Trip to Badrinath & Kedarnath

Trip to Kedarnath & Badrinath

Hi everyone, it take immense pleasure for me to recall my experience on my recent tour to north India for few places. I have been to various places in North India in my previous tours like Allahabad, Kashi & Gaya. But this one I joined big team of 20 people and would like to share some of my memories of this tour.  It actually took us around 12 Days to complete the Tour covering Agra, Haridwar, Rishikesh, Kedarnath, Badrinath & New Delhi.  Below is the brief tour schedule that was executed by our team.

Date	Details	Night Stay
10-May	Travel to Agra	Train Travel
11-May
12-May	Agra / Mathura & Board Train at New Delhi for Haridwar	Train Travel
13-May	Haridwar / Mansa Devi darshan / Ganga Aarthi	Haridwar
14-May	Haridwar - Devapryag - Pipal Koti - Patta	*Patta
15-May	Gauri Kound - Kedarnath – Patta
16-May	Joshi Mutt – Badrinath	*Badrinath
17-May	Badrinath - Joshimath – Nagrasu	*Nagrasu
18-May	Rishikesh - Haridwar - Board Train to New Delhi	Hotel Jyothi
19-May	South Delhi – Akshardham
20-May	New Delhi Sight Seeing - Board Train to Chennai	Train Travel
21-May	Return to Chennai From New Delhi	Train Travel
22-May

*All places 1 bucket of hot water is Rs.20/- J

Book your tickets in Advance

To reserve the tickets for this travel we paid the advance amount and intent of travel to Tour operator much in advance say 5^th February itself, so that it would be convenient for the Tour operator to book the ticket in advance and make necessary arrangements. For an ordinary second class the ticket charge would be around Rs.600 per person else if it is second A/C it would be as high as Rs. 1800/- Amount mentioned are tentative, haven’t quoted the exact number.

We started our travel on 10^th May 2011 from Chennai boarding Tamil Nadu express.  We were all prepared for a long journey on 11^th May and finally we reached Agra Cantonment station on 12^th May early morning at 4.30 AM. We went to a local hotel and got refreshed and we are all set to start the Sightseeing for Taj Mahal and Agra Fort.

We reached the Taj Mahal 1-2 KM ahead itself.  Commutation from Parking Lot to Taj Mahal is facilitated by Camel carts and also through Rickshaws.

There were more things to recollect our old Indian buildings with beautiful art.  Surroundings near the parking lot are full of small vendors, selling beautiful mementos. Camel cart ride to Taj Mahal was an awesome experience.  In a Camel Cart maximum of 8 can be seated, however we as a family of 4 elders and 2 kids we opted for a 1 camel cart and paid Nett Rs. 80/-.  Entrance to Taj Mahal is highly secured that you don’t take any eatables and also everyone has to undergo the security check before entering the Taj Mahal. Entrance ticket for an adult is Rs. 10/-. Separate charges for Camera.

Agra

Once you reached a place to have the first sight of Taj Mahal, the place is thronged by people taking snapshots in which ever best possible position to take their photograph with Taj Mahal in the background. There are instant photo services provided by professionals.  Though the site of Taj Mahal will conquer your mind, the heat from hot sun is unbearable and the thirst for Water has been throughout your visit to Taj Mahal.  Withstanding the heat outside Taj Mahal, when we get into Taj Mahal, the place is very cool and there is a big competition with groups of people taking photographs in every wall and every direction inside Taj Mahal. There is a restricted place in side Taj Mahal where a board is placed stating Photography prohibited, though many of them acknowledged there were few who doesn’t respect that.  Looking at the walls of Taj Mahal, what left is only the art work and the jewels or ornaments placed on the walls were missing, but it doesn’t hide the glory of Taj Mahal and its art work.  The art work inside the building that too on the ceiling is amazing; one can’t imagine how these could have been done.  There is no doubt, the people who lived few centuries before are GREAT CREATORS.  Today what we do is just improvising the existing acts and we lack or behind the GREAT creators of the earlier centuries.

