When there is faith, There is no fear.. Review on Vaishnodevi

One fine daywe came to know that one of my very best friend who was waiting to hear about his onsite assignment for quite a long time has to start from India within the next couple of weeks and we’d been planning to go to Vaishno Devi right from the moment he got his visa stamped. We just quickly booked my tickets from Hyd to Delhi and in a jiffy got the tickets to Katra(Closest point to Vaishno Devi in Jammu) for an over night bus journey. Driving down was an option too but he being a new driver – we didn’t took the risk. Unfortunately due to time constraints we had to settle down for a non AC Sleeper Bus but that was pretty comfortable to say the least as you have seen those early pics of wifey resting in the bus with my little princess.

Every year I guess millions of people go to Vaishno Deviand especially in summers the traffic is so huge that it takes sometimes days to have the traditional darshan from the cave. They have recently started a Chopper Service too, from Jammu to directly the main temple –thanks to Air Deccan but in that one usually miss the Ardh Kunwari and the Kaal Bhairav Temple without which the journey is not considered to be complete as goes the saying. The donation made here by the visitors goes in Billions of Rupees which again is being used in the upkeep and maintenance of the place. They have taken special care in making the floor worth walking and sheds are provided every 500 mtrs so one can sit and relax for sometime before going up. One can very well take a Horse ride or a Palaki at a premium price.

Connectivitywise Katra is very well connected to Jammu by Road and uptil Jammu one can reach by Air, Rail or Road as one wishes too. Daily flights, Buses and Special trains are available too at very economical rates.

We reached Katra around 1200 hrs, checked in the hotel, had a quick light lunch and started the climb as the weather was a little soggy – we thought by the end of the evening we will be half way up(Ardh Kunwari) and by mid night we will have darshan at the Vaishno Devi temple and further Kaal Bhairav is close – by morning we should have started for the backward journey to hotel – the total distance to be covered on walk was around 14 KMS one way.

Climbwas good, with my little princess tucked in comfortably in her carrier as she refuses to go to anybody else for that matter unless she is sleeping as you can see in couple of pics she is on Ravi’s lap packed in that sky blue blanket – all the time while she was sleeping anybody can hold her. Otherwise she is a darling daughter of her dad or mom.  We hired that piththoo(Helper) too who was loaded with all the baggage we needed to carry to the top.

It was pretty scenicdue to the weather but as they say in here that until and unless mata Vaishno Devi doesn’t calls – you just cant go up there and have her darshan, I guess she didn’t wanted to oblige either of us as my darshans were due since I got married and my friend Ravi’s were due since the visa thing. The weather got bad to worse before even we cud reach half the way. Now we were in a real bad shape as we had climbed almost like 6 KMS and half point was 1 more to go and it started raining heavily – we were not ready or rather equipped to handle that. All we got there was hand made rain coats – those white ones you wud have seen in the videos, no good to save from those heavy rains. With my princess hardly 6 months – we somehow managed to reach the half point and realized that the situation was going to worsen by the time day ends – as there was a huge queue for everything u can have. Finally we got some space in a big hall stuffed with 200+ people, the blankets as they say in news are freely available were being charged 100/- a piece. We hurriedly took 6 of them – and I waited in the queue for good 3 hrs to get them. By the time my wife and friend were being helped by a Guajarati couple who too was in bad shape and were planning to go down without doing the darshans and all.

As the rain was too heavy and there was no way anybody could have gone up or down, life halted there for a night. It was shivering cold by the time it was mid night, even after being stuffed inside 4 blankets I was feeling cold and was worried about my princess’s well being – she was kool – she had her stuff prepared every 2 hrs and will gulp down her milk without any issues, I thanked that doctor from the bottom of my heart that day who suggested us powdered milk for her and for that all we needed was warm water – which we were like buying up there at a good cost. Nothing comes free in this world – I was surprised to see that – as all the time they say that food is free there and they have good arrangements and blah blah – nothing was available at that time. Even the hall we were given to stay had no glasses in the windows. Some Akki inspired guys did fix some windows with the raincoats we had but that too was of no use.

I have no words to explain the havoc we had witnessed there as you cud see from those pics that what kind of arrangement shrine board had – and guess what – Vaishno Devi Shrine Board is considered to be the 3rd Richest Board in India.

Temperature was almost Zeroand next day morning we cud see the hills capped with snow, we had to further stay back due to heavy rains and it was by the lunch time that we decided to take the risk and go back down as they had already announced that nobody will be going up for any darshans for the next two days as 2 infants and 4 adults had expired in the course of the night due to cold. We packed our stuff and started the descent with a heavy heart. We had a break at Café Coffee day on our way back but alas they had no burgers for me this time. This is the first time in my last 5 attempts that I came back empty handed but was glad that nothing unwanted happened with us and we all were safe but badly exhausted and hungry too.

Next day as we had to start in the evening back to Delhi – we did had a good time in Katra as well as Jammu as the weather was pretty much OK and Sun came out too. That gave those scenic valleys some added beauty which I tried capturing with my camera.

We visited the Grand Haveli of Mr. Karan Singh– X Chief Minister of Jammu – it is now converted into an Art Museum – with some precious pictures and collectibles. It is on the banks of Beas River. The view was awesome.

After that on our way back to Bus Station we visited a huge Bag – e – Bahu garden – which was indeed beautiful – you can see the pics of the garden in the video.

Finally took the busback home – thanking god that we got the Raj Travels Volvo which was pretty comfortable.

Warning:So, before you go to Vaishno Devi – check the weather conditions in advance and book a room too in case you want to stay back up there for a day or so. As in our case we didn’t planned anything and literally failed in the end. This was one of those journeys we will never forget in our life – had we were bachelors we would still have tried going up but with a 6 months old baby with us – this was the terriblest and extreme risk we had ever taken – with a lesson to never to repeat this kind of mistake in future.

Ratings and comments are more than welcome.