Author: apoorvatraveldiary

Visited in August 2017

Such a pride for our country, we should all pledge to make our nation, cleanest nation.

The place was not only clean but also beautiful because of plants and tress.

I explored the place in morning and came across an ancient church, a cafe and some houses.

Later on we even strolled around small market of the village for souvenir and found every place of the village clean and beautiful.

The whole ambiance was peaceful.

Mawlynnong is a village in Meghalaya. One can reach this village by road from Guwahati (209 Km), Shillong (81 Km), Cherrapunji (80 Km), these are the routes taken by travelers mostly.

How to reach:

By Air: The nearest Airport is Nasik Airport (Gandhinagar Airport) which is around 85km from Shirdi. However Shirdi Airport will be operational shortly as trial has already been done for the same.  

By Rail: Nearest Railway Station is now Sainagar Shirdi Railway Station.

Where to stay:

Dwarawati Bhaktiniwas (pre-booking is required)

Booking for Darshan, Aarti, Accomodation, Sewa and etc:

Website for booking online: https://www.shrisaibabasansthan.org/INDEX.HTML

Registration: First the devotee needs to get registered with the above mentioned site. Apart from general details like Name, Address, DOB, Phone Number, devotee should have soft copy of photo (max 250kb) and a photo id like Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Voter ID, Passport, Driving License, Ration Card.

Once the devotee is registered, he/she can do bookings. Please have ID details of the people for whom bookings are done along with yours.

* Register in the name of the person visiting the temple or availing the accommodation as name and photo Id of the registered person will be required while availing the facilities.

Review:

I got the opportunity to visit this shrine twice once with cousins and second time with parents. During first visit we chose to get into the general line which took near about 2 hours for darshan. In second visit I booked the Madhyan Aarti (11am – 11:45am) for which we reported at 10am. I would advise to pre-book darshan or aarti if visiting with elderly parents. With Aarti booking one can attend the aarti from very close to the idol.

Madhyan Aarti ticket costs INR 300 per person and INR 10 for Internet Reservation charges.

We even booked our stay at Dwarawati Bhaktiniwas through Shri Sai Baba Sansthan website (mentioned above) which costs very minimal for two days. We booked AC room (attached washroom and balcony) with four occupancy at INR 1910 (INR 10 – Internet handling charge) for two days. Our check in time on day 1 was 8pm and check out time on day 3 was 11 am which perfectly suited our schedule. The place is very neat and clean and just walking distance (1 km) from temple.

Please note the check out time is 11am only.

Visited in June 2015

Visited in August 2017

Definitely not an easy trek although going down was easy as we simply have to climb down the stairs, it was so easy that I didn’t even realized that I went through 3000 stairs (approx) for visiting this bridge but that was very well known when I climbed back.

When we started our trek (me & my brother) it was raining heavily so we took umbrella on rent at INR 71 from locals and started our trek with the excitement of visiting this natural wonder created by locals.

There are also some guides available at the trek starting point ready to offer their services but we went without any guide and it was fine. In starting we came across some villagers house with whom we confirmed our way to the site.

Soon we reached first iron bridge after crossing two groups of people. Bridge crossing was scary here as due to rains, river (on which bridge is constructed) was flowing in full current and also the bridge was swinging as there was another local crossing the bridge at the same time when i was crossing it, hence the whole scene made me scared a bit.

After crossing the first bridge I noticed most of the stairs were going upwards hence we had to climb them. Soon we reached the second bridge which was also an iron bridge but not that scary as it was broad and wasn’t swinging.

And third bridge was single root bridge which is also a miracle in itself.

If I remember correctly there was a small eatery near this bridge, were people were having hot hot Maggie which also tempted me to have the same but I thought to complete my mission first.

After 10 odd minutes of hike we were at the ticket counter of double decker living root bridge. Ticket of INR 10 is to be purchased from here for visiting the site, we submitted INR 40, 20 for tickets (2 people) and 20 for camera. We even purchased Appy fiz to get some energy for exploring the site.

