My trip to Vaishno Devi

[Yogesh Sarkar]

My trip to Vaishno Devi

Prologue

Its been over 15 years since I last visited Vaishno Devi temple and a couple of week back I couldn’t even imagine, I would get a chance to visit Vaishno Devi so soon. However like people say, once Mata calls you, you have to go and something similar happened with me.

Initially my dad and sister had planned to go to Vaishno Devi and had even booked train tickets. However due to an ankle injury, my father couldn’t go and since I didn’t want my sister to cancel her trip and I am always looking for an opportunity to travel, I volunteered to go with her. Plan was to leave on the same day (16th April), since it was too late to book train tickets, on Tuesday (15th April) I booked tickets of Haryana Roadways Bus to Katra (standard bus costs Rs. 346 per person).

16th - 17th April 2008 Delhi - Jammu - Katra

Since we had bookings for the 4pm bus, we decided to leave early from the house and managed to reach ISBT Kashmere Gate (Inter State Bus Terminal) at 3:30 pm and went straight to counter number 13 and saw our bus standing right in front of it. After getting the tickets (one has to submit reservation slip to get the actual tickets) we boarded the bus and to our surprise the driver started the bus at exactly 4pm!

Journey for the most part was fast paced and uneventful, till we were a few kilometers before Pathankot. Here the road was under construction, with the middle lanes being filled with loose gravel and traffic being restricted to a single bumpy lane.

Since majority of the traffic was driving painstakingly slow, our driver decided to do some off road driving. However the gravel was deep, wet and loose, causing the bus tyres to get stuck. Bus tyres were spinning wildly due to lack of traction and the bus wasn’t moving an inch. This caused the driver to act in a panic mode and he ended up getting half the bus on the road and rest in the gravel. Now the left hand side of the bus was about 3 feet higher than the right hand side and right hand side tyres weren’t getting any traction due to it.

Finally after a lot of struggle, he managed to get the bus on the same level, but it was still in the gravel and wasn’t moving much. Finally half of the passengers got off the bus and that increased the power to weight ratio enough for the bus to climb out.

At this point, almost every one was cursing the driver, who was gleaming with joy and pride for having managed to get the bus out of the sticky situation!

After another half an hour long bumpy ride, we reached the city of Pathankot, only to be greeted by a closed railway crossing. Half an hour later with a brief visit to the Pathankot bus depot, we were on our way to Jammu.

I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, when driver decided to pull over at a Dhaba and 15 minutes later all the passengers heading to Katra were told to get off the bus! It seems driver and conductor had decided to end the bus at Jammu and had struck a deal with another Haryana Roadways bus coming from Hissar, to take us to Katra.

At this point I was starting to get mad, however the bus from Hissar was almost empty, me and my sister got three seats to ourselves, allowing us to comfortably sit for the rest of the journey.

We finally reached Katra at 7 in the morning and after having breakfast, headed straight to the Niharika complex to check if we could book a room at Bhawan or Adkuwari, however it turned out everything was already booked. Since both of us were tired after the 15 hour bus journey and there was no way we would have got room at Bhawan or Adkuwari, we decided to spend the day in Katra.

After a lot of searching, we came across Galaxy Guest House; where we got a double bed room with attached toilet and TV for Rs. 300. After sleeping for a few hours during the day, we were feeling fresh. However we decided to spend the night in Katra and start the climb in the morning.

18th April 2008 Katra - Banganga - Charan Paduka - Adkuwari - Himkoti - Bhawan (Vaishno Devi) - Himkoti - Adkuwari - Charan Paduka - Banganga - Katra

By 5 in the morning we were up and after a quick shower and packing, we were ready to start the trek to Vaishno Devi.

First job of the day was to deposit extra luggage at the cloak room located in the main square (next to the bus stand) and register for the yatra. (One needs to get registered at the Yatra Registration Counter, located in Main Square next to the bus stand. Registration is free of charge and is valid for 6 hours, during which you have to cross Banganga.)

After we registered for the yatra, we took an auto rickshaw from the bus stand to Banganga for Rs. 25.

As soon as we reached Banganga (7:30am), we started our trek to Vaishno Devi. An hour into the trek, we were feeling hungry (we hadn’t eaten anything) and decided to stop at one of numerous eateries along the road and ordered aloo ka paranthas (stuffed potato bread). But there was a surprise in store for us; paranthas here are made in the same manner as puris and are really oily and taste bad. Not recommended at all, unless you are planning to pay a visit to a cardiologist soon.

