On 20th May i have decided to make a visit to badrinath & Kedarnath Dham. On 2nd June ‘2010 i have started from ramnagar (nainital), famous for Corbett national Park for Badrinath Dham. It was a wonderful day and at 6 A.M we have started from Ramnagar and reached Karnprayag at 1 P.M there we had our Lunch at Hotel Parkdeep and proceeded further and reached Joshimath around 4:30 P.M,but there were tremendous traffic jam and we stucked there for around 1 hour and finally we reached badrinath dham at 7 P.M. , the weather is quite chilling and it was very cold there so,we planned to check in to Hotel and finished our dinner by 9:30 P.M and went to bed.
As planned we got up at 2:45 A.m and went to Tapt Kund (Hot Spring water) for bath and did our Pooja at 4:45 A.M.
The temple is very beautiful we had a very good darshan as Mr. Bhupender (Temple Officer) helped us as he was known to one of our friend’s father who is Accounts Officer at Kedarnath.
After that we went to India’s Last Village “Mana” , good people, nice village there we met Mr. Dev Singh an oldest person of that village aged around 87 years and we had tea together at Last Tea Shop in Indian Territory.
We have discussed so many things and he informed us that in winter they (all villagers) move to Chamoli. He also told us that when he was young they used to go to Tibbet (just 40 K.ms from the Mana Village) for selling crops and in lieu of crops they used to bring cattles from Tibbet but after 1962 (as informed by him) they were not allowed to go to Tibbet due to political differences between China & India. At mana, we have visited Ganesh Ghufa, Vyas Ghufa, Chamunda Devi Temple, Bhimpul etc.
it was really a wonderful experience. By 9 A.m we left Badrinath Dham and proceed for gauriKund but unfortunately my friend’s wife got sick and we admitted her at Gopeshwar Hospital. I was really surprised to see the services of a Govt. Hospital and she had been discharged at 8 P.M and we stayed at GMVN rest house at Gopeshwar.
The one thing we could not forget the dal Tadka we had at GMVN Restaurant (Thanks to Friend’s wife for getting sick at Gopeshwar).
Next Day on 4th June at 5 A.M we have started for Kedarnath Dham and we reached gauri Kund at 1 P.M where my Friends father (Diwakar Uncle – account Officer , Kedarnath Dham) had booked rooms for us at Temple Rest House at Gauri Kund, we freshed up there and around 1:45 P.M we have started for Kedarnath Dham on foot (14 k,ms one way), the track is not so good and you will find smell of Horse Lid everywhere but we started climbing, the pressure of oxygen is low and after 5 K.ms we took a pony and reached Kedarnath Dham at 7P.M.
Thanks to my Friend Sanjay and Diwakar Uncle(Sanjay’s father), they made a very good arrangement for us and booked Temple Rest House at Kedarnath Dham also. We freshed up and uncle called us for Aaarti Pooja of the temple we went to the Temple for aarti pooja from the V.I.P gate. At 11:30 P.M uncle told us to attend Maha abhisek Pooja (Special Pooja) when the rush of general Visitors finished. We went to the temple and did Maha Abhishek Pooja at 11:30 P.M, it was again awesome.
This could not be possible without the help of Diwakar Uncle. At 12 A.M we had dinner at Temple’s canteen. Next day on 5th June we thanks to Uncle for arranging all the things complimentary for us and he gave us special Prasad and Dhoti.
We started walking down from kedarnath at 9 A.M on foot and reached Gaurikund at 2 P.M collected our luggages from Rest House. We were so tired and severe pain in our legs as we walked aprrox 20 K.ms (both way). But we started our car from there and reached Karnaprayag at 7P.M and stayed at Hotel Mountain View. Next day morning after breakfast we have started from karnaprayag and reached Ramnagar at 7 P.M. This is a short story of our Do Dham yatra. But heartilythanks to My friend Sanjay and Diwakar Uncle. My memorable experience of Uttarakhand as I am saying good bye to Uttarakhand on 1st July and going back to my own home town Scotland of east, Assam.
Dear Ranjit,
Short but sweet post. Last week I was in Yamnotri & Gangotri , Kedarnath & Badrinath is pending for next year.
Its saying that Yatra starts from left to right i.e. Yamnotri – Gangotri – Kedarnath – Badrinath. Have you already covered Yamnotri & Gangotri ?
