Must visit. Review on Vaishnodevi

VaishnoDevi is one of the holiest places of pilgrimage. Located in the state of Jammu and Kashmir it is thronged by thousands of people every year.

We decided to have a darshan this June. We had booked our tickets by the Jhelum Exp and reached Jammu on 9th June.

Means to Reach Katra- The base camp

Now once at the Jammu station one can take a taxi to Katra or take the bus. A variety of taxies are on offer starting from the good ol’ AMBI to the more modern A.C. Scorpio. Rates accordingly range from about Rs.700 to Rs.1300. whereas buses charge anything about Rs. 40 to about Rs 80-90.Taxies can be more comfortable but they are also costlier.

Accommodation at Katra

It takes about 2-3 hours to reach Katra.There one can have a hotel or a government lodging facility. We had already booked a room at Niharika Complex( government facility) via the net ( http://www.mavaishnodevi.org) .One thing is to kept in mind that such booking has to be done at least 4 days prior to actual day of staying.

Good eating options are also available on the Chowk and within the complex.

The Climb uphill

We had decided to go up on the 10th June. We had a VVIP pass but before leaving one has to get a time allocated from the office at Katra .This office opens up at 6 AM and stays up till 11PM at night. One con is that one has to cross the Banganga Checkpoint before six hours after the allocated time elapse. You can stay there as long as you want but first cross that checkpoint.

A variety of means of transport are available. The healthy (brave too!!) ones choose to walk whereas many choose horses or ‘Palkis’. Given the nature of the climb it is advisable to take a horse (which we did). Costing about Rs.250 per person it will save both time and energy (and also expenditure on all those crape bandages iodex etc. Horse take about 2&half hrs to reach the shrine, walking takes around 5-6 hours. One may also take a helicopter which drops you at the helipad 2 km away from the shrine. This service costs Rs. Four thousand per person for the round trip .It takes about four minutes to reach the helipad on the top.

Once there you need to take a group number which decides the priority, that is grp no 100 goes first then 101 and so on.

Since we had a VVIP pass we did not take much time to cross the 2 km line to get the group no and another 2 km line to get to the shrine. Once there one has to be careful to concentrate on the actual Pindis and not on all those ornaments and pray for whatever you want becoz no sooner shall you arrive the priests and the jawans shall push you out owing to lack of space.

There is also a certain Bhairon Baba temple on the Mountain Peak which is another steep trek. We again took horses which charged around Rs.120. On our way back we opted to walk downhill, which turned out to be a big folly as the 14 km trek took out every muscle in the body

Facilities

These days the track is managed by the government. It is well paved, but cud become slippery and dangerous when it rains.

Eating and resting points are available along abt half the way where you can rest and refuel urself.

Security

Security seemed very tight all over the trip with jawans everywhere. There are many frisking points .They also make sure that the horsewallahs do not charge extra. It is justified too since some of these guys are inhospitable, tired or hungry some guys stop only “where their horse wishes” to

Overall the trip was a fine one. These and many othere places of pilgrimages are nothing but places where one should go taking out time from their busy and monotonous lives. They are a welcome change and offer us and opportunity to as for the blessing of the almighty.

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