Haridwar in Mid-October

mvh_sastry

Hi all,
I am on pilligrimage to Haridwar during 3rd week of October ( 14th - 21st) .

This is first time I am going there. Need your help in understanding
a) Delhi - Haridwar Train Journey - How cold the night journey ( mussorie express) can be, during 3rd week of October

b)What kind of dress we shall keep ready for men and women during this journey ?

c) How cold it will be at Kedarnath and Badrinath ?

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Regards

karnail

Haridwar will not be any cold than Delhi but higher hills will need woolens and quilts (during nights).

__________________
http://karnail.blogspot.com/

sunilg

you can expect the temperature in Haridwar to be colder by a degree or two than Delhi.....nothing much..but yeah traveling in train would be chilly...you'll need that extra woolen layer to keep you warm.

__________________
...Bismillah

mvh_sastry

Thanks for the information and suggestions.

mvh_sastry

Hi all,

We completed our yatra successfully. Despite of all fears of too much cold, we made the yatra successfully and conviniently. I would like to mention all our experiences so that it can help the future goers to these places in the month of October.

We boarded Mussorie Express ( the most convinient Train from Delhi for overnight journey) to Haridwar from Delhi. It was very hot at Delhi, even it was mid of October. Most often I found the train being halted and root cause i understood later, was , the adjoints of the bhogie at various stations. It was not great cold throughout the journey, except at some places over the journey. One shall prepare oneself with good protection against the cold throughout the train journey.

We alighted at Haridwar by 5.45 AM. It was nice to touch the punyabhumi for the first time. Rikshawallas and autowallas came in groups asking us where to go. However, we booked our own cab and went to Jahnavi Dale Hotel, which was very nice to stay for a night in Haridwar. Hot water was available. Beautiful Ganga can be seen from long windows. Good beds and neat toilets. Comfortable hotel. Good food of choice. We settled for a moment after freshenup and started to Brahma Kund for Ganga Snan. It was great experience to bath in Sacred Ganges. One has to be very careful , watching their luggage when all of team go to bath simultaneously. If no proper eye is given to the luggage, it may get stolen. Beware.

Then, we visted all the series of very small temples on the banks of river ganges. Frankly speaking, hari ki pair is just a place, where we found literally submitted to see them. However, the commercialism among the poojari ( archaks) is quite irritatable. Needs to control self not to fall into trap those guys play.

We bought the dabba to pick Ganga water to provide all our family members back in Hyd and filled with Ganga. Dabbas are available for sale on the way to Ganges.

We then went to Manasi Devi temple over the ropeway which was a thrill of itself for us. Only thing was , my parents being old, found little inconvinient to walk through all the way to find the ropeway starting point from the place the cab left us. Then we went to Chandi Devi which is also one of the cherishable ropeway journies. We thought to go to Anjana Devi Temple ( Hanumanji's Mother) , but because we already strained, we took the ropeway to come down.

For Breakfast , we went to one of the nearby hotels - I think it starts with Madhura Hotel or something. Service was the worst you can imagine. You wont be attended at all , due to huge demand they have. Getting what you want is out of question as only puri -related stuff can be obtained to eat. Even for bill payment, people's attitude was so pathetic. Not a good place to breakfast, unless you are really done without having something.


Then we went to Dakshyeswara Temple. We are very much thrilled to see the Yagna Kund where the entire history of Daksha Yagna happenned. Mandir was very old and there was one place inside the temple just opposite to the Yagna Kund, where water has to be filled , otherwise, the fumes come out. It was great to find such thing. Then we visited Lord Shiva there and after coming out, we found a huge statue of Shiva holding Dead - Sati in his hands.

We took the lunch in "Chotiwala" hotel in Haridwar. Mistake we did was to order Southern Indian Thali. We wud have ordered Northern Indian Dishes. After lunch, we went to Paaradeshwar shivling temple where we found Rudraksh Tree which was great to see. Shivling looks to be transparent. Also, we visted Maha Mrutyunjaya Temple in the premises.

In the evening, we went to attend Ganga Aaarti. Great to see it. We ourselves left it into Ganges. Then we went to Bharat Bhavan , Model VishnoDevi Temple. Great to see the work inside these places. Artifically prepared shapes of all important Puranas. Nice to see them.

We Went back to Jahnavi Dale hotel and took rest. Early morning of 15th October, we started to Gupta Kashi. It was pleasant experience to see the moutaneer in my life for the first time in so huge numbers. My first sight of Himalayas stream made me so much thrilled while on journey.

We were put up at Shubham Hotel at GuptKashi. Shubam hotel seems to be reasonably good to stay for a night. Two beds with woolens gets provided. Toilets are clean. Hot water starts from 4AM onwards. Good hotel to stay. Food availability in Guptkashi is a problem. One has to adjust with the local roadside hotels for northindian rotis. Of course, good variety of subjis can be offered by these hotels. Nothing of Restaurant sort, can be found here in Gupta Kashi. The view of Beautiful Himalayas from Shubham Hotel was excellent. The one extreme of Kedarnath and the other extreme of Badrinath can be seen from here. Nice view.

