Trip to Vaishno Devi

Since a long time I was looking for a trip to go with friends to get away from all the official stress and then i got one "Trip to Vaishno Devi". Me and my brother with 2 of his friends we all decided to pack our bags and will move to Vaishno Devi on friday- 11-12-2009, But unfortunately none of my female friends got ready for the trip. As we all may have heard this some where "Maa Call you herself" so the same thing happened with me. Me, my friend Shweta and Abhinav we made our mind to book our tickets and by transcending all the stumbling blocks of the site IRCTC we finally succeed the bookings and got the availability. And beyond shadow of doubt got our bags packed

with extra zeal on 17Dec night. and moved on 18th Friday Night.

We had our train from New Delhi at 8:50pm. Quickly completed our work and moved from office at 4:30pm sharp, all reached at my place. Had some morsel, have taken out some cash from nearby ATM and finally stepped out for railway station at 7:15pm.

One of our friend was really feeling shy being in a girls group. :P :P

We reached Delhi Railway Station at 7:40pm and called our tour coordinator "Amit" whose pehchan symbol was yellow lifafa in hand :)

at last we collected our tickets from him and boarded the train, the malodorous compartment :( :( we expeditiously settled down on seats next to our reserved ones and kept all our bags on our seats. Indians Mentality!!! and started killing time by exclusive photo shoot.









We had 4 groups in a same package- 2 families and 1 group like ours. But we didnt know where they are and we weren't even interested in knowing that either LOL

Group of 3 boys got entered, we obviously had to shift as we were occupying there berth.

we moved our bags to make space for us to sit, we chatted, listened to some music, had dinner. Belatedly we got to know that those boys are one of the group in a same package as the common topic was "PRAN NATH" -Ajeeb nahi lagta naam "PRAN NATH" :P :P .

PRAAN NATH- was again one of the tour coordinator who will guide us to reach hotel in Katra.

After dinner we went for sleep & I preferred the top most berth.

I don't know about others but at least i must had a sound sleep, if someone's snoring may haven't disturbed me. :P :P



We reached to Jammu Station at 7:00am Sat and started searching for ours only "PRAN NATH". Since you enter in Jammu as far as Cell Phone Network is concerned. You are dead about communications as no network operator seems to be caring about his prepaid customers in roaming.

We met Pran Nath outside Annapurna Dhabba. Where we met other group members as well.

1. One Sardar Family- Aunt & Uncle.
2. Another one was a family of 5 members.
3. 3 Boys Group.
4. Our Group

We moved in a bus and started our journey to katra. Interacted with family members and completed our journey from Katra to Jammu with a sigh of relief.

Reached katra at 9:45am, and proceeded for the Hotel "Meridian" sounds like "Le' Meridian"


and reached there at 10:20am via cab. Took the keys for our Room No. 107 and quickly went in to fresh n up..

All groups got ready for the ultimate climbing except for Boys group, I always heard that girls occupy time to get ready but got to know that some boys also do that :) :) . Later we got to know that they ordered brunch that ate most of our precious time.

Finally We all moved for our going to be extreme enervated climbing at 1:30pm Sat, First queue, got a Yatri Ticket first to start the climbing and it was required to show up at places.

I was visiting the place after a long time as I visited once when I was 2 months old and second when i was may be in 6th or 7th standard. Even though as much I remember of that time, it was never like the place its now.

We started our journey and in the beginning itself had a bad experience thanx to one of my close friend's hunger (Grrrrrrrr) i still cant forget the taste of those parathas without aaloo and named as Allo ka Paratha.

With a little rest in between, enough washrooms and tea-coffee stalls and shades in way.

Only annoying thing was Pithus. They seems to have no control over them and we were only to tolerate them since the start. They were crossing you from behind any time, no matter how narrow place it might be or how tired you might be. There has to be a different path majorily for Pithus.

