Teen dhaam yatra

Annual summer break(not my break though, but I prefer taking this annual break) is here and so is the customary trip to Mohali. 

The plan was to go for teen dhaam yatra.

There are actually char dhaam for Hindus to be covered in the very same order - Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath & Badrinath.

The teen dhaam this time around excludes Kedarnath.

Day 1

We started from our home in Mohali, Punjab at 4:45am for our first dhaam - Yamunotri. Drove till around 8:20am before stopping over at NH7 punjabi rasoi for breakfast. The paranthe and the tea was good and so was the staff - very humble and sweet.

After around a 30 min halt, we proceeded again. The roads weren't very good. Given the fact that all the dhaam are located in Uttarakhand , the route was hilly too. We reached out hotel "Uday Villa" by 3:30pm.

The hotel was located right besides the main parking. We had lunch at the hotel and the visited the sheetkaleen temple of Yamuna maiya. This is the place where Yamuna maiya's brothers (yam dev and shani dev) bring her doli for the 6 months when the main Yamunotri temple (dhaam) closes around Diwali. This temple was a 5-min drive from our hotel.

We got back post the darshan , had a nice cup of tea with some snacks and then relaxed in the cozy blankets.

Day 2

We got up early and started our trek to Yamunotri dham at 4am. It's a 6 km trek from Janki chatti(starting point) to yamunotri dham. The trek is all ascent with steep turns with the last half a km descent. Go slow , preserve energy and enjoy the beauty of the nature. There are horses , mares , pallanquins and baskets available to cover the trek. Personal advice : try covering the route on foot - slow and steady. It took us around 3.5 hours to reach the dham. The darshan were quite fantastic with not much rush at the temple as it was quite early. Pilgrims usually start in large numbers by 7-8am. We started the descent at 8am and reached ram mandir by 9 am which is about 4kms. I thoroughly enjoyed this expedition though I'm not a trek lover. Back at ram mandir, we had prasad and tea and then continued our return journey to hotel. We packed our luggage and started our journey towards Gangotri dham at 11am. Gangotri dham is ~245kms from Yamunotri dham. We stopped at Hotel Anantam on the way for lunch. With not many restaurants to spot on the way, this was one of the good ones. The roads are not very well constructed given the large number of pilgrims. The uneven terrain and narrow roads cause delays beyond what the maps would usually predict. There are police personnel deployed on the way to manage and streamline the flow of traffic. We reached our accommodation "hotel shiv ganga palace" at 9:30 pm. The room was nice and clean. The staff was humble. We settled down and ordered for some coffee. It was time to curl up in cozy blankets to rest for the night. 

Day 3

Day started around 5am. We got ready to proceed for Gangotri dham darshan. Gangotri dham was 700m from our hotel. After a 7-min walk, we had reached the temple. We had very good darshan of ganga maiya and the ganga panchayat. Took a dip in the holy water of Gangotri and also filled up the ganga jal to take back home. We then reached back our accommodation and had breakfast. This was followed by packing our bags and planning for the journey ahead. Cars were parked in the government's central parking with no vehicles allowed after a designated point to ensure the safety of pilgrims. Luggage was loaded back into the car and we headed off to Badrinath at 9:15am. We stopped for lunch at "Hotel Geetanjali Resort & Restaurant" on the way. The food was good and home like. Started on the journey again by 2:20pm. 

We reached our accommodation "Girish alay homestay" at Rudraprayag. This was an over night stay only as the complete journey in single stretch was quite lengthy.

Day 4

It was supposed to be another long drive on a hilly much curvaceous terrain. Woke up a bit relaxed , indulged in a chit chat over morning tea with family. Got ready and had a good breakfast at a nearby restaurant called "Hotel Mandakini". The luggage was loaded back into the car's boot and off we go our onwards journey to Badrinath. At the point of start map indicated 151kms taking about 4.5 hours, however we reached at 3:30pm - 2 hours delay from the expected ETA. We checked into our accommodation at "Narmada Bhawan". It was raining a bit , we proceeded for the darshan. It was a 10-12 mins walk from the accommodation to the temple. We had good darshan of the deity. While proceeding back , stopped to have masala milk. We reached our accomodation by 6:20 pm. There was another hotel nearby "Hotel Narayan Palace", we went there for dinner. Yea, was a bit early but let's have an early dinner. We went in to enquire, the owner (complete story in a separate blog) was humble enough & accommodated us for early dinner. The food was absolutely delicious and the staff humble. We had dinner , a bit of chit chat with the owner and then back to our accommodation for a relaxing rest of the evening.

Day 5

A bit relaxed compared to other days as all the dhams were already covered. A bit of chit chat while still in bed and then we were ready by 7am. Went back to Narayan Palace for breakfast. Their food and hospitality took us back there. Again the food was very well prepared and served with love. Another round of conversation with the owner and a nice hot cup of tea gave a perfect start to the day. We loaded the luggage in the boot and then the journey started towards Haridwar. Took a few breaks including a lunch break on the way. Lunch was again at "Hotel Mandakini" in Rudraprayag. We finally reached "Prem Nagar Ashram" in Haridwar at 9:15pm where we resred for the night.

Day 6

A relaxed start to the day. Woke up at 6am, got ready and loaded the boot. There's a Ganga ghat in the ashram premises where we went for a holy dip. Post that we proceeded for breakfast at the in house ashram cafeteria. Limited options on the menu but the aloo poori worked for us 😂

Haridwar to home was 230kms. We started at 9:15 am post the breakfast and we were back home by 2:45pm covering a total distance of ~1550kms over 6 days.

Tips :

1. Pack your essentials : normal summer clothes, thermal wear, a light jacket/sweater, shawl, cap, any medicines, some dry snacks, umbrella/rain coat, sun glasses, socks and comfortable footwear. 2. The temperatures aren't as low as predicted. Days are pretty warm with nights being cooler. 

3. We couldn't register online as no slots were available. There are designated counters for offline registration for each dhaam individually and a very smooth process. You just need to have your original Adhaar card with you.

4. There are no restrictions to carry anything with you inside the temples, phones bags etc are allowed.