Vaishno Devi Temple Trip (Jammu): Prem se bolo “Jai mata dee” Saare bolo “Jai mata dee”

An Unforgettable Trip to NorthIndia (Vaishno Devi Temple(jammu) ,Agra , Amritsar and Delhi)

After a planning from a long time, I and my friend packed our bags for our north trip.

There was so many places we had planned to visit, to our surprise we visited all the places except one.

It was really nice experience to view so many places and being so close to nature.

Jammu (24^th dec 2009) :We reached Jammu on 24th Dec 2009 , around noon. We just searced for tourist information on the railway station as our destination was katra , which was around 120 KM from Jammu station.

There were various option we got to reach to katra i.e Hriing taxi , private bus and government bus. We took a Govt bus which starts from the station itself. They charged Rs50 per head.So I was responsible to take care of luggage during travel and vijay my friend was trying to hold a window seat in the bus. And we both got our work done.

After 2 hours of journey we reached at katra, And got a room at niharika complex.

As the weather was cold in the evening so we decided to take rest on the same day and planned our trek next morning.

So early morning we started our trek to the vaishno devi temple , which was around 17 KM from our hotel. So we started around 8:30 am and reached at the top around 12:30 pm. As we followed the stairs to cut short our trek time. But swear , it was really tough trek with stairs. Atleast I was really tired and my friend was pretending that he was not tired, but I knew he was also equally tired. J

After having Vaishno mata dee darshan and get the blessing we started our next darshan was at Bhairo nath mandir and it was 2KM still above vaishno devi hill.

So finally we reached to bhairo nath the top most place on vaishno devi hill, I was fully tired n it could be seen clearly on my face. But I was so relaxed after reaching n seeing the hill , the view was really superb and it was really good to be so close to nature from daily chaos , very calm , you could see the peak of other mountain.

I wanted to stay there for some more time , but we wanted to reach down early before the cold waves starts. And Finally we reached from were we started to trek

With a great thoughts and blessings, I wish, I would revisit again with my family & friends again, and get the blessing of mata rani. Jai mata dee !!

Trip Important Inforamtion which I could gather and understood.

• The Vaishno Devi madir is opened for 365 days – 24 hours. Any time the devotee can head toward the darshan.
• Hotels – There are lot of hotels in katra , But I would really recommend the hotel niharika (Vaishno devi shrine board govt) is really good. It was our mere luck that that we got the room , as someone has cancelled there booking.
• Room at niharika was costing around Rs 450 non ac (12am- 12 pm) checkin.It was pretty neat, quite big and tidy bathroom and a big balcony.
• Even they had a dormitory which was also value neat, good and very reasonable rate. (Around rupees 60/- 12am-12pm).One more biggest advantage in staying this hotel is that , you don’t have to stand in the long queue for darshan ticket. I would strongly recommend about the Niharika hotel at katra, But please Book it in advance through internet at the vaishono devi temple website , otherwise very hard to get accommodation in it.
• Devotees can break their journey at ardhavkumari, book a room advance at ardhkavari. Please check their website for all the booking and other information.
• In summer its always advisable to start your trekking to mandir in night. So that it will be cold and u can enjoy the trek. In winter (nov-Feb) start your trek morning and come back in the night. Trek to mandir is around 14 KM.
• The time we took in trekking through stairs was around 4 hours and same for returning back ( Very tiring through stairs, though you can save 1 to 1.5 hours time) but you will missing lot of shops and sculptures and nature’s magnificant looks. I would recommended to go by normal roads then stairs.
• Don’t have to carry snacks/eatable during the trek , there are many shops n refreshment center on the way. I was surprise to see a Coffee day on the way.

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