Here is the bridge standing firmly, waiting for its admirer. The whole idea of this bridge is unique and beautiful. I would call it eco bridge made up of tree roots, also gaps in the bridge is filled by stones, awesome. We encountered single root bridge on our way to site but double decker root bridge is something truly magical. Kudos to people who thought and completed the idea so wonderfully. The site totally deserves the efforts put in to visit it.

After witnessing beauty of the place we started back. We reached the site at 10 am and our start time was 8:30 am, this means it took us 1 hr 30 minute to reach the site from trek start point. We estimated the return time as 12 pm or so with the same calculation of 1 hr 30 minute.

There was also a eatery at the site so one can have something at the site.

We started back crossing bridges and reached a point from where the upward stairs started.

We were at this point at 11:30 am and thought will reach the start point in half an hour or so but we were wrong that was the point where actual stairs started, 3000 odd stairs and they all were going upwards. It took me 2 hours to reach back, 1:30pm.

Till the time rains have stopped and we could enjoy various waterfalls visible in the valley.

This is a physically challenging trek but definitely deserves a visit. People do complete the trek in lesser time as well.

Visited in August 2017

We all have been listening about Cherrapunji from our childhood as the wettest place on planet earth. Although the place is now the second rainiest place but still has the same charm and beauty I feel as I was very much welcomed by rain and it continued till my stay in Cherrapunji, sometimes heavy drops and sometimes just sprinkles.

The place is naturally beautiful and it becomes more charming in monsoon due to various waterfalls even on your way due to which we even enjoyed the road trip in this small but famous town of Cherrapunji.

Yes sometimes rains do affect our other plans but monsoon is what completes Cherrapunji.

Info:

Best time to visit Cherrapunji

This was the biggest question when I was planning to visit the place in August and after some internet surfing I got my answer and now after visiting the place in August I can share my personal experience, however I can’t comment on visiting the place in other months.

Yes monsoon do restricts or effects travel experience, same happened with us although it didn’t effected our experience fully as we were lucky enough to reach Nohkalikai waterfall just 4-5 minutes as after that the place was covered with fog due to which the waterfall was not visible.

Also caving is risky during monsoon and Cherrapunji is famous for waterfalls, caves and double decker living root bridge. Despite of all these aspect Cherrapunji definitely deserves a visit in August as the place looks beautiful in monsoon.

Visited in August 2017

We landed in Guwahati at 7:45 pm through Indigo airline from Delhi. The next task was booking the cab as our hotel (Hotel Rains Inn) which was pre-booked was around 27km away from Airport. We reached hotel at 9:10 pm and after a smooth check-in, we relaxed and ordered dinner from hotel restaurant as the same was open till 10:15pm. The food was yum and definitely worth ordering.

Day 1: With the excitement of exploring a new city we waked up and got ready. Since buffet breakfast was included in room booking, we had the same in hotel and after having a delicious breakfast we booked the cab for visiting famous ancient temple, Kamakhya Temple.

The temple is on hills, we reached the place by cab and after 10 minutes of walk we were at the stairs of the temple. One has to go through some stairs for reaching temple entry gate.

Since the temple is visited by large number of devotees hence there is a huge line for darshan. We opted for a darshan with Panda as I visited the shrine with my elderly parents (senior citizen) and special darshan ticket counter was closed when we reached the temple premises at around 11am.

After completing our ritual we proceeded towards our next destination Uma Nanda Temple. At all shakti peetha temple, the goddess shakti is accompanied by her consort Lord Bhairava, and for Kamakhya,  Uma Nanda is Bhairav. Uma Nanda temple is situated on an island and one has to go through ferry for reaching temple, but due to rains and increase in water level, no ferries was operating. Hence we could not visit the temple and decided to get back to our hotel. It was around 1 pm when we reached back to our hotel.