Coming out of the Taj Mahal, we visited Agra Fort. As it is very hot at 11 AM, some of the Senior citizens opted out of visiting Agra Fort. Also, it has steep ramp to get into Agra Fort. I had to lift my son on my shoulder to get in to Fort as he has been very tired. Agra fort entrance ticket is Rs.15/-.  After entering the Fort, it does have some lockup rooms, but what still reminds in my mind is the engraved art on the side of the walls. Further walking inside the Fort through steps, we reached the Terrace and also visited the place, where Shahjahan was kept under arrest. But the scene of looking at Taj Mahal in the bank of River Yamuna from Fort is unique photo spot.  Terrace, Taj Mahal and breeze refreshed my son to climb down from Shoulder and he was just running.  Now I became very tired looking for him. After coming out of Agra Fort we returned to Hotel and had a good lunch.

We took an hour rest before we start for Mathura (Birth Place of Lord Krishna). We reached Mathura around 3 PM and on getting our first step on Mathura, we feel very proud that we had a chance to visit the birth place of Mathura. Place is full of Milk related sweet vendors, garment shops displaying Traditional Krishna dresses. I got one for my son as wellJ.  We went into the Mathura Temple. It was highly secured area, every individual is frisked for his belongings and then only they are let in. Also, no cameras or mobiles allowed, a locker facility is nearby to deposit your bag/mobiles etc. Once you get in there are various deities and passing by inside the temple, there were places marked as Krishna Birth place, dressing room etc. There were few shops inside the temple, claimed to have the authentic idols of Krishna (Purest form of metal). No bargains allowed; we had the good dharshan of the temple and spent a brief time inside cave setup.

Immediately, coming out of the temple we had the purchases in the next shop for Krishna idol, dresses for Krishna, Hanuman hanging for Cars etc. We can make some bargains here.  Due to time constraint we had to skip Brindhavan and had to catch the 11 pm train at New Delhi. As we travel closer to Delhi, we had a stop at Ghaziabad and finished the Dinner and we are all set for catching the train (Dehradun Express) at New Delhi.

Haridwar

Train reaches Haridwar at 6.30 am instead of 5 am. We reached the ashram Nangli Bela where arrangements were made for our refreshment and stay. On the way to ashram, we were excited on seeing the banks of river Ganga and also amazed at the huge statue of Lord Shiva as though welcoming us to Haridwar.  After taking necessary clothes, we hired a auto to reach an idle place in banks of river Ganga for holy dip.  Though its not winter, the water is very cold such that my kids were not able to spend too much time, but they are excited to stay in touch with the flow of water. Me too had a good time enjoying the dip quite number of times in the river. Really, felt that Ganga has been so kind for the people, who take a dip. There are comments that Ganga is getting polluted, may be to an extent true, as we see more people believe that having a dip in Ganges washes away their sins. After the holy dip we went to visit numerous temples inside Haridwar maintained by different ashrams. Our guide highlighted around 8 spots for which we hired an auto rickshaw for Rs. 150/-. All the eight spots were covered in half day.  On return from the local site seeing we had a good lunch at the ashram and spent around 1 Hr before we venture out for Mansa Devi dharshan and Ganga Aarthi in the evening.

Mansa Devi & Ganga Aarthi Darshan

You can go to Mansa devi temple at top of the hill through rope car. There will be a big queue, you may need to first get the ticket and get the token number in the big tent situated next to the rope car starting place. While your turn comes, your serial number will be announced and you can get into the rope car to go to the top. Once you reach top, you may need to walk for a while similar to lot of grills in Tirupathi (though not that much crowded, but you need to walk a little). Once the Mansa devi darshan is down, ensure that you are down by 7 and 7.30 to join the Ganga Aaarthi. Beware of your group members; don’t miss them in the crowd. Also, do not take any help from any pujari, better you get all your puja items on your own and sail it through the river once the aarthi is done. We came back to Nangli Bela and rested for the night.

