Badri - Kedar Trip

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Dear Bharadwaj,

 

Wonderful mail... Very well written with feelings.

 

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Krish

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> Hi Everybody,

>

> Shankaram Siva Shankaram

>

> This write-up has been due for a looooooonnng time...Sorry for the

> delay.

>

> Badri-Kedar trip (1-13 August 2004)

>

> Sunday, 1st August: 6 of us (Krishna Anna, Sunil, Siva, Sai, Chapan

> and I) left Chennai at 6:20 am by Rajdhani Express to Delhi. We had

> lots of fun in the train. Poor co-passengers didn't have their best

> of times.

>

> Monday, 2nd August: It took us about 30 hours to reach Delhi. We

> reached there around noon. Delhi Srinivasan uncle came and picked us

> up and we drove to his house for lunch. After lunch, we headed out to

> the Centre Stage Mall (for the usual window shopping stuff), came

> back to the road side shops for some purchase (this one suited us

> better , drove around Delhi (visited the Lotus temple, temples at

> Shatarpur), had dinner and went back home at around 10 pm.

>

> Tuesday, 3rd August: Delhi Srinivasan uncle and Latha Aunty got up

> very early to prepare breakfast and lunch for the day ahead of us. A

> tempo traveller had been engaged for a week for this trip. We got

> ready around 8 am and left to the airport to receive Baba, Srinivasan

> uncle (Chennai Srinivasan and Janaki aunty. They flew in from

> Chennai at 9:30 am. We left for Haridwar/Rishikesh directly from the

> airport. It was a 250 km drive and we reached Rishikesh around 6 pm.

> Our night halt was at the Dayanand Ashram. We saw Ganges at its

> majesty surrounded by mountains on one side and the town of Rishikesh

> on the other. The view was just spectacular. But it's a pity that

> Ganges is being polluted badly. The water is just blackish brown in

> colour. Baba took us to a Perumal temple and Siva temple in Rishikesh

> that evening. Baba has been to Haridwar/Rishikesh so many times that

> He even told us about short-cuts to walk to the temples. We retired

> back to our rooms for the night.

>

> Wednesday, 4th August: Baba performed Homam at 7 in the morning and

> we left Rishikesh around 8 am. Hilly terrain route began here. Our

> initial plan was to go to Badri first and then later on to Kedar.

> Baba decided to go to Kedar first because of landslides along the

> Badri route. We reached Rudraprayag around 2 pm for lunch. Imagine

> Rudraprayag to be at the bottom of a V. Top right would be Kedar and

> top left would be Badri. The left route was blocked by landslides and

> so we headed to Kedar first. We reached Gaurikund (about 210 km from

> Rishikesh) around 6 pm. Gaurikund is at a height of about 2000 m

> beyond which motorized vehicles cannot go. There are no motorable

> roads beyond this point. We stayed at Garwal Mandal for the night.

>

> Thursday, 5th August: Kedar is 14km from Gaurikund which has to be

> trekked or can be covered on a horse which is exactly what we did. We

> left at 6 am and each of us on a horse for the next 5 hrs or so. It

> was painful climbing steep hills on horsebacks but was much better

> than climbing by foot. The halfway point is called Rambara (7km)

> where we and the horses had breakfast at around 8 am. It was

> raining throughout the way which made our journey messier. Finally we

> reached Kedar (3600 m above sea level) around 11:30 am. We had a very

> nice darshan. Siva is in the form of a bull with the head inside the

> ground and only the hump is visible. This is the form of Siva at

> Kedar. Baba performed Homam inside the temple and we started our way

> back down to Gaurikund which we reached around 5 in the evening. The

> entire trek was stunning with amazing forests, waterfalls, valleys,

> etc. It's just green everywhere. All of us were dead tired and we

> just crashed in to our beds.

>

> Friday, 6th August: After performing Homam, we left Gaurikund at

> around 8 am to proceed to Badri. Remember the V thing again, we had

> to drive back to Rudraprayag and reached there around 2 pm and then

> proceeded towards the other side of the V. We didn't drive towards

> Badri for a long time because of landslides occurring at many places.