Since there was no other place we wanted to visit in Guwahati, hence we booked a cab for Cherrapunji. We started from Guwahati at 3pm and reached Cherrrapunji at 8pm covering around 184km. We visited Umiam lake on the way to Cheerapunji.

Umiam or Barapani lake is huge and serene.

Day 2: Cherrapunji did kept its name of, place with second highest rainfall as it did welcomed us with rains and it rained till night and till morning and till our stay in Cherrapunji.

Our itinerary was pretty clear, in the morning I wanted to trek Double Decker Living Route Bridge, one of the beautiful sight in Cherrapunji.

But trekking to this natural wonder is not easy as one has to go approx 3000 steps down, cross bridges (iron bridge, single decker bridge) and climb some stairs to reach the site and the same is to be followed again to get back.

The trek requires physical strength, hence it is not advisable for old people. We did the trek in 5 hours started at 8:30 am and reached back at 1:30pm. We started the trek when it was raining moderately and when we came back it was sunny which helped us to witness various waterfalls, which was magical.

After reaching back we had light snacks and tea before proceeding further as we didn’t had breakfast.

Soon we got into our car and proceeded for next destination Nohkalikai Waterfalls but before that we had lunch as it was almost 2 pm. The famous waterfall was 7km away from our present location.

We were lucky enough to reach the site 4-5 minutes before as after 4-5 minutes the waterfall was not visible due to thick fog all over the valley.

There are eateries at this point although I didn’t explored it much so can’t comment what all is available here to eat. Since there was not much to do and the site was also not visible hence we proceeded towards our next destination Mawlynnong which got the recognition as Asia’s Cleanest Village.

Mawlynnong is 81 km away from Cherrapunji, we reached the place at around 7:30 pm and transferred to our bamboo cottage which was pre-booked. Since it was dark so we didn’t explored the place much and soon it started raining so we remained in our cottage. We retired to our beds after enjoying tasty home made dinner (rice, bhindi and aalu ki sabzi, dal, chutni, salad) by the guest house owner.

Day 3: The next day we got up and explored nearby place along with tree house which is guest house property. Tree house gives view of Bangladesh as per guest house board.

Soon we had break fast and proceeded towards Single Root Bridge which was just 5 minutes away from the place we were currently present.

A little climb is required for visiting this amazing site, the place looks beautiful with nice water flow and natural bridge. The attraction allows ticket entry, one has to purchase ticket of INR 10 to visit the site.

The next site on our list was Dawki River and Tamabil Border which is 32km away from Mawlynnong bridge. We firstly visited border (India Bangladesh border), explored the place and bought a pickle which was yummy from a Bangladeshi vendor.

After that we went back to Dawki river which fell on our way when we were headed to Tamabil border (approx 3 km before).

It started raining when we reached the spot hence we waited and did boating once the rain stopped.

Boating at this place was amazing as we could see various small but natural waterfalls due to rains. One could easily see Bangladesh from the river shore as river Dawki flows in both the countries.

Dawki looks more beautiful and almost transparent in winters, that is, in January.

Now it was time to say good bye to this corner of world and proceed towards last leg of our trip, that is, Guwahati from where we have our return flight booked. It took 6 hours for us to reach Guwahati as the same is 177 km away from Dawki river. We had lunch in between in a small but beautiful town, its nice to see diversity in India even in small towns of different states. We reached Guwahati at around 6:30pm.

Next day we left our hotel early morning to catch the flight, the hotel was just half km from the airport. We landed in Delhi at around 11:45am.

How to reach:

By Air: Guwahati airport is well connected with all the major cities of India and a few international cities.

Shillong doesn’t have an airport within the city. The nearest airport to the hill station is the Umroi Airport near Barapani, which is about 25 kilometres away. This has limited connectivity with other cities

By Rail: Guwahati Railway Station is the major railway station of Guwahati. Kamakhya Junction is the second largest station of the city. Guwahati is well connected with all the major cities of the country.

The closest railway station from Shillong is in Guwahati.

