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Char Dham Yatra
What is Char Dham Yatra? Char=Four; Dham=Abode; Yatra=Pilgrimage.
In India, at one point of time there were more ‘Devis’ and ‘Devatas’ - Goddesses and Gods (33 crores of them – 330 million, no less!) than humans. Now of course the humans have outnumbered Gods and Goddesses. And therefore not surprisingly, tourism and pilgrimage were synonymous. Not before very long ago, tourism meant visiting
popular (emphasis intended) holy places like Benaras or Gaya or Rishikesh or Haridwar or Tirupati or Rameshwaram or Somnath or Dwarka or Jagannath Puri. Now the scenario is changing. Now you visit Vaishno Devi along with Shimla and Manali, Mathura with Taj Mahal of Agra and so on.
There is still one circuit which is almost exclusively a Yatra or Pilgrimage, and that is Chhota Char Dham. ‘Chhota’ means small. The original Char Dham concept was to visit Rameshwaram in South, Dwarka in West, Badrinath in North and Puri in East. They were in four directions spread across the country, it used to take more than a month by train.
Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, the concept of ‘Chhota Char Dham’ became popular
This is not river bed. It is wall of Himalayan Mountain at 12000 feet.after Indo-China war in 1962 as a fall out of improvement in roads. And now-a-days, Chhota Char Dham has replaced original Char Dham. The new Char Dham Yatra includes, typically in this sequence: Yamunotri (origin of river Yamuna), Gangotri (origin of river Ganga), Kedarnath (shrine of Lord Shiva) and Badrinath (shrine of Lord Vishnu).
When to Visit: Respecting weather conditions, Char Dham Yatra opens on the day of Akha-Trij (in May) and closes for winter on Bhai-Bij (in October/November). Rainy season must be avoided and hence May, June, September and first half of October are the best months. According to our tour guide, in May and June there is heavy rush of tourists (sorry, pilgrims) and hence September is the best. In May and June due to heavy rush, you get about 5 to 10 seconds in the shrine to offer your prayers, in September that will not be a problem. Actually the population that visits Char Dham has no constraints of Summer Vacation of schools and colleges because they are past that age (19 out of 20 in our group were 50+).
Is it difficult? Yes. All the tour operators warn about the difficulties and they are right. They say that you must have enough faith (shradhdha) and true intention for pilgrimage, else you will not withstand the rigors or hardships or manmade discomforts. Varying climate, poor road conditions and frequent landslides are major hurdles.
Weather: is harsh and variable. You move from 1 degree Celsius at night (in the month of May) in Kedarnath to nearly 40 degrees after a few hours while travelling to the next destination. It may rain at any time at most places. So you have to be prepared with heavy woolens as well as rain-protectors. Kedarnath is the highest place at 12,750 feet and there can be problems due to poor oxygen concentration (Acute Mountain Sickness). Only with God’s grace, the entire Yatra covering all four places can be completed without a mishap.
Clothes: Three layers of woolens are recommended if you are staying overnight at Kedarnath. Laundry services were not available in hotels provided by RadheShyam. Select clothes that do not crumple very easily.
Terrain: The Char Dhams are located in the Shivalik hills of Lower Himalayas in Garhwal region of Uttarakhand State. The Himalayas are relatively young mountains formed only about 50 million years ago due to collision between Indian plate with Asian plate and the process is still not complete. Before that, there used to be sea at this place. The fact is obvious to any lay person with some observant eyes (see photo). At 12,000 feet, mountains are made up of smooth rounded stones usually found in river bed or in the sea. There is hardly any soil to bind these stones together, gaps are filled by sand. There is very little of hard rock formation. Due to rains or pressures of vehicles, the valley (river) side of the road crumbles. To widen the road, some more of mountain is scrapped or blasted. There is further erosion on valley side and the vicious cycle continues. The result is very frequent landslides precipitated by increasing human activities. We even saw one landslide taking place!
Roads: Very treacherous, dangerous and tiring. They certainly help in building up your faith in God. Only mini buses with capacity of 25-27 are allowed. Longer vehicles cannot pass through very very sharp bends. This makes travelling less comfortable. Smaller cars are better options. Border Roads Organization (BRO) is doing a tremendous job of keeping the route open for six months. In Uttarakhand, vehicles are not permitted to ply after 8.00 pm till 5.00 am in the morning due to treacherous roads.
Distances: Out of total about 1900 km we travelled from Delhi to Delhi, 1400-1500 kms were in mountains. At average running speed of 20-25 km/hour, it is a lot of travelling. But I must admit that we did not see a single vehicular collision in the entire Yatra. You travel for 1500 km in any other part of the country and you will get to see ‘n’ number of road accidents. Credit must be given to the drivers. Drivers for Uttarakhand are a specialist lot. They are masters of mountains. They are very cool headed and show tremendous amount of understanding with each other and exceptional judgment while driving in reverse – up hill or downhill, on mountain side of the road or on the valley side. Accidents do occur when there is error in judgment of where the off side front wheel or off side rear wheel is while going in reverse! It was only twice in nearly 70-80 hours of travelling in mountains that we were scared (and screamed). It takes total 8 nights and 9 days to visit the four shrines from Haridwar to Haridwar (10 nights/11 days : Delhi to Delhi). Visit a place on alternate day and travel on alternate days. Certainly not easy.
