Trip to Tirupati

Trip members: Karthik & family, Venkat, Sankar, Murugan, Venga & family
Trip date: 30, 31 Jan 2016
Trip Plan : Chennai - Alamelumangapuram (Tiruchanoor) - Tirupati - Japali - Chennai

Day-1:

Most of the people in South India would have visited Tirupati; yet a trip is documented here for my own reference :).

Our plan was to walk from Alipiri to Thirumala. We had booked Rs.300 queue dharshan in the evening. As per plan, we reached Tiruchanoor by 6:30 AM after having started by 04:00 AM from Chennai. We parked the car near the temple front entrance and bought tickets for 07:00 AM Pushpanjali dharshan - Rs.300 per person. We were the first persons to enter and were seated in front of the deity for the Pushpanjali, Sri Padmavathi - Lord Mahalakshmi was decorated with lots of flowers and we had a great dharshan. We also had Pongal prasadam and collected Laddu and Vadai as a part of the dharshan.

We came out and had breakfast at a hotel just outside the temple - Hotel Srikanth Bhavan. Then, we started to Alipiri. One car went to Tirumala and one parked in Alipiri. Alipiri is the starting point for walk towards Tirumala. The roads also start here for the journey to the top. A toll of Rs.15 is collected per car. The walk is for a length of 9 kms; important points on the way being Gali Ghat (Gali Gopuram), Mulangal Mudichu, Anjeneya Swamy statue and Thirumala - total of 3550 steps.

The first stretch of Alipiri to Gali Gopuram - 2083 steps - just over 1 km is the toughest of all - quite steep steps. The whole stretch is completely stone laid and very comfortable to walk. There are shops all the way along selling water, cool drinks, lemon soda, tiffen items and all sorts of eatables and snacks. So, no worries for food and water all through the stretch. There are clean toilets also all along the stretch; so as, medical assistance.

Start point ....

All along the way

On the way

Midway - Anjenaya Swamy statue

Mid way

On the way ... along the road

Mulangaal Mudichu

On reaching Gali Gopuram, TTD issues biometric tokens for free dharshan for pilgrims coming by walk through a quick entrance and also for laddus. Next - important stop is the Anjenaya Swamy statue - 2 kms from here. All along the path on the left side, we can sight deers and the forest area - gardened by fencing.

We reached the top on 4 hours time; having started the journey at 09:50; we reached the rooms booked at Kanchi Mutt at 13:50. Out Seekra Dharshan was planned at 4PM and we reached the queue by then after a short 10 min rest and refreshing. We did our grand dharshan by 6 PM and out of the temple by 7 PM.

The dinner was very important - since we were very hungry; though we had snacks inbetween the walk to the top, it was not at all enough. Murugan pointed us to Hotel Saarangi - a buffet for Rs.260 per person. The spread was excellent - South Indian to North Indian; Soup, salads, starters, Dosas, rotis, gravies, veg. biryani and rice. After having great supper, we split ourselves into groups - one to buy laddus and one to get the car from Alipiri. At 11 PM, all hit the bed!

Day-2

Started around 6 AM and all were ready for a breakfast by 8 AM. Sankar Ganesh guided us to Hotel Annamaya for a tasty-yummy; yet poor service breakfast. We had Idlis, dosas, chola puris and pongal. Quite a costly breakfast for the quantity being served though quality was ok. Service has to be definitely bettered - as soon as one enters, they try to sell the breakfast platter; failing which the service is slow for rest of the orders.

The plan was to visit Japali - targeting return to Chennai by 4 PM. We reached Japali by 9:50 AM. The trek is around 1 km to reach the Anjenaya temple - mostly covered with cement laid steps. The walk is on dense forest and quite okay to walk - not too steep.

We sighted large Malabar squirrels near the temple. We visited three theerthams - Ram-Lakshman, Sita and Dhurava theerthams, Rama-Lakshman theerthan is just outside the temple; Sita Theertham is just few metres above the temple and Dhurava theertham - a small stream of running water about 0.5 kms from Sita theerthan inside the forest. We spent close to 1 hour at the theerthams and visited the temple for a  peaceful dharshan. The visit was quite eventful and relaxing. One must plan to visit Japali during their visit to Thirumala. We also stopped for a minute to see the Garuda view climbing down the hill.

Japali entrance

Way at Japali

Temple @ Japali

Sita Theertham

On the way to Dhurava Theertham

Dhuruva Theertham

Natural Garuda formation

We then returned back to car around 11:30 and started to climb down the Alipiri - had lunch at hotel Lakshmi Narayana Bhavan - recommended by Sankar Ganesh - a mediocre lunch and back to Chennai with lot of satisfaction.