Tirupati Balaji Pilgrimage is the most famous pilgrimage site of In...

Hello friends,
Welcome to my first traveling blog. I am so glad that you are here. Today I am going share about Tirupati Balaji Pilgrimage is one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in India. This pilgrimage site is located on the mountain Tirumalla, about 20 km from Tirupati City in the Chittoor district of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Tirupati Temple is considered to be the richest temple in the country.

Made Via Canva

🌼How to we reach there?🌼

You can go to Tirupati by Bus, Train and Airplane.

We, 10 people from the office, had gone to Tirupati pilgrimage site. We went to Tirupati by train. There are two railway stations near our city:

Wardha Station,
Hazur Sahib Nanded.

Hazur Sahib Nanded Station

Wardha station is nearby from our city, but due to the timing not matching with our train from there, we decided to go from Hazur Sahib Nanded station. Hazur Sahib went to Nanded by private vehicle because Nanded station is 146 Km away from our city. We boarded the train from Hazur Sahib Nanded station and left for Tirupati. We had booked train tickets 3-4 days before going there.

The ticket cost for us to go there was Rs 10,000 for 10 people.

🌼My Train Experience🌼

It is a lot of fun while traveling by train. The Indian train track is mostly made of forested areas, hence the beauty of nature can be enjoyed. I have taken many pictures of the beauty of nature in the train, some of which I have shared in my last post, you can see them.

@anujadhao/nature-s-photography-with-sunset-6c519dd2e0fbe

Friends, our train journey was about 20 hours. We boarded the train at 11.30 on 12 October and reached Tirupati at 8 am on 13 October. Meanwhile we had a lot of fun. Our journey was of 20 hours, so accordingly we had already made arrangements for food and drinks. In which we had arrangements for 2 meals, snacks, plates, water, fruits, everything. Arrangements for a microwave were also made to ensure that the food does not spoil.

If you travel a long distance by train and make arrangements for everything, then the journey becomes very enjoyable and your health also remains good. Many food items are available in railways but there is no guarantee whether they are good or not and it can spoil health. And if we make arrangements for food and drinks in advance, our expenses are also saved. Because everything is expensive in rail.

We talked a lot during this journey and enjoyed the views of nature, hills, rivers, different types of crops. We experienced diversity in about 25-30 stations, each station had something different.

One station was decorated like a garden, you can see it in the picture below. We have also taken some pictures at this station.

According to me, train journey is more memorable than other journeys.

🌼Tirumala Tirupati Pilgrimage area on map.🌼

🌼After reaching Tirupati city🌼

As soon as we got off the train in Tirupati in the morning, our journey was not over yet, we had to go to Tirumalla mountain, 20 km from here, for the darshan of Lord Balaji. To go to this mountain, we hired a private vehicle whose fare for 20 km was Rs 100/Per Person i.e. we paid Rs 1000 for 10 people.

🌼Who is allowed to visit Tirumala?🌼

Friends, you are seeing the picture above from where I am taking the photo of the hill. Where I stood and took the photo, there is a police blockade on the right side. The security there is at very high levels and every person here is checked closely. The bag is also checked with the help of a machine because things like non-vegetarian foods, tobacco, alcohol and drinks are not allowed here. To go over this block, it is necessary to have clean mouth, do not consume and carry things like tobacco, alcohol etc.

There is a winding road from Tirumala from where I took some pictures of the spectacular views from the car.

🌼Where to stay in Tirumala?🌼

TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams) has accommodation where you can book a room at very low cost. There are 100 plus complexes here, each complex has 6-7 rooms. 2 people and maximum 6 people can stay in one room. We booked 2 rooms here on 2 Aadhaar cards. Only one room can be booked on one Aadhar card. The rent for 1 room is Rs 50 and a deposit of Rs 500 is taken. We get the deposit after leaving the room. This room's book transaction has to be done through UPI, Google Pay, Phone Pay or cards. Cash is not taken here because the deposited amount comes in the same account from where we have paid. Room's charge is only Rs 50 for 24 hours, if you stay more than that then the rent increases.

🌼Specialty before Tirupati darshan.🌼

Before having darshan of Tirupati Balaji, many people sacrifice the hair of their head. There is a belief among the devotees that by donating hair here, you get 10 times the benefit. Here both men and women sacrifice their hair.

Here donating hair is not compulsory. Anyone who wishes can give. Here head save is free of cost.

We have also sacrificed our hair.

🌼Tirupati Balaji Darshan Tirumala🌼

Three Type of Darshan

1. Sarva Darshan :

Sarva Darshan which is free of cost. This is a general darshan, you can do this darshan through direct token system, for this you do not need to make booking. This darshan may take you 5-10 hours. It depends on the presence of people. If attendance is less then it happens within 5 hours.

2. Special Darshan :

Special entry darshan is most popular. You will have to pay Rs 300 for this darshan and it is available online. It has no offline centre. For this darshan you will have to book 2-3 months in advance, only then you can avail the benefit of this darshan. It takes 1-2 hours for this darshan.

3. VIP Darshan :

This darshan available for high profile people like Prime Minister, Chief Minister, Ministers, Top political leaders, Civil Servants, Judge.

If you want to avail the benefit of this darshan then you have to donate Rs 10000 to TTD (Tirumala Tirupati Darshan) trust and also have to buy a ticket of Rs 500. This donation and tickets booking process is online. There is no counter offline.
It takes 30 minutes to 1 hour for this darshan.

🌼Hotel for meals in tirumala🌼

New Hotel Wood Side We ate food in this hotel. The quality of food was excellent. You can taste North-Indian, South-Indian, Maharastrian and Punjabi food in this hotel.

Here food is available as per the thali and whatever special food you want is also available. If you take thali food, you will get it for Rs 200 in which you will get dal, 3 vegetables, 2 sweet dishes, 4 chapatis, half rice, papad, salad and Chautneys. The taste is really delicious, we liked it very much.

🌼Night Views of Tirumala.🌼