Considering the hardships involved, it is suggested that one should undertake this Yatra when physically fit. Youngsters may not fully enjoy this tour as there are no places other than temples to visit and requires tight discipline to maintain time schedule. As such the total numbers of days are 12 + home stretch, so there is no scope for diversification for entertainment. One should be clear that this is Yatra (visiting temples) and not sight-seeing tour. One may have different levels of involvement with God – ranging from Snaan (bathing in every river and Kund – a small tank) to simple Darshan (without the help of Pundits) to Poojas (with the help of Pundits) – but that does not matter.
How to plan? It depends on the numbers in your group and the budget. If you are 4 or more, your own taxi (Innova is good) or Tempo Traveller (capacity – 12) is preferable. It gives you flexibility and freedom. Plus you can improvise a little bit and get to see a couple of more places. Taxis can be arranged through tour operators also as a part of their package at extra cost. Worth considering.
Air link is up to Dehradun (Jolly Grant airport - one and half hours from Rishikesh / two hours from Haridwar). Rail head is Haridwar. Rest of the travelling is by road only. Helicopter packages at 2.25 to 2.75 lacs per person for 5 days covering all four shrines are also available.
Since Uttarakhand depends entirely on tourism / pilgrims, large numbers of hotels of all categories are available at all places. But the problem is that it is very difficult to know the true quality of a hotel through Internet. Words like ‘Stars’ and ‘Deluxe’ used by hoteliers carry little sense. I do not know of a single website that gives true picture. In Uttarakhand, in any season, you must ask for continuous availability of water including hot water as you will always feel like bathing in the evening after a long day.
Organized group tours: A large numbers of operators conduct group tours from Delhi / Haridwar / Rishikesh. We had considered a couple of operators from Gujarat, plus ‘Heena’. Heena additionally covers tourist places like Auli with two additional days which means slower pace (and proportionate additional cost). We ruled it out as 13 nights / 14 days was not possible, although Heena is one of the good and reputed organizers.
Gujarati operators offer Gujarati food – their strongest selling point (although we are not crazy about it) and have identical 11 nights / 12 days tours from Delhi to Delhi. RadheShyam is the most reputed (and costliest) of all Gujarati operators for Char Dham circuit, but they too give misleading and incomplete information in their brochure. Misleading as far as places for night stay, quality of hotels and quality of bus is concerned. We selected RadheShyam going by their reputation. Booking was made three months in advance. They take care of travelling (Delhi to Delhi), baggage shifting, food (morning tea, breakfast, lunch, dinner and occasional afternoon tea, through their own kitchen at every place), packaged drinking water, hotel stay and most importantly your schedule. Guide service is provided by the tour manager who accompanies the group (this facility is not available to those who travel by taxi). Exact schedule was not given until one week prior to departure. They do not include local visits in Haridwar and Rishikesh and provide very little time for these places. Their argument is that people come to these places frequently and have different choices and requirements. RadheShyam limits itself to the Char Dhams which are covered proficiently. I am sure you can plan a better tour after reading this blog!
Cost: Basic cost of Deluxe Tour was Rs. 32,000 + Tax 3300. (Check with latest brochure). Deluxe tour means AC bus and AC hotels. AC bus is deceptive: AC works only between Delhi-Rishikesh sections, total 450 km out of about 1900. AC hotel rooms were promised for 4 out of 11 nights but if AC in a hotel room did not work, RadheShyam is not responsible! Hot water is promised but it will be made available at the convenience of the hotel. Plus helicopter charge for Kedarnath Rs. 7,250. Although it is not mandatory to travel by helicopter, you have no option given the tight time schedule. Plus cost of pony or ‘doli’ (palanquin) at Yamunotri. Total will come to around 45-50,000 per person, minimum, by bus, Delhi to Delhi. Add to this of course, the costs of ‘poojas’ and such rituals. Mind well, that will not be a small amount! Read on! Charges for Non-AC bus and no AC rooms were 26,000 against 32,000. Difference of extra 6,000 is not fully justified.
Apart from the deceptive AC bus, only other weak point with RadheShyam was poor selection of hotels. Rishikesh (Hotel Neeraj Bhavan) – good; Barkot (tents – two nights) – tents are a novelty but not exactly comfortable during cold nights; Dunda (River View Resort - two nights) – average; Rudraprayag (Sachin International) – worst; Pipalkoti (Hotel Uday Palace) – quite good; Badrinath (Hotel Narayan palace) – Good; Devprayag (The Ramkund Resort) – quite good; Haridwar (Golden Tulip) – Very good, the only starred hotel. Damp dharmashala (charitable, dormitory type) accommodation at Kedarnath was very uncomfortable given hostile weather conditions, but one may accept it given the fact that the place was devastated only in 2013 by flash floods and is yet to be reconstructed.
