I visited Shirdi on 20th March from Delhi, stayed there 2 days and then visited Trimbakeshwar and finally returned to Mumbai. My expereience is little weird about that place. Without hurting anybody’s sentiments I would like to narrate a few instances.
1.The taxi fare from Manmad to Shirdi is Rs.820/- for a 59 km journey - RIDICULOUS
2.I bought some garland, chunni etc before entering the Samadhi Mandir. Before reaching Sai Baba’s idol, the garlands were taken away from everybody and thrown in a Drum about 200m away from the idol. It was not even touched or offered to the idol.
3.The chunnis that I bought were as it is returned back to me, again it was not even touched or offered to Sai baba’s idol.
I understand the place was extremely crowded by devotees but everybody traveled from far away to get a glimpse and have some blessing from Sai Baba and everyone has some sentiments. I would now prefer worshipping Sai Baba at my home and in my mind rather than visiting Shirdi at those security guards mercy.
To talk about hotels, I found most of the hotels quite mismanaged and very dirty. I stayed in Hotel Sai Krupa, just opposite tha Mandir. Food in most of the restaurants are horrible and the ambience is also very dirty again.
I wanted to cancel a few train e-tickets, I could not find a single cyber cafe anywhere there. But there is railway reservation counter inside the Sai Baba Mandir.
The journey to Shani Shignapur is very scary because those Tata Sumos/Boleros load 14 people inside a 9 seater vehicle to earn some extra money charges Rs.70 per head and drive at a speed of 140 km per/hr on those narrow bumpy roads. While sitting on those Sumos, they will say they will also take you to Renuka Mata Mandir, but while returning they will fight with you and take you to another Durga Mandir and say this is the place where they said they will take you to. It’s always advisable to take a personal cab rather then saving a few hundred bucks. On reaching Shani Shignapur, the local flower shops immediately offer you a basket of flowers and prashad and ask you to change your clothes and wear their dhoti. On returning they ask you to pay Rs.250/- again RIDICULOUS.
Again, I would like to mention its my personal opinion about the location and I do not want to hurt anybody’s sentiments.
I will write a detailed review soon on the hotels there.