Trip to Vaishno Devi

Jai kara shera wali da, bol sache darbar ke jai!

This was a trip, long due for me. Last time I visited Vaishno Devi was some three years back I guess. I was making plans ever since I decided that I will be going to Delhi in Dec to spend time with my extended family. This time of the year, it’s very cold, in Delhi and even colder at Vaishno Devi and hence less people are expected to visit. Therefore, the officials keep both the caves open and hence you can have good darshan at the Bhawan as well.

I reached Delhi on 17th November 2011 and started making my plans for the trip. Spoke to couple of friends who agreed to join me on the trip. But, there is a saying. You will visit Vaishno Devi shrine only if there is an invitation for you from Mata. I guess my time had not come and hence thrice I had to cancel my plans. I was desperate to visit in 2011, but I did not realize that god has some other plans for me. Every time I planned the trip, I had to cancel the tickets because of some or the other reason. I was thinking my trip will be incomplete this time.

On 30th Dec one of my friends casually asked me, let’s go to Vaishno Devi. I did not give a second thought and said lets go. I thought this is the moment I was waiting for and I felt finally my number has come. It was 12.30 in the afternoon, not aware of what’s in store for us I booked the Volvo bus tickets from Delhi to Katra on www.redbus.in for two of us. Everything happened in a matter of few hours and at 5 in the evening we were ready to leave for our journey. We took metro from Malviya Nagar to R.K. Ashram station, which was our boarding point. We booked a Volvo from JBG Travels. The bus was supposed to start at 6.30 pm from our boarding point. We reached the boarding point at 6.15 and started searching for the bus, but there was no sign of it. We called the travel house and he said sir wait at the point, I will be there in 10 mins. Well, 10 mins became 20 and 20 became 40, we made few more calls to them and same answer. Finally around 7.20 somebody came and asked us to follow. You might be aware that all these travelers have settings with other travelers and it’s always “jugaad” that works out at the end. Same thing happened with us as well. He took us to a different traveler and adjusted us in their bus. For somebody who is travelling for the first time, it might be a shock. Even though you book your preferred seats, you hardly get them in such a setting. We also did not get the booked seats, but fortunate enough (or say my quick thinking and quick follow-up with the other traveler) to get better seats (in the front half of the bus). Though it was a a/c Volvo bus, nowhere close to the volvo’s we usually see on Bangalore-Chennai route or Delhi-Jaipur route. But, it was decent I would say and push back seats were working. You get charged around Rs.200-Rs.300 (Ticket price was Rs.1050/-) extra on these buses as compared to regular deluxe 2X2 buses. But, no AC to maintain the temperature, no video and no music, I was thinking was it worth paying that extra!!

The buses reach Katra in the morning around 8 am next day. Hence, our plan was to reach Katra, take token at the counter and hire room for few hours to get freshen up. We thought we will start around 10 am and be back around 6 and can take the bus in the evening for Delhi. However, as I mentioned earlier we did not know what was in store for us and Mata had different plans for us. We reached Katra at 10 am instead of regular 8 am. We still thought we can get ready and start climbing in an hour’s time. But, we were in for a surprise. The queue at the token counter was touching the main market. When enquired, people said it is taking long to get the tokens issued. Anyways, I got in the queue and after waiting for 30 minutes or so realized that it is indeed going to take longer than expected. My friend was waiting outside for me. There was no channel of communication as he had pre-paid number which doesn’t work in Jammu/Katra. Fortunately, he came searching for me close to queue. I asked him to look for a room, get settled and call me from hotel and inform me the hotel name. He got a room for Rs.800/- and I thought we got a good bargain. It took me over 3 hours to get the darshan token. I wasn’t too pleased with the room. The usual rate for such room is Rs.300-Rs.400 but due to rush almost everyone has doubled the rate and I thought we were lucky to get the room at least. What made me think I was lucky? Well the rooms adjacent to our rooms were filled with people, maybe around 6-7 people in one room. Moreover, I thought we just need this room to take bath and rest for few hours so let’s not give too much thought about it. The hotel name was Samrat, in one of the bylanes near Katra bus stand. This hotel is not maintained at all, water leaking from all taps and rooms get over even before they start, not value for money either. Please avoid this hotel.