By Road: Guwahati is very well connected with the adjoining cities and states through bus service.

Visited in May 2013

Traveling is always refreshing for me, even if it’s on weekend after working for whole week. So here i am sharing my short trip to the wonderful city of Amritsar.

We (group of friends) started from Delhi, Kashmiri Gate Bus Terminal at 9:30 pm and reached Amritsar in the morning at around 6 am. Though it was an hectic journey but the excitement of exploring the place was so strong that let us keep going. We searched for a hotel and finalized one near bus stand as Golden Temple is around 2 km from bus stand. After a smooth check-in, we got ready, did breakfast and proceeded to visit this famous ancient temple, Golden Temple. Since it was a Sunday and place had many devotees hence we got darshan after 1 hour being in the queue (at around 12 noon).

Temple is in the middle surrounded by holy water. The place looks serene and beautiful. This is the place where we could imagine for once why our nation was nicknamed as “Sone ki Chidiya” (Golden Bird).

Before proceeding towards our next site we had a glass of lassi. If I put my then emotion into famous lines “Punjab aaye aur lassi bhi nahi pi to kya khaak punjab aaye”. Punjab is famous for many things and lassi is one of them. So without any second thought we ordered and had lassi.

The next site on our list was Jaliawalan Bagh, which is very close to the temple just walking distance (around 450 meters). The place has a narrow entry and once we reached the site we could see bullet mark on walls.

The well where people jumped to avoid bullets have been covered now and given the name of “Shahidi Kuan (Martyrs Well)”.

Place also have a flame and memorial in the memory of Martyrs.

We experienced this ancient site and imagined how dreadful the incident was. The contribution of our martyrs towards independence is priceless, its beyond words.

Our next destination was Wagah Border which is 32km from our present location (Jalliawalan Bagh). We boarded a tempo on shared basis for reaching Wagah Border.

Till the time we reached border, we were hungry as it was almost evening. So we had lunch and went to border (tip: reach early and take your seat for ceremony as many people visit this place and it’s difficult to get seats later).

The lowering of the flag ceremony was grand and patriotic, felt proud to be a part of it.

After the ceremony we had some time before our late night train, so we decided to visit Shri Durgiana Temple, an ancient temple which has somewhat similar architect as that of Golden Temple but small in size.

As the name says temple is dedicated to Goddess Durga.

With the beautiful memories of this holy city we boarded the train from Amritsar Railway Station and reached Delhi in the morning.

How to reach:

By Air: Amritsar airport is well connected to other cities in India and also to a number of international cities.

By Rail: Amritsar Railway Station is well connected to almost all major cities in India

By Road: Bus services connect Amritsar with cities like Delhi, Dehradun, Shimla, Jammu and other towns in North India

Visited in September 2016

This (Malviya Nagar, Delhi) outlet of TCR was on my way back from office and every time I saw the place I used to imagine what the place would be like, a room full of chocolates or in my wild imagination a room with flowing chocolates (like the one’s in advertisement 😀 . After all my imagination one fine day I visited the place and as soon as I entered this was the first thing I saw at the reception (Chocolaty Taj Mahal):

The outlet have a cosy ambiance with limited but sufficient seating, it also have a board full of colorful sticky notes with messages/ feedback from visitors. After checking out the place we went through 15-16 pages menu of TCR to decide our treat for the night.

TCR has a tradition of greeting guest with heart shaped chocolate, a nice small chocolate:

Soon we finalized and ordered a thin crust barbecue chicken pizza, cheese fondue along with iced tea and Italian chocolate mint for drinks.

Barbecue chicken pizza: Unlike other pizza, TCR pizza have thin crust which makes it crunchier, it’s good for a change with nice cheesy topping.

Cheese fondue: Fondue is a Swiss dish and this was my very first fondue experience. TCR serves cheese fondue as melted cheese on a fondue pot heated with a candle and accompanied with grilled panini sticks, french fries, potato wedges and potato pops. It was okayish but presentation of dish makes it unique.

