< Read previous chapter of the trip – Jammu Chapter I
Pune to Vaishno Devi on motorbike..finally! After climbing Kms of trek, we slept those couple of hours like dead meat 🙂 But the morning was refreshing.
Day 8: 9th March 2014
Vaishno Devi Darshan
Atmosphere was like a kid who just had bath with a little morning rain. Trust me, even the floor was so chilled that we couldn’t stand a second without dancing. There wasn’t a big rush.
Best part was that the darshan was open from the original cave route. Oh my god.. I missed it last time. Tiny entrance, water flowing below feet.. you feel like being at home with mother. No rush, we had relax darshan. People inside the cave will guide you. You should be taking darshan of holy Pindis (lingas) of Devi. Those moments can’t be captured in the words.. those moments on the lap of the mother..just can be felt 🙂
Vaishno Devi Cave
After completing Mata’s seva, we further trekked to Bhairoji. They say that your Vaishno Devi yatra is incomplete without the darshan of demon Bhairo who was blessed by the goddess. The route is more beautiful as you get complete aerial view of Vaishno Devi temple and Himalayas surrounded. We could see snow on the on the various peak.
White colored Bhairo temple is simple but filled with devotees always. Black color is prominent in the offering. Monkeys around the temple pretend themselves as a guardian of the temple 🙂
Bhairo Temple at Vaishno Devi
Well.. it was a nice experience of darshan in relax mood without unwanted rush and queues. It was 12 pm and we needed to reach back Pathankot per our plan. Good excuse..we hired ponies for our ride down 🙂 Trust me it was a fun filled trip. Appa was having such animal ride first time and had big time in adjusting.. ha ha.
Heroes of unknown olympus
Continuous flights of helicopter was the only disturbance in that cool place, but is essential as well. Again via Hathi Matha, Sanjhi Chhat, we were coming down very fast. Those ponies were walking like a pre-instructed robot and brought us to the bottom of the hill quickly.
The monkey and the juice
We still remember how humans influenced animals as well. A monkey was trying to drink juice from a bottle thrown by a tourist. After good efforts, he made hole in the bottle and completed his mission ‘ Drink the Juice’. We were in bit of hurry because of cloudy weather but still managed to complete our shopping of famous Kashmiri shawls, blankets, sweaters. You just have to pay token amount and these guys will post your goods through VPP (value payable by post). This makes shopping worry free and budget free 🙂 I must say that these shop owners are truly service providers. Whatever I bought, I received it and all the items are genuine. Bought in 2014 but still like new in 2016. Please do enjoy shopping without any worries…!
Amar Mahal of Jammu
As we wanted to reach our destination back as soon as possible, we literally just spent 5 minutes at the great Amar Palace of Jammu. The palace is now converted partially into the Royal Museum.
Read more about Amar Mahal (Palace)
Well earned sleep
It started drizzling near Jammu and Punjab border. Somehow we reached to the same Khalsa Dhaba at Pathankot bypass where we spent our night 2 days back. Owner smiled and gave us the same, served hot dinner and parked the bike in safe place without any requests 🙂
All night trek, chilled morning, tiring pony ride and bike trip.. Appa slept like a dead horse 🙂
Pune to Vaishno Devi on motorbike.. let me repeat the dream which we just had accomplished. I love India.. where can you see these many colors and cultures which we explored in just few days. I gone to sleep while imagining about the thrill which we were about to explore from next day… 🙂
Read next chapter of the trip – Himachal Chapter I >
Keep Reading Pune to Vaishno Devi on motorbike trip story:
- The Beginning
- Gujarat Chapter – Swaminarayan Temple Bharuch, Gandhinagar, Shamlaji Temple
- Rajasthan Chapter I – Shrinathji Temple Nathdwara, Charbhuja Temple Garbhor, Kumbhalgarh
- Rajasthan Chapter II – Ajmer Sharif Dargah, Pushkar, Merta City,Karni Mata temple Deshnok, Bikaner
- Punjab Chapter – Firozpur, Harike Barrage, Golden Temple of Amritsar
- Vaishno Devi (Jammu) Chapter – Baba Dhansar, Vaishno Devi, Amar Palace Jammu
- Himachal Chapter I – Pathankot War Memorials, McLeod Ganj, St John in Wilderness, Dharamsala,
- Himachal Chapter II – Dharamsala, Chamundi Temple, Baijnath, Kangra, Jwalaji, Chintpurni Mata
- Haryana Chapter – Kurukshetra, Panipat
- Uttar Pradesh Chapter – Vrindavan, Mathura, Agra
- Madhya Pradesh Chapter – Gwalior Fort, Indore
Resources:
- Vaishno Devi Darshan image – maavaishnodevi.org
- Vaishno Devi Cave image – dnaindia.com
- Amar Palace image – getawaytourandtravels.com