After the rather forgettable breakfast, we started again with a newfound energy and managed to reach Charan Paduka in a jiffy. After crossing Charan Paduka, I took my camera out and clicked a few photographs of the town of Katra, now visible in the valley below.



Just before Adkuwari we stopped at a restaurant run by shrine board, which are famous for cheap and delicious food and their special Rajma and Chawal. After having a delicious meal, we decided to skip the traditional route and took the new route which bypasses Adkuwari and Sanjichhat and goes through Himkoti. This also happens to be the route where the new electric vehicles are run for elderly and medically unfit people, though at times one can see perfectly fit people flagging these electric autos and bribing drivers to get a ride!

Electric Scooters



There is also a helicopter service now which is run every few minutes and ferries people from Katra to Sanjichhat for Rs. 1250 per person.



The good thing about this route is the fact that khacchars (donkeys) and horses are not allowed on it and it is not as steep as the old route. In fact one rarely climbs above the altitude of Bhawan.

New route


Bhawan


This enabled us to reach Bhawan by 2:30pm, where I got stuck in the security check queue for a little over half an hour. Once past security, we got the bhaint (offerings for the goddess) from the government outlet and got our darshan group number.

Entrance to Bhawan


However by the time we were finished with a quick bath and depositing rest of the luggage at the cloak room, our number had already passed! Thankfully there wasn’t a rush and security personal allowed us to get into the line.

While standing in the line, I realized I had got blisters on one of my feet and standing barefoot was proving to be quite painful. Thankfully the line wasn’t too long and in less than half an hour we were able to get the darshan of the Holy Pindies.

Holy Pindies (Photo curtsey: Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board)


After the darshan, we bought prasad from government run shop and went to the Bhojnalaya (restaurant) for lunch. After launch we got our luggage out of the cloak room and started looking for accommodation to rest for a few hours, before starting our trek back to Katra. However every thing, including the dormitories etc. were filled to the capacity.

We had initially planned to rest at Bhawan for at least 3-4 hours, however now the only place we could sit was either at restaurant’s uncomfortable chairs or by the road side. After a lot of pondering, we decided to start our journey back to Katra and finally started our journey at 6:15pm.

Bhawan in the evening


Sunset


Due to the blisters I was having a hard time walking and had to take frequent breaks. When we finally reached Adkuwari at around 9:30pm, we were dead tired and there was a lot of rush. In fact it took me over half an hour to get food at the restaurant.

By the time we had our dinner and got out, it seem that the rush had actually increased. Add to this, from now on we not only had to jostle for space with the rest of the people trekking to the shrine but also with the horses being used by perfectly fit people!

As the time passed, our destination for the night (Katra) seemed further and further away. In fact it wasn’t until we reached the scooter stand at Banganga at 1:15am that I could believe that we finally made it back. From there we took an auto to the Galaxy guest house and got a room and soon fell asleep.

19-20th April 2008 Katra - Jammu - NH-1A - Ghaghwal - NH-1A - Pathankot - Delhi

After yesterday’s tiring 18 hour trek, we managed to wakeup at 7 in the morning. Our legs were aching with pain and getting up and packing became a chore neither of us was comfortable with.

After packing we decided to checkout of the hotel and went out for a bit of shopping and breakfast. By 10 pm we were at the cloak room near bus depot, collecting rest of our luggage.

Earlier we were told that Haryana Roadways Bus leaves every hour, so we decided to wait for the next bus to arrive. An hour went by and there was no sign of any bus to Delhi, I went to the information counter at the bus depot to find out the bus timing, only to be told the same thing.

It was almost 12 o’clock when we finally got tired of all the waiting and went to Jewels Restaurant to have a cold drink and escape from the heat. After standing in the queue for 15 minutes I finally got the token for cold drinks, only to be held up at the cold drink counter for another 10 minutes.

Finally after getting the cold drinks, I went back to the table my sister was sitting at and just as we began drinking our cold drinks, we saw a Rajasthan Roadways Bus, leaving for Jaipur via Delhi. We hurriedly finished our drinks and picked up our luggage and headed towards the bus. Thankfully not many seats were taken when we reached there and after 10 minutes or so the bus started its journey. We were thanking god and thinking that our troubles were finally over, little did we know, this was just the beginning.

