Rupees 1515/- per head for the three day package tour to Tirupathi-Kalahasthi from Bangalore and it was worth every penny invested.
I booked two tickets from the KSTDC office at Badami house, near Hudson Circle, Bangalore.
The personnel at the ticket booking counter are friendly and nice, no hurries. I returned a week later to postpone the trip by a week and this too went smoothly.
There are two trips to tirupathi, the one day package and the three day package
The three day package is over the weekend, starting on Friday and Saturday. The travel is by a Non-AC semi-luxury bus. The amount is inclusive of Travel, stay and darshan tickets. Food is not included
The day packages is on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Travel is by a Volvo. The amount is inclusive of travel and darshan tickets. Food is not included.
I had booked the tickets for Friday evening. The bus departs at 7:00pm on Friday evening and returns on Sunday 7:00pm. I got a call from KSTDC at 6:30pm asking my whereabouts and reminding me of the bus timings. Pretty impressive. Professional.
The bus was a semi-luxury push back bus. Non-AC. Nice white head covers on the seats, the bus appeared neat and fresh from a recent wash. The cleaner and driver smart and smiling.
The bus was punctual and started around 7:05, good conditioned bus. Although I sat in the penultimate seats, it was not very uncomfortable.
After an hours travel the Bus stopped at Kamat Lokaruchi before Kolar for dinner. Good food and service as usual keep in minding the Kamat legacy.
Reached Tirupathi around 2:00 am on Sunday. Checked in to Ramee Residency. Freshened up in an hour, stood in the queue for the sudarshan tickets at 3:30
There are many complains that standing the queue in can be avoided, but due to heightened security measures they have a system that captures your finger print and photograph and gives you a ticket with a bar code. Before entering the temple premises, the bar code is scanned and the authenticity
of the ticket holder is confirmed. No duplicity, no transferring of tickets. No middle men. It’s a small trouble you need to undergo for your own safety.
The darshan timing was 9:00 am, we transferred to a ghat eligible bus, only APSRTC buses are allowed to go up the hill whereas private cars and two wheelers have no restriction.
We deposited our footwear in small shop where we had breakfast, they have a agreement with the guide. No fancy places to eat breakfast. Small shops dishing out Dosas, idlis, puris. the quality is great, we could do an entire review on that alone. A must try the crispy vadas.
We entered the Q complex at 8:30 am and exited from the temple at 11:30 am, the crowds of tirumala is world famous. There is no crowd-free day. it does not exist. Good darshan of the Lord and the yummy green colured puliyogare as prasadam just sums up why people throng this place.
We returned to tirupathi by 1:00 pm and finished our lunch in Bheema residency.
Rest of the day we visited more temples in the city such as Padamavathi temple, Kalyana Venkateshwara temple and the kapila thirtham temple.
The guide was well informed and spoke of the temples’ history, prominence and influence.
We checked in for the night at Ramee residency again. A room is allotted for two people.
Neat sheets and bathrooms. Only sad part is there is no restaurant other than Maurya on the premises. No options too for one km on either side. So you are forced to eat what is dished out.
Bearable food though.
The third day we checked out at 5:00 am and reached the govindrajpuram temple and later to the Srikalahaasti temple around 7 am. The guide clearly mentioned that reaching the temple before 7:15am was important, as the crowds were more manageable and he turned out to be quite right as when we exited the temple 8:00 we could see huge crowds milling at the entrance.
A good breakfast at Saravana Bhavan and we started for Bangalore at 10:30. Reached Bangalore at 5:30 . A good two hours before the scheduled time.
Be prepared: To walk bare feet, as most of the time you leave your footwear in the bus. Be prepared for the crowds, tirumala and the surrounding temples are holy pilgrimage centers and people from all walks of life visit. The crowds are omni present.