SRI KEDARNATH Darshan

We were asked to be ready by 6.00 am in the morning to begin our journey towards kedarnath. We weren’t aware that we are going to go for a big travel that would take us almost 8-10 hours of that day.  We boarded the bus around 6.30 AM and finally with necessary technical checks to the Bus, it started moving out of haridwar around 7.30 AM. On the way we saw the Rishikesh, due to time constraints we planned to visit it during our return.  After an hour or so we had a breakfast near a place where there is spring water. Many took the photograph. My son was so specific in showing posture as though he lifts a mountain and asked me to take a photo & I did. Our journey continues. We had a halt at Devaprayag. We walked a little and climbed down the steps without realizing that we are going to climb 50 steep steps on the other side of the river Bhagirathi. We had darshan of small deities there and we went to sangamam, place where River alaknanda and Bhagirathi meets. Alaknanda was very silent and brownish in color, on contrary Bhagirathi is very forceful, noisy and its green flushing through the rocks. We all had a dip in the river bank and took a photograph. It was a pleasant sight to watch the mix of two rivers and those views are still not out of my eyes.

 Further travel for 1 hour we halted at Pipal koti, surrounded only by mountains and there were a power project that was getting constructed and the place was very hot. There was spring water coming from the top of a mountain. Though our food at that time wasn’t that great, the treat to eyes was great such that the food was not considered as a big issue at that time. But we later regretted for it. Our travel continues and it was around 5 PM, someone told that there won’t  be any ATMs in Gauri kund and its better to get money from the SBI ATM in that market place. I couldn’t remember that place name, however, I could still remember that I had to run behind for 5 mins to find an ATM as the bus driver had to stop the bus far away from the ATM L.  Got the money and again our travel continues, we happened to see the silver mountain ranges - snow covered mountains, showing us the delight to watch and we felt very thrilled. We reached the place Patta, where arrangements were made for us stay for the night.  There is a helipad situated nearer to the lodge where we stayed, cost of Helicopter trip to Kedar is approx 10K, most of the tour members took the other route going by Poni horses.  We had a very average dinner that night and it was almost 11 pm when we had the last meeting with the tour guide for the day. Since most of the members are elders, there is a resistance to wake up and start at 4 AM, we convinced the tour guide to start at 5.30 AM.

 

Next day, we were all set for the Kedar trip. We had bath costing (Rs.20/-) for a bucket of hot water. There were narrow roads and the bus had to wait for long duration giving way to the vehicles coming down the hill.  We reached Gaurikund at around 8 AM. Cost of each poni is about Rs.800/- for adults and Rs.600/- for kids.  Please have sufficient mats on top of the poni else you might end up having pain in the legs. As you climb the hill, horse goes to the edge of the step creating a panic but returns to the original route. It was a thrilling experience.  There were shops for eatables and food for horses as well.. Exactly after 1.5 hr there is a place (Rambara) enroute to kedar where you have to buy Sugar beets for the horse you ride.  This place will give a sense of relief for your legs as it can’t be spelt by words J. It is also better you take a pain killer spray, just in case if you have severe pain in lap or knee. People may get breathing issues or suffocation as the altitude is very high and it will further increase the breathing issues as we climb further. Totally it is 13 KM with last one KM with steady roads and no ascents. We had light snacks and were ready to travel for the next half

Kedar Darshan

We reached the top of Kedar hill around 11.30 AM and started walking to the temple. After a 10 minute walk we were surprised by the amount of people waiting to have darshan of Lord. We stood in the line with severe cold wave for 3 hrs. There were some queue breakers i.e. sneaking into the queue smartly as the darshan is only upto 3 PM. We were praying for getting the darshan after a tiresome trip. Luckily by the grace of god, we had a great darshan. Actually the diety place is very small, too much of crowd there in that small room. But before God all the troubles that were nothing and we also had our head down to Kedar diety and felt we were blessed by the almighty.  After having the darshan we realized that we didn’t had any lunch J. We went to a hotel nearby and had lunch. We were around 14 members who came in individual horses, there were no tour guide with us, so everyone supported me in co-ordination and getting all of them to start at the same time to come down. It was already cloudy and looks like it will rain. Praying god, we all started our return journey and our first horse reached around 6.30 PM in Gaurikund. My horse was little lazy and I was the last one to reach. In meantime, there is miraculous escape for my mother and one more Sr. citizen, whose horse tumbled while climbing down. Luckily now big injuries and everyone is safe.

