Mandir after 5 hours of continuos walk. Youngster can prefer stairs if they are regular with running otherwise its better to go with roads. We did our puja and decided to halt a little before clibimng up for Bairav Mandier, which was another an hour climb.  We borrowed Kambal at a deposit of Rs 100 per piece which was completely refundable. We were really tired and slept wherever we got a space to lie down.

We woke at around 6 in ther morning. The view was JUST AMAAAZING. Early sunshine fell on the mountains and shone them like gold. We all just gazed at them for the next 10 mins, There was sanitary facility nearby. After half an hour, we were ready to move ahead. At nearly 8 am, we reached Bhairov Temple. It took another half an hour for darshan.
After puja we went to a eatary nearby and had breakfast . It was petty good and economical. Best part was , I could charge my cell there. After some photography, we started descending.

We caught up on every natural beauty which we missed while climbing. Be sure to be alert with the monkeys as they will take away your prassad .  While returning we saw people profusely sweating  in the sun making them more tired which again remind me of asking you to plan your climb at night. We got down pettty quickly. At around 10 , we were at Katra.We checked in  at the lodge. There was facilty of maliswala available too if you needed one.  We were schedule to leave in the night . So we did some shopping  in the evening.  At 8 pm we left for Amritsar via bus.

It was a spiritual and mesmorizing experience.

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