A Spiritual Journey Into The Himalayas

India is a vast country, and tourists could plan holidays for a variety of reasons. Many tourist circuits are theme based and which could lay emphasis on themes like wild life, adventure, historical and cultural circuits. One of them also being spiritual tourism.  The most popular circuit in this space is the Char Dham Yatra, in the State of Uttarakhand.  The shrines covered in this circuit are Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.

To start with, a bit of planning will go a long way in minimising hardships that travellers may typically face. The most popular way of starting the spiritual tour is Ex- Haridwar or Ex- Delhi. The tour can only be undertaken in the summer months at the commencement of the “Akshaya tritha day” and  the shrines are closed after “bhai dooj”, which falls 2 days after Deepawali for the winters.

The journey on the hilly terrain is truly picturesque.  With pine lined trees majestically perched on the road edge with cliff side on the other is surely a photographer’s delight.  The first of this Chota Char Dham is Yamunotri.  Barkot a small way side town serves as a transient point to reach the shrine.  Uttarkashi serves as a good halting point for Gangotri. The river Ganges with its crystal clear water is a welcoming sight for the divine bathers, before embarking on a darshan at the temple. The journey beyond takes a traveller to Sonprayag with a choice of options to stay. An alternative is stay ahead at Gaurikund, which has lesser option for stay but a shorter distance of about 16 Kms of trek.  These two towns serve as base point for Kedarnath. Incidentally, for the not so agile travellers they could engage porters to carry them  to the shrine. Ponies are also available to Kedarnath.

The more affluent can hire helicopter  service to reach Kedarnath. The helicopter has both advantages as well as disadvantages. The advantage being savings in time by a day, while the flip side is weather being unpredictable the helicopter services  see frequent cancellations on account of bad weather. The last of the Dham is Badrinath, which will have Josh math as a stop over before reaching Badrinath.  After a pleasant spiritual interaction with the Gods, the trip would officially end here as all the 4 Himalyan Dhams would have been covered till then.  However, the trip which would have commenced in Haridwar, would end here with a sacred dip in the River Ganges, which is believed to give sublime spiritual enlightenment.

Traveller Tips

To make the journey comfortable it is recommended to carry the following. Medicine box with medication for, cough, fever cold, high altitude sickness, apart from maintenance doses that a traveller routinely takes. Pharmacy on the way side may not stack regular supplies of maintenance doses of medicine, thus you need to carry the same, as a matter of caution. Apart from this because of the climate turning inclement, a pair of warm woollens, caps and headgears, mufflers will certainly be handy.  Another tip is try and start from your hotel before dawn to make your journey pleasant. Travel kit should also have a light portable umbrella and a torch is highly recommended.  All of the above will make a tourist truly happy with a comfortable and enjoyable Char Dham Yatra.  

Road distance and Itinerary planning

The total circuit will be approximately 1200 Kms and the travel duration will be 10 to11 days. A small amount of cash (currency) will be handy as ATM’s may not stack adequate cash in the machines, in the event of heavy tourist influx. Also the inclement weather means servers may not work all the time, and surely one wouldn’t like to get stranded midway during the tour.

How to book?  

Skyway International Travels is a professional travel company which has standard packages or can tailor make packages to suit individual choice. They have offices both in Bangalore and Mysore and can arrange packages with a focus on customer satisfaction. Talk to Manju on 98451 99077 the man behind the scene who will tailor the package and keep customers delighted.