Our Trip to Vaishnodevi

"Jai Mata De"

Me and my family ( along with my wife & 2 KIDS 8 and 3 yrs) visited Vaishnodevi on 21st April' 2008.From Delhi to Jammu it is preferable to take overnight trains. Since it is summer time, we decided to walk from Katara to Ardhkumari, bhavan and so in the evening (7.30 PM). From Katara to Ardhakumari it is close to 5.5 Km. We could reach by 12.00 mid-nights. It was quite a memorable journey. We sat three to four times in between since climb is quite steep. Entire road is tilled so that now it is quite easy to climb.In between we saw many hotels but few of them were of decent standards (At least without house-flys). Lot of tea and coffee shops are there to refresh you. We had dinner at Ardhakumari and started walking immediately. From Ardhakumari to Bhavan is anoth 5.5 km. But it is not a steep climb. Easily one could walk till Bhavan. By morning 3.30 am we reached Bhavan (Maa Vaishno devi). As per rituals we are supposed to take bath in the water which is natural water flowing from the hill (It is made quite decently, water flow accumulates into small tanks and then you see the tap).We got refreshed there and wore new cloths again as per rituals and stand in the queue. Surprisingly there was not much rush. We had darshan at 4.00 am and it was a most satisfying thing in our journey. By this time kids were tired and we too. We decided not to go to Bhairav baba. It might be an incomplete trip but we prayed to god to excuse us. Reason being it was not practical for us to climb further since we did not want to stay any where and wanted to walk continuously. I was told that if we stay back then it will be difficult to walk further.We started climbing down at 4.30 and by 9.30 we reached back at Katara. In between I saw 2 café-coffee days. That was worth and soothing place to have coffee.We had hired 2 piththoo for kids. Charges are quite reasonable (340/- per piththoo) and controlled. You can take any piththoo and then you require to pay at the counter, do not pay directly to Piththoos. They were walking as per our pace. I saw mostly people are quite honest and didn’t face any hassles. I would suggest that take their id card when you hire any pitthoo for precautionary reason. I will come back with more trip details which I visited after Vaishnodevi.

Sitesh