We were waiting for our tour guide to pick us from Gaurikund, unfortunately a poor planning by him let us down waiting until 8 PM. We negotiated with couple of private van drivers but the cost is too high. Cell phone signals are also very bad. We felt we are lost in an unknown place with freezing cold. Finally our Van came and picked us at 9.15 PM and we had a light dinner at 10.15 PM. Again there is a request from tour guide to start up early by 5 am in the morning, this time everyone rejected his request and we were ready only by 6 AM.

By the grace of god, we had a very good darshan of Kedar and we are all set for our next day journey to go to Badrinath. JAI BADRI VISHAL….

SRI BADRINATH DARSHAN

On the way to Badri, we got a chance to go to Joshi Mutt (one of the 108 vaishnavite divya desam), unfortunately, citing time constraints we were told that we can make it while return.  As there is lot of landslides happening in the route of Badri, two way traffic is restricted; hence we had to wait for gate to be opened. Gate is open from 6 AM in the morning to 6 PM in the evening. In between it will be opened for either side every 2 hrs only. We have to watch out for the timings the gate will be open for us to climb up or down. On the way to Badri, we saw Hanuman Chatti place and also the sanjeev parvath. We are thrilled and the mountains were scary on the route to Badri.  Pleasant watch is Alaknanda flowing silently between the mountains and the way in which it flows thru the sacred places in the earth. Its amazing to watch. Finally we reached Badri at 4 PM in the evening. Experience that I felt cannot be said in words during Badri trip, hence i would recommend everyone to visit Badri/Kedar atleast once in their life time.

We immediately got ready and started to stand in queue for darshan. We waited for 1.5 hrs and had the darshan. It was already 7.30 PM and my son got sleepy. I had to arrange for a Doli and Gautham enjoyed the Doli as Girish is already asleep.  Next day plan is to perform rituals for the forefathers and we woke up early and again went to the hot springs area and had a sprinkles of water. There are many people in Wet clothes and it was also crowdy. We had the rituals performed by one of the Brahman there and successfully completed our wishes to meet Badri and Kedar.   We started around 9.30 am to return to Haridwar.  Due to gates we had to make a halt at Nagrasu. We stayed overnight in Nagrasu and started for Haridwar and reached Rishikesh around 11 AM.  We went around Rishikesh, Ram and Laxman jula.  We had to rush to get a place in the share auto to reach Raman Juala.  We had a dip at Ganges and boarded a boat to reach otherside of the river. We visited the Uttarkhan Govt certified shop to buy Rudraksha, Navrathna mala and Spatik mala.  We also had the view of Single face rudhraksha (which is not for sale) and it was amazing.  We returned to Haridwar around 4.30 pm and started for Railway station to catch Dehradun Express. We reached Delhi early morning and had a two day trip of Delhi and returned to Madras.

With the grace of god finally we ended a successful trip of Badri / Kedar. But my wife wasn’t happy as she wants to complete CHAR DHAM at one visit. Hoping to visit those in 2013. Let us see what almighty decides.

JAI BADHRI VISHAL ki…….

Disclaimer

I have written down the experience what I had during my trip to Badri/Kedar. Also, this is my first attempt to write a Blog.  My wish is to complete it before December 2011, unfortunately, due to work life balance; I couldn’t spend enough time to get this with so many details.  This is my sincere attempt to throw some light on the trip and this is not the exhaustive one. In future, will definitely ensure that I write the blogs with more details and also complete it on time .Thanks to my family, who motivate me to join for such trips, I never had a thought of  visiting these places in Jan 2011 and today I m publishing a blog on the trip.

 - Gowri Shankar Eraiyur Krishnamurthy / Gayathri G / Gautham G / Girish G

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