> We reached Pipalkoti around 3:30 pm and decided to stay there for

> that night. There was a landslide about 12 km from Pipalkoti which

> was still being cleared. The hotel we stayed was Udaya Palace. After

> having lunch, Baba asked some of us to go and find out if the

> landslide would be cleared the next day or if there was any

> alternative route available. Krishna Anna and Chennai Srinivasan

> uncle came back and said that the landslide was about 50 m wide and

> there was little hope of it being cleared soon. They also added that

> the landslide could be crossed by climbing a mountain and then

> getting down on the other side of the landslide and this entire trek

> was 7 km Baba decided to go ahead with the trek route if the

> landslide was not cleared. We got ready for the next day of adventure

> as there were many land slides along the route.

>

> Saturday, 7th August: Janaki aunty and Latha aunty stayed back at the

> hotel in Pipalkoti. 9 of us left for Badri at 6:30 am. We reached the

> point of the first landslide. The roads were not cleared yet and so

> we started climbing the mountain at 7 am. The initial climb was

> pretty steep and then it got decent enough to climb. It took us about

> 2 hrs to finish the ascent after which we completed the descent in

> about 1 hr. We were all on the other side of the landslide (just 50 m

> in width) by 10:30 am. There were vehicles queued up on either side

> for a long long distance. On the other side, we got a jeep which took

> us till the next landslide (about 8 km). The workers there had made a

> make-shift path to cross the land slide. As soon as we reached that

> point, the path was opened and we just walked across. It was very

> risky though. Once again on the other side, we took a jeep and then

> covered some distance (not sure how much) before we reached the third

> landslide. The workers stopped us some 1/2 a km away because they

> were blasting the rocks to clear the landslide. Series of blasts went

> off and then we darted across to the other side. This one was also

> tough to cross. We crossed a bridge and on the other side rented a

> jeep again which took us till a tunnel. There is a huge Hydro

> electric power project going on in that area and this tunnel was

> built as a part of the project. Vehicles were not allowed inside the

> tunnel and we had to walk through the tunnel. The tunnel is thrown

> open every hour, on the hour between 11 am and 2 pm. Imagine our

> relief when we reached the tunnel at 1:45 pm just in time to cross

> it. This was the last opening for that day. The tunnel was 5 km long

> (a real engineering marvel) and we walked through it for about 1.5

> hrs. The tunnel was decently lit but it felt cold inside. Out on the

> other side, a dam has been built as a part of the power project

> (another engineering marvel). Water was flowing at an enormous speed

> at that point. Lucky again, there was one jeep which we rented and

> covered the last 20 km or so towards Badri. There were no paved roads

> in this stretch and it took us a good time to cover the 20 km. We

> reached Badri (3200 m above sea level) at around 5 pm, put our bags

> at the Garwal Mandal and went to a nearby restaurant to have dosa.

> Baba told us not to have more than 1 dosa each as it was getting late

> and we had to do Homam before 6 pm. What started as 1 dosa each

> finally ended as 3 dosas each plus tea, flavoured milk, etc.

> Anyway, it didn't take us that long (we were all really hungry) to

> eat 3 dosas and we reached the temple at 5:30 pm. After having a

> small darshan, Baba started the Homam at 5:45 pm. Suktams were

> recited and then Vishu Sahasranamam was recited. It was along Homam

> which ended around 7 pm. There were other people from Chennai who

> also joined the Homam. After that for about an hour Baba was in deep

> meditation in front of BadriNarayanar. We saw the final Harathi at

> night (the temple closed at 8 pm) and had a nice bath at the hot

> springs. BadriNarayanar is in the form of a Saligramam (green in

> colour) and was decorated with ornaments, sandalwood and flowers. To

> the extreme left of BadriNarayanar was Kuberan (God's treasurer) and

> to the immediate left of BadriNarayanar was Garudan. To the right of

> BadriNarayanar was Naradar and to Naradar's right were Nara,

> Narayanan. We returned back to the hotel feeling very happy on having

> an excellent darshan and a nice hot bath. Baba told us some very

> interesting stuff that Adi Shankarar was the one who found the

> Saligramam and how old the Saligramam and the temple were. The temple

> is very old and highly " Sanithyam Vaindhadhu " .

