“The perfect Vaishno Devi Trip”
5 of 5 bubbles Reviewed 1 August 2013
http://www.maavaishnodevi.org is great news for all of us who really want to plan their Darshan. Right from the Yatra Parchi, to helicopter booking, to the most important - booking stay at properties of the shrine board. you can now get it all organised well in advance.
The trick for people coming in from distances is to plan well in advance. For us it all started around the 2nd week of June. As is always the case in Vaishno Devi visits, everybody wanted to move out immediately, stay in hotels in Katra, start climbing riding a pony all the way, do a quick trip and anxious and exhausted, embark on the return journey. I went ahead as desired by all, and as is always the case, the train tickets were wait listed. Somehow I was not happy about the entire episode, so I put my foot down and refused to accept that a pilgrimage was not meant to be enjoyed. I had by this time traced the shrine board website and knew this could make all the difference to our journey. The remaining members of the party capitulated and agreed to my plea that we would travel a month from that day i.e 16th of June.
Having done a detailed study, I realised that if there was one factor which would decide the joy-factor of our trip, it would be where we stayed. By experience, I knew that the idea spot to find an accomodation would be around a kilometer off from the Vaishno Devi Bhavan complex(as dictated by Vastu, it is not advisable to stay in close proximity to temples). The only places available were the accommodations maintained by the Shrine board. My options were down to 2 - SanjhiChatt(2.5 kms from Bhavan) and Gauri Bhavan(800 metres from Bhavan). While my first option was SanjhiChatt, there were no 4-bedded accomodations available here(thank god). No, you cannot hire more than one room in a month, from the same login(Visiting the gods, remember? even those used to playing foul should spare them). So a 4-bedded accomodation at Gauri Bhavan(1130 Rs. plus transaction fee) was the first booking that I locked. The next thing I did was to get the helicopters booked, keeping in time the arrival time of the train, travel time from Jammu to Katra etc.
A word of advice, the accomodation booking opens exactly one month in advance. If you are slow on the buzzer, its likely somebody else will beat you to it. Same for helicopter. though in hindsight, frankly, the helicopter is a bit of a dampener with all the weather constraints. Should only do helicopter if you can’t do anything else. Reserve for the really aged.
I got confirmed bookings/ RAC for the trains(One month in advance). Now, I’ve been to Vaishno Devi(or rather struggled the usual way) 5 times earlier. Believe me, one simple decision of booking at Gauri Bhavan turned this trip into a wonderful break. a true pilgrimage-cum-hill station journey that Vaishno Devi surely is.
We reached Jammu on 18th July 7.30 AM(train bang on time), the toyota etios was waiting for us(thanks to thoughtful people who had left details of certain excellent drivers online, I got this for 2600 return, with a day break thrown in). The driver - a man called Tanjit - gave us probably the most important advice that actually saved us a lot of trouble. You see, my mother-in-law and I(alongwith my 2-year old daughter) were flying to Sanjhichatt, while my wife and sis-in-law were going to walk/ pony up. We intended dropping them off at Banganga, before proceeding to the helipad, 4 kms away. Tanjit suggested that we reverse the order since helicopters had not been plying for the last 3 days. We took his advice, and thank god! At the helipad, there was a long queue of people. the helicopters were not going to take off. We took a call and decided to cancel the tickets and get the ponies.
By 10 we were at the Banganga check post, and having cut a deal reached Gauri Bhawan by 2 PM. Our accommodation(Room 104) was on the ground floor, 4-bedded. Ofcourse, the rooms were not AC, not when the average temperature was a lovely 23 degrees! We looked out the window, and lo and behold! the white Vaishno Devi bhawan complex looked right back at us from the opposite ridge(see the photo from the verandah of Gauri Bhawan accomodation).
We stepped out for a bit of lunch, walking about 600 meters(nearly 2/3rd of the way to the Vaishno Devi cave) and back. Even my daughter could do this. We got back by about 3 o’clock. Since we had a full-fledged bathroom with hot water to ourselves, each one of us got ready at our own leisure. Finally, around 5 o’clock we stepped out all decked for our homage to the goddess. On the way I could not help but compare our situation with those either rushing in to visit, or rushing out after a visit, already exhausted by the prospect of climbing down. We were in no hurry. We enjoyed the Darshan, and explored almost every nook and corner of the Bhavan, finally sitting down at a place where we could enjoy the evening Arti with a hot cup of coffee. By the time we strolled back to our accomodation it was close to 10 PM. We changed and got into our blankets. a rare luxury considering it was July and we were coming from Delhi!
The next morning, we woke up leisurely, and got ready by about 10 AM(which is the check-out time). We walked down to SanjhiChatt, and I climbed up to the Helipad only to be told that the helicopters are not likely to ply. I immediately got the tickets cancelled. Since all of us had hardly walked, we decided we might as well walk a bit. Also because our car was not likely to receive us till at 3.30. We walked to the Sanjhichatt cafe(about a kilometre), and enjoyed our breakfast. We decided to walk some more. and so ended up at Adhkuwari by about 1.30. It is here that, after a lunch break, we hired ponies.
We reached Bainganga by about 3.30 and as if in thumbs up to this well planned trip, it was exactly at this point in time that the goddess brought down a torrential rain upon us! But soon we were in our taxis, cruising to Jammu.
All in all, the perfect Vaishno Devi trip
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