Thursday, March 27, 2014

Govinda Govinda



After 5yrs of wait my wish was fulfilled. My trip to Tirupati finalized.

February 21-22, 2014

I had been enquiring with a lot of my friends on the easiest way to visit Tirupati and one of my friends happened to have completed her visit just that weekend that I brought up this topic with her. She suggested that APSTDC’s organized tour was the easiest.

So I went ahead and suggested this to my husband. He complained that going by bus and having the kids go through the long queue at Tirupati would be too tiring. But I put the whole idea across with an emotional angle :-P that he wouldn’t take me and he wouldn’t want to take the organized tour, and I have waited 5 long years for him to take me. It worked!!!!!

We decided to travel on a Friday night. So this is how it worked…
We booked the tickets online on APSTDC site-Rs.1800/- per head. Carried the online ticket and an ID card along for the officials at Tirumala are pretty strict about it.
The bus from Marathahalli, Bangalore was at 10.15P.M.. While we were waiting we treated ourselves with some reasonably priced & tasty Vada Pav & Icrecream for the kids.
We arrived in Tirupati on Saturday morning at 3.00A.M. in a luxurious, comfortable & clean Benz Bus. We were allotted a clean room for freshening up and assembling back at 4.15A.M. By 4.45A.M we were taken to Padmavati temple for a Suprabhata darshan. After the Padmavati temple visit, we were taken to a nearby restaurant for a buffet breakfast which served hot Idli, vada, Pongal and coffee/tea for breakfast- Rs.70/- per head. Post breakfast we were asked to board another bus which would take us straight to Tirumala. I & my kids usually go through motion sickness through the Ghats, but kids I think had a great time together driving through all those hair pin bends and the cool breeze which entered our bus. By 8.00A.M we reached the hill top. The tour guide asked us all to assemble together and made some announcements-
Drop our footwear, camera & mobile phones at a designated shop on the hilltop. Checked our tickets. Finish the darshan and assemble back at the meeting point.

50 of us entered the Sheeghra darshan queue at about 9.00A.M. and went through the struggle of pushing & pulling till 11.30A.M. Finally got Lord Balaji’s darshan for a few seconds before we got pushed out. But having got the full view of Lord Balaji, I was satisfied. Throughout the 2 ½ hrs trek to see The Lord, my son was happily asleep either in my arm or in husbands arm..alternating as and when one of us got tired, but the moment we reached The Lord, he was wide awake, folding his hand in a namaskar and praying for good health & sadbuddhi. Daughter was a darling who waited along without complaining too much.

Once we were out, the guide was waiting at the meeting point along with Laddoos- 2 Laddoos per ticket. Once all 50 of us were out and boarded the bus, we were brought back to Tirupati where we boarded back our Benz bus back to Bangalore. The guide left us at this point. The next stop was for lunch- not so good food. After an hours break the bus maintaining its speed at about 60-70kms per hour, stopped next for a Coffee break at Kamat just outside Bangalore. We arrived at Bangalore at approximately 7.00P.M and were back home by 8.00P.M.

Tiring, fulfilling, long wished, hassle-free trip came to an end.

Taking the steps next time to see The Lord….

KSTDC also has a organized trip to Tirupati @ Rs.1750/- per head, but since APSTDC was recommended by my friends, we decided to try it out.

Details of the various packages available here>>