We were along with 2 family groups, and reached near by Ardhkunwari, i used to call it Adhkuwari. There were 2 ways one to right and one to left. We had to made choice as one of the family group refused to go via Ardhkuwari. We decided to move via Ardhkuwari and by then we saw 4th group (Boys Group) Ravi Tandon, Vineet & Hemant. It was quite astounded for us as they started the climbing very late. We collected the tickets from Ardhkuwari at 5:30pm and decided to move for Bhawan as Darshan in Ardhkuwari were closed.

We reached to our Destination (Bhawan) by 7:30, I guess, that too because we were desperate for not resting much due to our tight schedule & reciting hymes Zor se bolo- Jai Mata Di, Saare Bolo- Jai Mata Di.

We went for bath to Snan Ghar and i cant define that in my words the expressions of mine when i stepped out of my shoes. The ground was cold like snow and the water was like ice.

After that we moved to cloak Room for depositing our belongings, However there was a long queue and we decided to keep our belongings with pithu. Without even thinking of getting it lost or stolen. We just kept it with Pithu who has been hired by one of the Family Group.

Literal 5 hours long queue, which at times seems to be not moving due to irritating crowd, which constantly trying to sneak into the queue. The queue almost broke all the bones after such a tough walk from Katra and standing bare foot in almost minus temperature makes you feel you dont have feet left any more with you.

All the groups got separated in the mid of the journey and all got connected again in the queue. One was in the cage, one went with a VIP pass, we were shivering in the never ending queue and 4th were passing by us, and it was there luck actually we called them and ask them to stand along with us otherwise they have to start from the end of the queue. And that was the time we got introduced with each other.

All the pains, hurdles were gone for a while as we got the open Darshan and i didnt want to move from there but had to as others also had to get chance.

Then we moved to one Prachin Shiv Mandir with the help of our only guide + Photographer Ravi. :)

Then we started our journey for Bahiro Baba,

Boys went to collect there belongings from Cloak room. And we went to collect ours from Pithu we weren't expecting at all to get our belongings back (where in most necessary part were shoes). As the family who hired the pithu had darshan very early. However it was certainly utter surprise that 2 of the family members were waiting for us with our belongings. We thanked them twice, thrice may be and quickly wore our shoes and waited for the boys at Nescafe.

Abhinav wasn't in a condition to continue the journey so he decided to go down with 2 of the family members.

Now we were 5 in a group continuing the journey for Bhairo Baba Temple which is another 5-7 kms away from there, People believe that your darshan wont get complete till the time you wont go there.

Shweta completely denied to move further, i tried hard to convience her and at last got success. We both girls were moving literally slow as we were quite tired in comparison to boys. But thanks to their never ending support we managed to complete the journey with joy. And also got to know them better than before.

While coming down we tried to learn some photography tricks. :) :)

And there was a time when mine and Shweta's legs denied to step ahead. But again thanks to a medicine :P :P "Nimolid" with the help of which Shweta learnt to run LOL.

At last we reached hotel at 7:30am and went for sleep till 1:00am. We woke up, had tea, went for bath and got ready to go for sumptuous lunch together around 2:30pm.

Some even got time to click there own pics :P :P :P

We Checked out from hotel

& reached Sagar Ratna ordered lunch, the quantity was like as we all were hungry since many days.

out of all the best was Banana split and

yes not to forget those hot hot Gulab jamun. :P :P

Then we moved further for some more temples with some CUTE and SWEET :) :) memories.

We finally reached to jammu station at 8:15pm and then 2 of the group members went to purchase dinner for us and that was quite sweet gesture from them as their legs were also going from the same pain. Thanks Ravi!! Thanks Vineet!! for the unfathomable gesture :) :)

We all finally boarded the train and met with all the lovely group members had dinner, played dumshrads, and went for sleep.

The outing ended at New delhi railway station 7:30am but with a sad note as Abhinav lost his mobile :( :(

But apart from this we certainly enjoyed every part of the itinerary and would love to visit the place again. I wish Mata will call me again for Darshan :) :) Jai Mata Di!!!