On the whole, it appears that RadheShaym is compromising on hotel accommodation to maintain its profits. I would rate food as good (lunch and dinner) to excellent (breakfast). One of the good features of these agencies is that they have their own separate kitchens at the hotels and are able to serve hot, steaming breakfast at 5.30 in the morning also. The time may not be suitable for breakfast, but it is certainly better than having trash food at some road side Dhaba. Even when you have breakfast included in your room plan, no hotel will serve breakfast at 5.30 or 6.00. We started at 5.30 on one occasion, at 6.00 on three days, at 6.30 once, at 7.00 thrice and at 7.30 thrice. We were provided food packets for lunch for Yamunotri and Gangotri. Although many disagreed with food packets, I appreciate the effort and safety of in-house kitchen. The fact that no one in our group of 20 had food related illness in 12 days speaks of its quality. The hotels chosen by RadheShyam were always away from main centers, you don’t have option with food. You don’t get anything other than soft drinks. We had decided not to carry extra food except a packet of biscuits, but it sufficed. Both of us gained 1 kg weight!
We were 20 in our group. 14 were Patels. 14 were ladies. Day typically started with prayers and bhajans in the bus. It was our first experience travelling in a group of unknowns. It wasn’t a bad one. When people of diverse nature get together, it is difficult to manage the program, especially the time schedule. Our tour manager Subhash Kothari did his job well by keeping his cool. All others except two of us were highly devoted pilgrims (we consider ourselves moderates) and they all tried their best not to stick to scheduled departure from shrines – they always wanted some more time with their Gods or wanted to cleanse themselves some more in a river or a Kund. For only two of us, there could not have been a better choice than joining RadheShyam. No regrets, only a few complaints, and a few suggestions for improvement. On the whole, we enjoyed the tour.
Tour Itinerary: Day-: Gandhinagar to New Delhi
Day-1: New Delhi to Rishikesh (Travel only – 7.5 hours)
Day-2: Rishikesh to Barkot (Rishikesh + travel-8 hours)
Day-3: Barkot to Yamunotri and back to Barkot (Yamunotri + 6 hours travel)
Day-4: Barkot to Dunda (near Uttarkashi) (Travel only – 5.5 hours)
Day-5: Dunda to Gangotri and back to Dunda (Gangotri + 11 hours’ travel)
Day-6: Dunda to Rudraprayag (Travel only – 9 hours)
Day-7: Rudraprayag to Shirsa helipad to Kedarnath (Kedarnath + travel 2.5 hours)
Day-8: Kedarnath to Shirsa to Pipalkoti (Travel only – 8 hours)
Day-9: Pipalkoti to Badrinath (Travel-3 hours + Badrinath)
Day-10: Badrinath to Devprayag (Travel only – 10 hours)
Day-11: Devprayag to Haridwar (Travel – 3 hours + Haridwar)
Day-12: Haridwar to New Delhi (Travel only – 5 hours)
Day-: New Delhi to Gandhinagar
Comments on itinerary: · Day-4: Night at Dunda is a wrong choice for stay. Uttarkashi proper or Harsil (if possible) would be better. Dunda is 45 min before Uttarkashi and that means 45 min*4=3 hours of extra journey. It is possible to go beyond Uttarkashi before 8.00 pm deadline. But to reach Harsil, you have to start very early from Barkot.
· Day-6: Instead of stopping at Rudraprayag, go up to Guptkashi. Rudraprayag is hot. Guptkashi has pleasant weather. Moreover, from Guptkashi, Shirsa / Phata helipad is nearer, so next day, very early start is not required.
· Day-8: Returning from Badrinath, drive further up to Chamoli (District HQ) rather than stopping at Pipalkoti. That way you can reach your next destination of Devprayag earlier in the evening of Day-9 and visit Raghunath temple.
Some other points: · You don’t need to carry excessive cash as everything is pre-paid in organized tour except Poojas at different shrines (and Poojas can cost a lot!) and purchases of mementos. SBI ATM is available at all places except at Kedarnath.
· Mobile coverage is better with Vodafone at almost all places except at the four shrines where BSNL is better. However, pre-paid BSNL may not work near border areas.
· Always carry approved photo identity with you.
· Driving time can vary significantly due to traffic jams which are very common in mountains. Carry sufficient extra water and some snacks to tide over delays.
· Do not travel with kids. There is nothing to entertain them in Char Dham. They will get thoroughly bored.
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nivedita
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Chota char dham
I have been to all the four divine destination Yamunotri, gangotri, kedarnath and badrinath. It is a journey of a life time. I have documented my travel experience, hope it will be useful http://eragenx.com/2016/08/21/chota-char-dham-yatra/