Our Trip to the North -1

As avid travelers, my brother and I decided we should take a trip to the North with our family as a trip had been pending for quite a few years. On consulting with my cousins we decided to plan a trip to VaishnoDevi, Katra, Pehelgham,Gulmarg,Jammu, Kashmir,Agra and Delhi.We are a family of 11 and planning a trip this long and for all the 11 members was really a Herculean task.But, the joy that we were all travelling together for the first time and to the most exciting places during the winters made us forget all the wrath of bookings and planning.

As usual a lot of people suggested that visiting these places during the month of December was not a good idea and was not safe.Well,having been brought up in places like Vijayawada, Bellary and Hyderabad where the only climates we experienced were "hot, hotter and hottest" we desperately wanted to witness snowfall and what better season to pick other than the December winter? We laid out a plan according to the train availability and connectivity. As we planned our trip one month in advance, the IRCTC website did not give us much trouble in booking tickets.(Ufff, I still cannot forget my tatkal booking days where I spent 1 hr in front of my laptop banging on the refresh button)We took the Rajdhani express to reach Delhi from where our trip began.as most of us were used to only overnight travels, a journey of almost 25 hours was a pain in the ass. But the entertainment kept us alive. The train route was well  planned connecting us to  almost every state starting from South to North. we passed through Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, UttarPradesh,Agra and finally reaching Delhi. Some of us had not visited Taj Mahal so we got down at Agra to go see our national heritage and one of the seven wonders.The weather was pretty rough because of the chill and thick fog and hence delaying our travel time.We reached Agra at about 10:00am(which should have been 8 am)It had been 2 days we had taken a bath. I never imagined in my life that I would miss bathing. so folks, if you are planning a north tour during the winter you need to be less obsessed about personal sanity.We refreshed ourselves(again not bathe), had some yummy Sandwiches, Samosas and Poha at the station.If you are a south Indian, you definitely will be struck by this question, How can people have kachoris, jelabis and samosas for break fast? Well, the answer is due to the cold weather a lot of calories gets burned for performing simple tasks and this hefty breakfast helps them through out the day.The very sight of them eating all this at 10 am filled my stomach and I just stuck to my veg sandwich which was delicious by the way.After our pethpooja we decided to start our trip to Taj Mahal. Coming to the mode of travel, there are a lot taxis available just outside the station with pre- paid meters which shuttle between Taj Mahal and the railway station. This is the best mode of transport. We had very limited time and hence visited only the Taj. Taj is only 8 kms away from the station.Agra is a small city and we could actually see other structures on our way( ofcourse, at a distance) Dad lived in Agra for a few years before his marriage and  shared with us some of the anecdotes and incidents that had taken place during his time. Apparently, every household had a facility to avail a licensed gun for self defense when they were invaded by bandits.How cool is that? I immediately sprang and asked why my Dad dint avail it. I mean wouldnt it be cool to flaunt a gun and that too a vintage one?It reminded me of the dakus(bandits) from Sholay and Gabbar's dialogue,"Kitney Aadmi the re Kalia?"Of course, there is no such facility now. Tsch. Moving on, we reached The Taj in about 15 mins.All I could witness was this when I first stepped out of the taxi.

This monument is a replica of the Taj and is situated near the ticket counter.It was about 12:30pm in the afternoon but the weather dint seem so. It was cold and foggy.We had to wait for almost an hour to actually enter the path that lead us to the Taj. There were separate lines of men,women and foreigners.After going through strict checks and frisks we finally entered the path that led us to the Taj. Its a 2 km walk but for people who dont prefer walking or for the elderly and physically impaired there were horse carts, camel carts and battery operated autos. We walked the stretch and finally reached the entrance. Lo and behold we could not spot the monument because of the thick fog.It took about 20 mins for the fog to clear & reveal the mangnificent beauty it was hiding .I was at loss of words. It really was beautiful. I could not hold myself from clicking multiple photographs.Here are a few.