It will be helpful for the other Ghumakkars if you could tell some thing about the road conditions.
Dear Mahesh,
No we have not covered Yamnotri & Gangotri due to shortage of time , but we have discussed the same with our local priest and he said if you want to do Do Dham then its better you do Badrinath & Kedarnath. Yes the road condition till Govindaghat (towards badrinath) is good but the last span of approx 14 K.ms is so-so the roads are widen but broken. Again while going to Kedarnath from badrinath or from Kedarnath to Badrinath, the short route is Gopeshwar, Mandal, Chopta, Ukhimath, Guptkashi, Sonprayag & Gaurikund but the condition of road between Ukhimath & mandal is pathetic.
welcome aboard Ranjit.
I have been contemplating as well for doing Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath but not been able to do so far.
Mahesh – I am waiting for you logs. :-) They would be great resources to plan a trip.
Dear Nandan,
When you are planning to go ?
From NCR 7 days are sufficient to cover Yamnotri & Gangotri. We did in 5 days (Dehradun-Yamnotri- Gangotri-Dehradun).
Dear Nandan,
For badrinath & kedarnath you need 6-7 days from Delhi / NCR.
Nice post. Reminded me of my trip to Kedarnath-Badrinath.
It was a more than a decade ago though. The climb from Gaurikund to Kedarnath(approx 14kms, if i remember correctly) was a little difficult at that time because of very poor condition of the “Kaccha Raasta”. I would not forget to mention – it was damn adventurous!
There were no hotels on the way(during the 14kms stretch). So if one does not manage to reach the temple by evening, before the sunset, , it was very difficult at that time as there were no lights on the way, and ofcourse the path was not that easy because of all the mud and horse shit. So it was too slippery to walk. At that time, the only option in such situation was to stay at one of the “chaiwala khokhas” till the morning sun (which included the adventure of dripping rain over your blanket ). I never have had such an adventure in my life.
I hope the condition is better now and the climb is better than before.
Yes Badrinath is a marvellous place too.
Does the authority at Badrinath temple still charge some x hundred rupees for each person to have a good “darshan” at temple? There were certain categories at that time like if you pay hundred rupees, you can have a “darshan” from some 8 meters distance and if you pay Rs 300(figure may not be correct, my memory faded eventually with my age :p), you can avail the “darshan” from 2 meters distance. I hope it is no longer there and people can complete their pilgrimage without paying so much.
Ranjit, Did you get a chance to see the sheep rearing – the hair shaving and wool making process from sheep hair at Mana village? It was something very commonly seen there. Mana Gaon looks much developed in these pictures now.
Just an advice for those who are willing to take holy bath at tapt kund @Badrinath temple – do not keep you head dipped in the “very” hot water for too long. The sulphorus gases in the water that keep the water hot may lead to nausea, drowsiness or head whirling. A bunch of us suffered that.
Suddenly I am remembering so much about my trip. Thanks for sharing this!
Yes Vaishali, I think the road is some how the same, i don’t know how bad it was a decade ago, but i still think that the Badrinath Kedarnath Mandir Samiti should at least make a different track for Pony, coz it is really difficult to trek and through out the road the smell of pony shit at the height don’t even allow u to have clear breathe. I saw people falling due to pony, one gentleman with a small kid fallen from pony with a clash between two ponies ( one was going up & another was coming down), it was grace of Baba Kedar that they did not get major injury. Though We have reached before it got dark but today also there were limited Light posts which i felt insufficient lighting after sunset. Yes the samiti still charge Rs.2100/- for 3 persons for close darshan at badrinath and Rs.5100/- for 2 at Kedarnath for abhishek pooja inside the temple. But though the Account Officer of the samiti (Diwakar Uncle) was known to us, we had a very good darshan without any charges. No we could not get a chance to the sheep rearing but talking to the most senior man of the Mana Village was a great experience. You are right the water was so hot, i could not able to have dip i took a bath with the help of mug. At the end it was a memorable trip for us .
Thanks to all for reading the post.
Ranjit
wow such corruption at the purest geographical site called “Dhaam”.
darshan at 300m . 800m, etc etc.
shall we call this god’s own country or god’s corporate country.
the pure natural beauty of these places has been wilfuly and mercilessly trampled upon by these so called samitis.
Very beautiful scenary
Hi could you please share the number of diwakar uncle so that we can also do maha abhishek puja..
my email id is divinepathkrishna@gmail.com