>

> Sunday, 8th August: Our initial plan was to leave Badri at 4 am and

> reach the tunnel before 6 am. Vehicles were allowed to cross the

> tunnel before 6 am. But then all of us were so tired that only 4 or 5

> of us managed to wake up at 4. Krishna Anna, Srinivasan uncles, Sunil

> and Siva went to the temple again at 4 am. All of us went to the

> temple at 8 am where Baba performed Homam and we left Badri at 10 am.

> We reached the tunnel at 11 am. Baba asked Chapan and me to act as if

> we were not well so that we can have the vehicle allowed through the

> tunnel. After some deliberations, the security guy allowed us in our

> jeep. We escaped having to walk that 5 km. After having crossed the

> tunnel, we saw a huge boulder on the road. All of us except Baba got

> down trying to guide the driver when another boulder came tumbling

> down. It just hit the other boulder and stopped short of us. Wow!

> This got the driver more tensed and he flatly refused to go further.

> So we had to change jeeps (lucky again - there was one jeep a few

> metres away) and proceed down. The last 2 landslides had been cleared

> by then and we made our way till the first landslide (where we had to

> trek 7 km). This one was not cleared yet. We had no other option but

> to trek again. It was 3 pm and it started raining. Baba said that we

> have to start trekking now as it will take us another 3 hrs to reach

> the other side by which time it will become dark. So we started

> trekking again. The incessant drizzle made things worse for us. But

> we managed to reach the other side at 6:30 pm. We rented a jeep and

> made our way back to the hotel at Pipalkoti. There were lots of small

> land slides which had occurred in the last 24 hrs along the way (may

> be about 15 or 20). Finally, we reached the hotel around 7:15 pm. We

> hogged like mad that night and had just enough strength on our limbs

> to get back to bed.

>

> Monday, 9th August: After performing Homam, we left the hotel around

> 10 am back to Rishikesh. There was one another land slide before we

> could get far. We waited around 2 hrs for that to get cleared and

> continued our journey back. This was all on the ghat section. Around

> 6 pm it started getting dark and we were still far off from

> Rishikesh. Our driver found out that the headlights were not working.

> For about 20-30 minutes he was literally driving based on some old

> reflectors and markings on the road sides. Baba told him to stop at

> the next town and get the light bulbs fixed. He tried to fix the

> lights but in vain. Luckily there was another vehicle going towards

> Rishikesh. We just followed him blindly to reach Rishikesh at 9 pm.

> Back at Dayanand ashram for that night.

>

> Tuesday, 10th August: After performing Homam, we left Rishikesh for

> Delhi. We were back in the plains and really happy to be so. The

> mountains were splendid with absolute greenery, magnificent trees,

> stunning waterfalls, amazing views, etc. But the winding roads and

> incessant rainfall made us welcome back the plains and bright

> sunshine. We reached Delhi around 3 pm and booked a hotel for the

> next 3 days' stay. All of us did some shopping that night.

>

> Wednesday, 11th August: Day trip to Agra and Mathura. Left Delhi at 6

> am, went to the Agra Fort, Taj Mahal and on the way back to the

> Krishna temple in Mathura. Reached Delhi at 11 pm.

>

> Thursday, 12th August: Sight-seeing (Red Fort, India Gate,

> Rashtrapathi Bhavan), did some shopping and got ready to leave.

>

> Friday, 13th August: Left Delhi at 6:30 am. Siva flew back directly

> to Bangalore and the rest of us flew back to Chennai. Reached Chennai

> at 9:15 am.

>

> Our thanks to Baba for having given us this great this opportunity to

> be with Him for 10 days and to have gone on such a trip with Him. It

> was a splendid trip. Truly a memorable one. Even though we had to

> trek/walk lots of distances, at each point we were able to feel Him

> being with us. How else would one describe a single jeep appearing

> out of nowhere (with no passengers in it -- so that we could all

> squeeze in) or how else would one describe we reaching the tunnel

> just in time before 2 pm. That was the last batch allowed on each

> day. It was all planned by Him for us

>

> On behalf of all of us on this trip...

>

> Thanks,

>

> Bharadwaj

>

>

>

>