Vaishno Devi / Patnitop (J&K)

M Back after a Long time... so much has happened in my Life in the past Six Months,I Got married with the "LOVE" of my Life "Ankita". Getting back to my Travel Experiences;.This one is special bcoz its one of the trips outside Maharashtra. All my trips which i have shared till now were weekend getaways.. this one was a long one. Me and Salil (my cousin) were planning for a long trip since college days but couldn't go bcoz of studies n all. But this time we decided we will go somewhere, i cameup with the Plan to go Vaishno Devi (in Jammu Kashmir) and Jwala Devi (Himachal). Salil agreed, we tried hard to make a group but no one came wid us so atlast we two went on.

As planned i went to Dadar station to board Train (Punjab Mail), Salil was supposed to catch the train from Kalyan station. I planned to board the train from Dadar bcoz Ankita (My Best Friend then) was coming  to meet me at Dadar. I reached dadar around half an hour before the arrival time of Punjab mail but Ankita didn't. I called her she said "I just Left.. ll be there" .. 5 mins .. "I am in Auto .. ll be there".. 10 mins "I just caught Local Train.. Don't worry i ll be there".. announcement of Punjab Mail coming @ Dadar... "M still in Local.. don't worry you go to Punjab Mail's Platform .. i will be there"..  Atlast i saw Punjab Mail coming from one side and from other side Ankita running towards me. We just said "Hiiii .. exchanged Smile... then Bye!!" and i boarded the Train :-). That was shortest possible meeting. Coming back to the trip, Salil boarded the train at Kalyan and next day around 10 Am (Sunday)  we reached Vidisha (My Native Place).

We stayed at Vidisha for a day, Salil's parents came to my place to visit us. Next day (Monday) morning we boarded Jhelum Express from Vidisha station. Journey by train is always a good experience, just before reaching Jammu we got our luggage, mobiles checked by securities. We reached Jammu next night ,around 8 Pm (Tuesday). Just outside Jammu's railway station you can easily get a bus to go Katara which is base for Vaishno Devi.  Got a bus, we reached Katara at around 1Am (Wednesday) Morning. Hotel condition was ok, that guy took 900 Bucks for a stay of two days . Slept for aroud 5-6 Hrs, we woke up early as we had to go for Vaishno Devi darshan. Take my words, bathing that early was the most difficult task :(, that too in. You need to get a ticket for the Darshan, around 15 - 20 Rs per person , then we started for Vaisho Devi yatra with the words "JAI MATA DI!!!".

We were already loaded wid cloths because f cold and to our surprise it rained that morning, so we bought temporary raincoats available for Rs 20 each. Now we were looking like eskimos :). To reach the Vaishno devi gufa you need to walk around 10 Kms. Initial 5 Kms you need to walk, rest 5 kms you can either go by "tattoo" via Ardh kuwari or tempo via other route. We decided to walk till vaishno devi. Vaishno Devi yatra is experience of lifetime man , from every possible direction you will hear  "Shera wali ki Jai.. " "Jyota wali ki Jai.. " "Pahadan wali ki Jai".. lot more. Your energy level will reach cross all the vertical limits. We reached Gufa somewhere around noon, had darshan and came back by eve. One good experience that there r huge numbers of photography studios on whole way, each studio has replica of vaishno devi gufa, you will feel like Devi is with you at every step. We came to Hotel after having dinner and planned for the next day.

We cancelled the plan to Jwala Devi, instead we plan to go Patnitop. As we both wanted see snowfall. Patnitop is a hill station on Jammu Srinagar highway, it is the highest point on the highway so there r very bright chances of snowfall. We got the bus from Jammu bus stop till Patnitop, as we were reaching our destination rainfall started, slowly rain drops were started turning more white as we move on to our destination. And after some time it was heavy snowfall, one of the breathtaking moment of my life. We reached patnitop in that snowfall, everything there was white and completely covered with snow.

Got an amazin Hotel; completely made of wood in kashmiri style. We kept our luggage and went out. All roads were empty but we played with snow like kids and explored the hill town. Stayed at patnitop and next day again came to highway to get bus to Jammu as we had catch the train from jammu. Got srinagar-jammu bus, entire road till jammu was full of scenic beauty of kashmir. We reached jammu by evening and got the Train Malwa Express. All I can say is.. Patnitop is a must visit.. Kashmir is truly a Heaven on Earth...