Anyways, we rested for some time; got ready had our lunch and started our walk from Katra to Banganga, the starting point to Vaishno Devi temple. What a mad rush everywhere. There was a long queue at Banganga and it took over an hour to cross that point. We were physically fit and were alone; otherwise the wait would have been even longer. As I mentioned earlier, there was mad rush. We knew that during New Year there would be more crowd, but never thought that we would see so many people coming for Darshan. We decided to climb as early as possible and planned to skip Adhkuwari. We thought we can reach Bhawan early and do darshan as early as possible. It is a 13 kms trek from Banganga to Bhawan and usually takes about 4 hours on an average. Unlike earlier days, there is a new route from Adhkuwari to Bhawan which is almost like walking in plane area. This is called the new route and we took that. We completed the trek in about 3 hours time. It started becoming cold and the first thing we thought of was taking a locker. There are 3-4 counters where you get the lockers. All the counters had long queue and people were standing in the queue for hours. When we enquired further, we realized that people have been standing in the queue since 4/5 pm in the evening and the authorities expect people to come back and return the keys around 8 pm after the aarti. So, ideally speaking no lockers would be available before 8 pm and we were 30th in the queue and majority of the people in the queue were in groups of 10/20 which means they would need atleast 3-4 lockers per group. We were confused and could not think anything. We were very disappointed. It was becoming colder every minute. Every inch of space was occupied, rooms, dormitories, restaurants, even the open balconies were very much occupied. We had run out of options and knew that getting a locker will take atleast 3-4 hours. We decided to have dinner and give some time and think about about it again. All this thinking and dinner and search took couple of hours and finally we decided, like others (groups dumped their belongings wherever they found space and couple of them stayed with the luggage) we will dump our bag somewhere safe. We saw one group belongings and couple of people waiting there. We started conversation with them. They told us that they are 10 people and their group members are spread across different counters for lockers and have been waiting in the queue for last 2 hours. We became friendly and told them that we will keep our luggage with theirs. Luckily I had a lock in my bag, found a electric wire to lock the bag. We put all our stuff in the bag, including our shoes and locked it and headed for the darshan queue. As expected the queue was pretty long. We started from the place where it says “Way to Bhairon Mandir” (next to horse’s resting place). I guess it was around 8.30 pm or 9 pm, not sure but that’s the time we started. It was around 11.30 that we reached to the first check point, the place where the barricades start. As soon as we reached inside the barricades, we saw heavy rush outside. For about 200 mtrs or so, there were people all around not even an inch of space available, completely jam-packed. This was the first time I saw that authorities, CRPF, police all failed to get people under control. For almost 30 minutes everyone was trying to scatter the crowd, but it won’t move at all. It was a near stampede situation. Luckily there were not much casualties, except for couple of people getting hurt in the process. I was feeling very lucky as I was in the barricaded queue and was away from that maddening crowd, though even the queue was jam-packed and not an inch to move. People were trying to get into the queue from all sides, even climbing the barricades and jumping them from the top. It was indeed survival of the fittest and the smartest (those who know when to jump the queues and where from!). It was cold and the temperature was around 0 degrees. Though we were fully covered, we were not wearing shoes and the cold wave was like salt to the wound. This was the only time when I liked others getting too close as it helped me remain warm. After all this push and pull, we had our Darshan at around 1 am. That’s when I realized why all my plans got cancelled every time. I was supposed to have Darshan in 2012 on the New Year’s Eve, and not in 2011. But the Darshan’s were very satisfying, had enough time for everything and I think I had best darshan so far in my life.