We went in the evening to Ardhanareswar temple. Great to see manikarnika kund in the same premises. So much of history / purana is attached to the temple. We were excited. We asked our driver to take us to Ukhimath. But he denied because of closure of driving hours ( till 7PM) for the day.

We took rest and next day ( 16th Oct) very early, 3AM, we woke and freshened. By 4Am, we started from Guptkashi to Agastyamuni to catch the pawanhans helicopter to Kedarnath. We reached Agastyamuni by 5.30 AM itself and had been waiting for the officials to come. They came about 6Am and relased the necessary passes and documents and asked to go security check-in. Better nothing like match box kind of stuff , not be carried , while of helicopter journey. Suddenly, the unexpected previous-night's rain left the clouds still on the skies and our helicopter take-off fell into dilemma. It was almost 2.5 hours waiting where sun and lord shiva allowed skies to get cleared. We boarded helicopter by 8.40 and in next 5 mins, it took off. It was our great experince to go through the Helicopter and finding the beautiful himalayas on the way to Kedarnath. Excellent.

We were all prepared with monkey-caps, full-hand sweaters, jerkins over them, hand gloves, and socks.

We landed there in Kedarnath helipad and huge snow already there almost about 3 inch over the helipad. The guys there are cleaning it. Immediately , the guys there took our hands to direct us to temple. There is a way from the helipad to temple constructed with cement. However, it was covered with snow. Those guides helped us to walk slowly without falling down from the snow way. It was very nice experience to walk in Himalayas. Our shoes were getting pressed into the snow fallen over the way. We were feeling the cold a bit high. Entire thing is manageable, except the foot. My father, brother and me were wearing the shoes and so not found a problem of cold feet. But, my mother and my wife were having just the socks and they too require the shoes, which we missed. It is better to wear the shoes even for ladies.

We spent good time there in temple and satisfactorily completed darshan. Bought some memories pics there while coming down from temple to helipad. It was little sunny and ice started melting. It was further difficult to walk over the melting ice without skidding. One has to be careful.

We came back to Agastyamuni in the helicopter. We thanked the pilot. We just had some good parathas at a road side hotel near around.

After this, we started leaving to Trijugnarayan. Road to this place is very bad. Very rare traffic. Road is full of fallen trees and literally, a kacha road. Very long journey to the hill. But, it was great to see the flames of last three yugas there at the temple where parvathi married shiva. While coming down , we decided to go to Gaurikund , which we missed first.

Then we went back to Shubham Hotel, Guptakashi and took rest.

Next immediate day, 17th October, we started to Badrinath. Very long journey from Guptkashi to Badri. Almost about 11 hours, including lunch / tea breaks. Pipal Koti is a better place to have lunch in the journey. At any point of time, you may get struck in the journey due to land sliding from the mountains. Driver has to be very careful throughout the journey. Seasoned professinal only needs to drive the vehicle.

At badrinath, we were put up at Bholagiri Ashram. It was a nice place to stay. Double bed gets arranged. Wollens gets arranged. Toilets are clean. Hot water is not available into the rooms. Not too sure why so. One has to inform inadvance for hot water. THere is no power plug point inside any of the rooms. we took the hot air blower with us. But, it was useless as there was no plug point. We requested Maharaja of the ashram, but failed to get the room with the plug point. Night stay in Badrinath in Mid october is a challenge kind, for a south Indian. One has to be prepared well with wollens. Otherwise, it becomes extremely difficult to spend the night.

We just visited the temple on the same night for once and came back to Bholagiri Ashram. For Next day morning bathing, one has to book for hot water in advance. No one asks, but we have to order ourselves. If you not informed, you will be least prioritised for hot water.

The scenic beauty of Neelkant Peak in the very early morning sun-rays was excellent , from the windows of Bholagiri. We took our heart to see the picturesque beauty of Neelkant peak in the early Sun. We visted Badri-narayan once again in the morning. My father offered pinda-dan in Brihmakapal. Satisfactorily done. Dosas and idlis are available in hotel.

We went to Joshimath and stayed at Mountview in Joshimath. Decent hotel with very good scenic beauty that can be seen from the room itself. Food was OK. Hot water is available inside the room. We visited Joshimath, Narsimh Mandir and returned back.

Overall it was great experience to visit all the above places. Thanks.

Dilliwala

Well, from Guptkashi u were already closer to Gauri Kund than to Agastyamuni but I guess u wanted to save yourselves the walk up.
Great that u cud get an aerial view of the area. Must have been outstanding. What is the cost per person nowadays? It used to be something phenomenal like 6000 per person one-way.

mvh_sastry

Yes dilliwala. It was a great experience to have the aerial view from the helicopter , especially when the green mountains end and the snow mountains start, it was our eyes who cud the see the beauty.

Because of my old parents convinience, we chose the helicopter. It was about Rs 7000 per head + 500 for special darshan per head. But, It was worth of it.

Pramod Kumar

Hi,
iam planning for a Kedar trip in May. Do you have the contact numbers for Hotel Shubham?