These are some of the  best shots I could get despite the thick fog.We spent around 2 hours clicking family pictures with this splendid backdrop.We then visited the grave of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. Another good view was the banks of river Yamuna. The still waters looked beautiful adjacent to this. We then hurried to have our lunch as we were already late for our train. We dined at this beautiful vegetarian restaurant called Swad somewhere close to the station. It was only then we found that our train was running late by three hours.we took our own sweet time and had a hefty meal as we had been eating the same old boring Rajdhani food. We officially started our parata and roti platter from that day. On reaching the station we learnt that our train was running late by 6 hours. We had to reach Delhi that night as the next train to Jammu was early in the morning next day.We were asked to board Punjab mail so that we could reach Delhi by atleast 9:00pm. This was one of the unforgettable journeys we ever had. We booked open tickets for all of us and entered the train which looked more like passenger. The train was already filled to capacity even before we boarded. We boarded the train with all our luggage and hoped to find seats to sit. Surprisingly with in 15-20 mins all of us got situated safely with our luggage. All my prayers were answered.After three hours of travelling in that completely full compartment we squeezed to get out of the cabin on reaching Delhi.We reached Delhi at 9:30 pm.It was shivering cold.It was then we got the actual feel of winter.All of us were adorning atleast 2 layers of woolen clothing, a scarf, woolen socks and shoes. We stayed over at the Railway dorm for that night as we had an early train next day.We had a good night's sleep in spite of the shivering weather outside.Again, we skipped bathing the next day because of the not so clean bathrooms(it was 3 days in a row now)and figured we would reach Katra,Jammu and bathe in peace.Again, our train was delayed by and hour and a half and we finally boarded the train. Again, if you are a frequent South Indian railway passenger you will definitely loath the North railways for their lack of sanity and passenger etiquette.One does not simply get off your so called reserved seat unless you yell at them or shoo them away. Yet, they manage to butter you up and get a small but a significant part of your berth to sit.Strategies you see. We passed through Punjab, witnessed its fields, Singh sahebs driving their tractors, dried up rivers of Jhelum,Beas and Chenab. We also tasted the famous Channe Bature and roti wo bhi makhan maarke at the Ludhiana station. The chillness gradually set in when we were approaching Jammu. There is another strange thing that happens when you enter the Jammu border. All your prepaid cellphone connections gets disconnected( I am guessing because of security reasons) So we had no phone access in our whole one week journey in and across J&K. Thanks to this we had an undisturbed and a proper vacation.On reaching Jammu we booked two taxis that took us to Katra(which is about 50 kms from jammu) for the halt. On the way we had our dinner in one of the dhabas which served the best Rajma Chawal.It really was finger licking good.On our way to the hotel we had a beautiful of Vaishno Devi hill with its well lit pathway.It was a spectacular view.We finally reached our Hotel. It was a good hotel with clean and well furnished rooms at economic rates.
http://hotel.yatra.com/hotels-india/hotel/details.htm?hotelID=TGR-00005237&ci=GYTHotel&gclid=CMyrsrzyqLwCFSQ44godFBMAbQ
While all of them were busy resting, I ran to take my bath. It had already been three days and it felt yucky!!
I ran a hot bath which brought  my joints back to life.We started early to ascend the hill to Mata Vaishno Devi's Shrine.It was a 12.50km stretch up the hill. There are various ways one can use to reach the top.
Most of them prefer walking, but there horses, ponies, palanquins and helicopters. All the information regarding booking and other details can be found on this website.
https://www.maavaishnodevi.org/
We started our walk after having hot adrak(ginger)chai. We started at around 10 am. It was pretty cold at the foot of the hill. We figured we would wear our jackets and wool wear as rain was expected(we checked the weather info of every place we were travelling on www.accuweatherinfo.com) As we were gradually walking the sun was up and we started to sweat and off went the jackets, gloves and scarves back into the bag. It was a pleasant walk. There were shops all over the hill selling water, juices, food,vegetable salds and other confectioneries.also for every stretch there were benches if one wanted to rest.

  This is the view of the path from mid way. we took a few breaks, had a few cold drinks to quench our thirst and finally reached the shrine at 3:00pm. We had to deposit our shoes at the deposit box. Man, did our feet freeze. The next one and a half hour stretch was the most difficult one, not because of the path but because of our frozen feet. all of us walked chanting the name of Mata Vaishno so that we could distract ourselves from the cold weather. The earlier cave path is now closed and a new entrance is made so that people could walk straight with out banging their heads against anything. There was another round of frisking and security check and we finally entered in to the shrine.Though it was pushy, we had a good dharshan of Mata. Unlike our idols this was quite different in appearance. It was cast in a stone with no significant feature except for the decorations.After a good dharshan we had our lunch at one of the dhabas and started to walk our way back. We started to get the pinch of tiredness and pain. It took us almost seven hours to descend the hill. The whole journey takes about 12 hours. We somehow managed to reach our hotel in single piece.All I remember was hitting my bed. The rest was blurred... 

TO BE CONTINUED...........................