Trip Diary to tirumala.
I visit tirumala twice a year. As usual the planning starts 3 months back by blocking the leaves in office, Seva ticket availability at tirumala, Accommodation at TTD guest house and finally train tickets. All the bookings are done from my computer.
I visited tirupati-tirumala along with my family last week for my son's tonsure. We reached tirupati by 6.00am and we were welcomed by heavy thunder showers and strong winds. There was a knee deep water outside the station. We managed to reach the vishnu nivasam rest house outside the railway station. We waited for 20 minutes and got a Non Ac Room for 300 rs. Rooms are alloted based on availability. AC rooms are easily available and the rent is 800. Along with the room rent you need to pay caution deposit of 350(for 300 rs room) and 800(for 800rs room). 4 persons are allowed in each room. only when the rooms are available you will be given a form to fill. Till then you need to wait in the queue.
We waited in the room for 3hrs and once the rain stopped we went to alamelu managapuram in the local private bus. we took 100rs ticket and had a wonderful dharsan. We also enjoyed the kalyana utsavam. There was no crowd at all. we reached tirupati railway station and proceeded to Govindaraja perumal temple. Again there was no crowd and we had a peaceful dharsan and had prasadam at the temple.
We then had lunch and vacated the room, collected the caution deposit. There were no goverment buses in tirupati. we took a private jeep and paid 70 per person to reach tirumala. We had already called uttradhi mutt and booked for tonsure for my son. we reached tirumala and we got room easily at uttradhi mutt. Rested for 1hr and went to varahaswamy temple in the evening. we had dharsan in less than 10 mins as there was very less people in tirumala. we then enjoyed the sahasra deepalankara seva and went along with perumal and thayars in mada veedhis. then we went to srirangam srimadh andavan ashramam, Raghavendra swamy mutt Parakala mutt and finally S.V. Museum.
I didt carry my phone or camera into the museum and I was shocked to see beautiful sculptures from 13th century to 18th centuries. My favourite was 6ft tirumangai azhwar. there were also bronze statue of azhwars. the museum is huge and need atleast 90 minutes to enjoy all the display items. Entry is free. open from 8am to 8pm all days.
we came back to uttaradhi mutt at 7.30pm and had theertha prasadha.
We got ready by 7am next morning and punyavarchanai was conducted and tonsure was performed at the mutt. then we rested till 10am. I already booked the sudharsanam tickets for 11am dharsan. we reached the queue by 11am. The was less people and we had Nethradharsan and came out of temple by 1.30pm. Though I visit tirumala regularly I had nethra dharsan for the first time.
We then reached our room for afternoon prasadam and rested till 4pm. then we did some shopping and reached tirupati railway station by taxi. Swift car charged us 80 per person. we then took 9pm train and reached bangalore safely.
The laddus are sold separately by TTD directly in denominations of 50rs(2 laddus) and 100rs(4 laddus). one person eligible for one ticket only. these laddus have to be collected within 3hrs from the time of purchasing the ticket.
Finally I thank all the members for their valuable suggestion and making the journey very peacful for my family.
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| Govindaraja swamy temple. Photo taken from Vishnu nivasam guesthouse |
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| Srirangam srimadh andavan asharamam |
Please forgive me for the picture quality as I was not carrying my digital camera and the photos were shot from my mobile phone.
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