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>>