Iced Tea – It was a nice refreshing drink with lemon, peach, litchi, strawberry, cucumber, mint.

Italian chocolate Mint– It was a milk chocolate with mint and was fine in taste.

At last we were served with a complementary dish, Brownie with Vanilla and hot melted chocolate. This was the perfect end to a nice meal, wouldn’t have thought for a better dessert than this.

The Chocolate Room (TCR), Malviya Nagar, Delhi definitely deserves a visit as they have variety in their menu and taste in their food 🙂

Visited in January 2013

After a night stay at Patnitop, we (me and my colleagues) started from Patnitop by a cab (booked from Katra for the remaining trip) and reached our destination in around 20-30 minutes as Nathatop (our destination) is 14 km away from Patnitop. The view on the way was amazing as the one below:

Watching snow was definitely the highlight of my trip and after seeing the place the enthusiasm just got doubled. And without wasting anytime I wore my boots and got into the snow. Since the area received snowfall in morning, it was fresh and soft just like roll of cotton. We did all we could in that short span of time (as we had to catch train the same day), we played, threw snow balls, clicked photographs, glided (by ourselves), rested on snow and walked around the area. The place looks beautiful with snow everywhere and mountains surrounded.

Nathatop definitely deserves visit in winters and I am very thankful to our cab driver who suggested us this place as this was not in our itinerary.

On our way back we again visited a beautiful park in Patnitop. After seeing this park I could say one thing snow can make anything beautiful especially for the people who saw it (snow) rarely. Clean white soft snow is sufficient for enjoyment. Again we played, clicked photographs and bid adieu to this beautiful place with warm memories.

Some points

• Blazer, boots, gloves can be hired by local vendor present at Nathatop. Also one can satisfy their taste buds by having hot hot Maggie in the cool cool weather (from the local vendors at Nathatop).
• Skiing is also available at Nathatop
• Boots are recommended at these place as with continuous snow fall there is a pile of snow collected and when we walk through this snow our shoes or any other footwear gets wet, the same happened with me at Patnitop park.
• While we were walking towards park we went through some old snow which was slippery.

Continue reading “My First Encounter with Snow”

How to reach:

By Air: Tirupati Airport (39 km from Shri Venkateshwara Temple)

By Rail: Tirupati Railway Station (22 km from Shri Venkateshwara Temple)

Where to stay:

TTD Accomodation

Booking for Darshan and Accomodation:

Website for booking online: https://www.ttdsevaonline.com/

Registration: First the devotee needs to get registered with the above mentioned site. Apart from general details like Name, Address, DOB, Phone Number, devotee should have soft copy of photo and a photo id like Aadhar Card, PAN Card, Voter ID, Passport, Driving License, Ration Card.

Once the devotee is registered, he/she can do bookings. Please have ID details of the people for whom bookings are done along with yours.

Reviews:

Since this is one of the holiest places in India, a large number of people visit this place every year, every month and every day. Hence one should do online booking for Darshan and accommodation especially if you are visiting the shrine with older people. We only had Darshan booking (eSpecial Entry Darshan) as the accommodation was booked till the time we checked accommodation availability for booking. Our booking was for 11am Darshan and we reported at 10am at the mentioned location.

We booked a cab from Renigunta Railway Station for 1 day excursion including visit to Shri Venkateshwara temple, Shri Govind Raja Swamy Temple and Shri Padmavathi Ammavari Temple and back to station for catching our next train.

The temple complex is huge. We visited Shri Varaswamy temple before visiting Shri Venkateshwara temple as it is believed that Lord Vishu took permission from Shri Varahswamy before taking abode on hills, hence people follow this order during their visit to Shri Venkateshwara temple.

eSpecial Entry Darshan ticket costs INR 300 per person and includes 2 prasad ladoo with it along with darshan. One can collect the prasad after darshan by showing the ticket.

Visited in June 2015