Less than half an hour into the journey, we heard a loud bang, followed by hissing sound. Upon inspection it was found that one of the rear inside tyre was punctured, thankfully bus could still be driven and the bus driver drove the bus slowly to the first puncture repair shop. Sadly there was no electricity at the shop, so the driver drove for another 10 minutes to reach another puncture repair shop.

Now the whole fixing the puncture routine began, the puncture repair shop owner was a total nincompoop and was having problem opening the tyre, so our driver took charge and finally got the tyres off after a little over half an hour. Puncture repair guy took the flat tyre and spent the next half an hour fixing the puncture. When he finally bought the tyre back and was about to mount it, there was another hissing sound and just fixed tyre was now completely flat!

After another 15 minutes it was concluded that the tube had gone bad and needed to be changed, at this point all of the passengers and driver were thoroughly pissed, so the driver decided to take the spare tyre off the roof, another half an hour went by and by the time our bus resumed its journey towards Jammu, we had already wasted two and a half hours! Conductor announced we will be skipping lunch break to make up for the lost time.

However this wasn’t going to be the end of our woes, less than an hour after we hit the highway, we came across a police barricade. It turned out a bus had killed a villager and his fellow villagers had decided to block the highway. Our bus was forced to take the diversion to avoid the problem.

Since the traffic moving on National Highway 1A was now using small village roads, barely wide enough for one bus, there was bound to be traffic jams and pretty soon we were caught in one. Few of the locals traveling in our bus decided to play the role of Good Samaritan and started managing the traffic, this finally got our bus out of the jam and once again we continued our journey to find NH-1A.

However there was more trouble i.e. traffic ahead, our driver who was now thoroughly irritated, decided to ditch the roads and started driving our bus off road. From dried river bed to small water crossings to gravel filled trails, our bus driver was driving on terrain which would give majority of city slickers goose bumps and was interesting enough for me to actually start enjoying this little detour.



In fact it was more scenic than the boring highway


The look on the face of the villagers when they saw a bus from Jaipur driving past their homes, which most likely wouldn’t even get visited by local buses, was priceless. In fact few of them stood up and pointed towards the bus and shouted with amazement, are yeh toh Jaipur ki bus hai (look it is a bus from Jaipur)!

However the excitement was short lived, as we once again encountered traffic from the opposite direction and our bus got stuck at a point where the thorny shrubs were pinned against the door, making it impossible for any one to get off the bus and direct the traffic. Finally some of the locals and a policeman climbed out of the bus and started directing the traffic.

Thankfully we didn’t get stuck in any other traffic jam after this and managed to reach Pathankot by 8:30pm! Which meant it took our bus roughly 8 hours to cover 150kms!

Rest of the journey was uneventful and we managed to reach Delhi by 6am, having spent 18 hours in the bus, instead of the 14 hours we were supposed to spend. But we were just glad to have made it back to Delhi and in a way the delays (especially the detour) had made the journey more interesting and memorable (at least for me). In fact the return bus journey is one bus journey I would most likely remember for the rest of my life.

Photogallery of my trip to Vaishno Devi

[anupmathur]

Originally Posted by Yogesh Sarkar

...Now the left hand side of the bus was about 3 feet higher than the right hand side and right hand side tyres weren’t getting any traction due to it.
..

!!
Cannot visualize this at all! Some photos please, or revise the numbers!

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Sadly no photos of the adventures of our bus driver, it was something like this (less tilt):

[Prasham]

Can't see any pics

[anupmathur]

Can't see the pic.

And we're waiting with bated breath for the rest of the (promised) utterly unique travelogue!

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Photos added, more coming soon.

[hiambuj]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

Can't see the pic.

And we're waiting with bated breath for the rest of the (promised) utterly unique travelogue!

It is indeed a unique one.. Nice travelogue Yogi..

The New route reffered is already some 4 years old..

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Last and final part will be posted soon

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Posted the final part.

[darth_lucifer]

Originally Posted by Yogesh Sarkar

Sadly no photos of the adventures of our bus driver, it was something like this (less tilt):

Enjoyed the log.

^^This bus thingy happens when center of gravity decides to change seats