While in the queue for Darshan, I completely forgot about my bag, but soon after we came out I was just hoping that the bags don’t get misplaced or worst get stolen. But, nothing like that happened and we found our bags where we left them. We quickly put on our shoes and our wind-cheater over our jackets. The temperature at Bhairon is usually 2-3 degrees lower than Bhawan and the distance between Bhawan and Bhairon is around 1.5 kms. It’s a difficult trek. It is said that your Darshan are incomplete if you don’t visit Bhairon after Bhawan. It took us abour 15-20 minutes to do darshan at Bhairon mandir. From there, we headed straight towards Katra via Adhkuwari and Banganga. I wanted to get some extra sleep and hence made my friend stretch a bit. We completed climbing down in an hour’s time and took an auto from Banganga to Katra. Everything is well that ends well.

We enquired for bus back to Delhi. Howevre, there weren’t any options in the morning and hence we decided to go to Jammu and take a bus from there. We reached Jammu around 2 pm and took the first bus of J&K TDC (a local bus) which was a 4 pm. Well, there wasn’t any luxury in it or enough space for my legs but we didn’t find any other option. We had luxury busses, but they were all slated to start around 8 or 9 pm, so just decided to go with whatever bus we get. We had our share of fun in the bus. The conductor was fully drunk and would make comment every now and then which would make people laugh. On the other hand, half of the bus was full of Jat’s from Meerut. What a combination, jat’s, drunk conductor and that desi local Punjabi songs in the bus in full volume.

The trip was full of adventure. Why adventure, because it was not pre-planned and every place posed new challenges and threw new situations for us to manage. Everyone believes that you will have darshan only when Mata wants you to, so true. Jai kara shera wali da, bol sache darbar ke jai.

How to Reach Katra:

Katra is the base camp for the Yatra to Vaishno Devi. This is the last point where any modern transport can go except the helicopter services. From here a trek of 13 kms takes a pilgrim to the holy shrine.

• Katra is well connected to Jammu by road, and Jammu in turn, is well connected to rest of the country by Rail, Road and Air transport.

• Buses, taxis and shared taxis are available frequently from Jammu railway station, bus stand and airport to Katra.

• There are direct buses from many cities to Katra (for example Delhi to Katra).

• The most convenient and the best form of transport is Rail. Nearest railway station is Jammu Tawi.

Registration for the Yatra

This is the first and foremost thing to do after reaching Katra.

All visitors are required to register themselves before undertaking the trek. This is done at the Yatra Registration Counter situated at the Bus Stand where the yatris are issued a slip, free of cost. This is mandatory and without a valid yatra slip, you will not be allowed to go beyond Banganga. This is basically to keep a count and regulate the traffic. This slip is again checked near the Bhawan before you are allowed to get in the queue. This yatra slip covers devotees with an insurance cover against any untoward incident. Hence preserve this slip till the end of the trip.

Now you can register online as well. You can log on to www.maavaishnodevi.org and book your yatra ticket. You can also book helicopter service and rooms near Bhawan thru this website.

You have six hours from the time stamped on your ticket to cross Banganga counter. Failing to do so, you will have to again get a new slip.


Do’s and Don’ts


• Obtain a yatra slip before proceeding for the trek.

• Carry just enough clothes according to the weather conditions. Travel light as much as possible.

• Eat light before starting your trek. Have enough liquids and snacks in between the trek, avoid getting de-hydrated.

• The shops on the way usually charge double the MRP, hence check the price before buying or taking anything. Best thing is to buy drinks and eatables from shrine board outlets as they give everything as per MRP.

• Maintain a regular pace and avoid taking stairs unless you are physically very active in your day to day life as it would be very tiring and it puts a lot of pressure on your knees.

• Cloak rooms are free and hence keep all your belongings in the cloak rooms only.

• Porters, Ponies, Palanquins and electric auto’s are available according to your convenience you can choose the option. Auto’s are available only from Adhkuwari to Bhawan and needless to say senior citizens and medically unfit people will get preference.

• Don’t forget to have darshan at Bhairon Temple after the darshans at Bhawan, as otherwise your visit is considered incomplete.

I have been there multiple times and every time it’s a different experience. If you or anyone you know who is planning to visit and need any help in planning, I would be able to help them. They can get in touch with me thru the blog or can write to me at Praveen.jangira@gmail.com and I would be able to guide them.