My husband and I booked 2 tickets to go to chardham yatra with this team from USA. We paid 55, 000 for each and booked the tickets after getting all the information about the yatra. I wanted to make sure that we are getting clean place to stay and clean food, so we don’t get sick on the way. They assured us that the hotels are resort like and very clean. There would be a food truck with cooks who will cook sattvic food in all the places, and they would take care of the yatris well. Only after hearing all that we decided to book.
Few weeks before we leave, we had a session to discuss the details with Krishna Dasa, I did feel that his tone was kind of harsh but didn’t pay attention to that, since we were so excited about the trip. At the end of the session, they asked if we wanted to get good front seats, premium seats he called it, we will have pay extra about 4, 720 rupees per person. We decided to pay that much and get those "premium seats", since we both have bad backs. We went to India from US on sept 1 for this yatra which was scheduled for sept 16 - sept 27. On the same day, sept 1st, we had to struggle to book the helicopter to Kedarnath before we leave for the airport. It was such a stressful task, finally we got the 2 helicopter tickets paying$100 each.
On the day of departure, all yatris had a horrible time to get our boarding passes. They didn’t take any responsibility to make the process easier. Another stressful task on the day of departure. It felt like a miracle when we finally got the boarding passes.
I feel the team was not cooperative and very rigid. We were all over 50years old, but they were not very sensitive about the needs of the senior citizens. They gave us a liter of water every day per person and expected us to refill from an unclean water jug. We couldn’t even get an extra bottle of water when we needed it desperately. There is this person, Venkatesha Dasa, who is a heartless guy, I asked him to get us a bottle of water for money from the camp site that we stayed, he said he would try but never did. It was as if I was asking for some gold or something, it was just a bottle of water. There were no shops around, so we had to start without it. On the way the bus had stopped for some reason and there were shops right in front of us. My husband asked another Dasa(krishna) if he can get down and buy a bottle, he refused to let him down. A co yatri gave us some water. It was that bad.
The hotel they put us in Uttarkashi was a "dump", the room and the bathroom weren’t clean and smelly. I almost threw up when I enter the room. The dinner was cooked and served in a dingy place. I was uncomfortable to eat in that place. Right after we finished the dinner we came back to the room and after an hour I got sick severely. The next early morning at 3 we were supposed to go to Gangotri, but I couldn’t go. I just sent a text to V. Dasa saying that I am tired and wouldn’t be able to go. He said ok and said nothing else. They all left, and the team packed the breakfast for the yatris. When I got up at 7 in the morning, I was totally exhausted and had high fever. There wasn’t anybody at that place to ask for help. We didn’t speak the language and didn’t know anybody. We were lost and tired. Finally, a stranger, he was like a God sent, helped us to get a taxi to go to Dehradoon and catch the flight to go to Bangalore. It was already noon and we had nothing to eat. On the way I sent a text to V Dasa informing him that we left Uttarkashi and going to Bangalore. He then tells me that he is in hotel itself and we could have talked to him. Were we supposed to dream about it? how would we know that he is still there? and why wouldn’t he come to our room, knowing that I am not well, to ask how are we doing or what is happening? weren’t they supposed to do at least that much? He could have come to our room and helped us to get around and he could have given our portion of the breakfast etc. but he did nothing. A stranger helped us but not these people who took responsibility of taking care of us. I had to stay in Dehradoon 2 days to get enough strength to fly to Bangalore. I was that much sick.
I had never come across such cold and cruel people before. They are just after our money and nothing else.
The buses they provided was horrible and there was no food truck with cooks, as they promised. They used the local people to cook and the way they were cooking, and the cleanliness was debatable. That is what got me to get sick in the first place so one can imagine how clean they were.
We lost so much in this trip in terms of money, time and health. It has been 3 weeks now, but I am still sick.
All they do is just talk and give false information. They don’t even let us leave a comment on their site, the comments on their site is selected by them. What kind of information you get from that? the real info comes from people’s firsthand experience not from someone who is chosen to write a good comment.
DON’T USE THIS TEAM FOR YOUR YATRA.