Singapore Ho!

Finally, the time has come for me write about my recent trip.Its been nearly 20 days since i went and i feel i better write it soon. (and also i better write when the memories are still fresh   :P  ).Since it was quite a long trip,and more than that,a very memorable one,I shall write about it in parts.Here begins the first.

In Homeland:

The Preparation: So it was still dark when i was woken up to get ready in the morning of 28Th January.It wasn't very chilly and hence it was easier for me to wake up.It took me just 30 minutes to wake up after the first call from my mother   :)  . The cab had already arrived to pick us up.Our flight to Delhi was at 8:00 am and since its Bangalore we're in,we'd to leave our home by 5:30 am.I finished all my morning jobs and got dressed up.Parents finished with the final minute packing (of food) and so, we started at 6:00 am ( yes,i know we're very quick) and our journey/trip began.                                   

The Trip To 

BIA: Our first place of visit was the B

engaluru International Airport.It was an hour drive on a moderately busy road (keep in mind that this is bangalore traffic we are dealing with).We reached the airport by 7 and spent some time inside there after getting our boarding passes and checking in our baggage.The fanatic photographing began here.And what better place for me to take pics than in an airport with all those beauties on the tarmac?There was a fairly good number of air crafts there and i started clicking pics and continued with that even after boarding my flight to Delhi.Yes,it's legal to take your cameras into the airplanes and take pictures.So the

 next time u are flying,do take your camera.

Dilli aaya mere dost! : After a long,hungry (low cost airlines do not provide free (nor low cost) food during flight) ,three hour journey,Delhi was in sight.From the air I could see the big,beautiful apartments,wide roads which were perfectly straight for miles! The city is so huge that it feels like almost half of North India lives in Delhi.And so is the busiest airport.Its many many times bigger than the one in Bangalore.Very large area for the aircrafts t

o park and three long runways.And our runway happened to be the latest one constructed.But the terminal building felt like a chaotic railway station.But the good thing is a new,big terminal building is being built right there.

          

So,we got into a taxi and i got a feel of the heaviest traffic in our country.Even with super,wide roads,the roads very often get choked....It took us almost an hour or even more for us to reach New Delhi Railway Station.Everything in Delhi seems to run on CNG! :D  CNG buses,CNG autorickshaws,CNG cars.....somehow i didn't notice a CNG bullock cart.Meanwhile on the road, i happened to see the Governer of the Reserve bank of India in his car.Mr.Subbarao,if i recall his name properly,looked like a very busy and dignified man,in his black suit........Anyway,we reached the station and kept our luggage in the cloak room,had our lunch and went to our first tourist place in Delhi.Which was also the last    :)

Delhi Metro and Swaminarayan Temple:

 This was my first time experience in the Delhi metro and i was pretty impressed by that in my first ride.The security in Delhi is very clenched.We had to get frisked at every station,considering the pleasant situation our country is in....I wonder when our city would ever become like that.The metro which is being built here would be completed in a few decades....but im doubtful it'd be as efficient or extensive as its Delhi counterpart.And thus,in a few minutes,we reached the nearest station to the Swaminarayan temple and took an auto rickshaw to the temple.

                      If you ever visit Delhi,trust me,this is one place that

 you just cannot afford to miss! I've never seen a modern temple constructed as beautifully as this temple.Its Huge!!Massive! and every inch of it perfectly built.Looking at the carvings there i was in total disbelief that they were the work of the artisans of present time!The stone carvings and the temple building,its design are nothing less than the famous temples built centuries ago.I felt very pleased to visit the place and spend some time there.we spent the rest of the evening there visting some shows and movies on Swaminarayan and returned back to the railway station by 8:00pm to catch our train to Jammu.

Vaishno Devi :After a wonderful journey in the Rajdhani Express (largely because the dinner served in the train blew me over! ) we reached Jammu Tawi at around 5 am.We had to catch a bus to Katra.There were a few Jammu state buses at the railway station itself and we got into one which would take us to Katra.Soon the bus came to life and i dozed off.

                  It was pretty chilly as the sun came up and the dew began to settle.But i loved the weather!We reached Katra by 8am.Katra is the base town of Vaishno Devi  from where we could proceed to Vaishno Devi.Its a small,beautiful town with not much population and 'Jai Mata Di' signs and symbols everywhere.We freshened up and left our hotel quickly and went to our next place,the Helipad  :)

                  There's the road way and the air to reach the Vaishno Devi shrine up on the hill,14 kms from Katra.We chose to take the helicopter while going up and walk while coming down from the hill.More frisking and more checkings,and sadly i wasn't allowed to carry my camera with me in the helicopter,as if it would freak out the pilot!So we were parted and the good part was i got to sit in the co-pilot's seat.It was a beautiful view from in there.My first ever ride in a helicopter.......I was expecting a rush of blood....but sadly it 

wasnt so exhilerating.It was as though i was in a very huge Ferris Wheel capsule which took 4-5 minutes to reach the top of the hill.But still,the view was amazing!

                We reached the upper helipad and we had to walk for about 3-4 kms and meet hundreds of horses (or donkeys) to reach the main temple area.Again my poor camera was banned from the temple area and it had to sit jobless in the cloak room.More frisking and checking.After all that and a few minutes walk we could take a darshan of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi.Thankfully there wasn't a crowd or a long queue when we visited.It was an off season and also we'd reached there early in the morning when most of the pilgrims start from Katra and by walk.So,after the Darshan we had our lunch and started walking back.After our scarys previous experiences with the horses (During our trip to kedar Nath, long back) we,especially my amma, didnt want to get on the horsees at all and rather chose to walk all the way back to Katra.The first couple of hours of walk wasn't so bad.We met hundreds and hundreds of pilgrims climbing the hill,panting with the strain of climbing such long distance up the hill and chanting 'Jai Mata Di' as they passed every person on the way.I felt very happy about the faith they had in them.

               Our real problem started when amma started to get tired and her legs began to cramp.We walked very slowly and after walking for 4 hours,we finally reached the bottom.Thankfully the taxi driver was waiting for us right there and went to our room to pack up.Amma's feet were paining a lot.Had to massage her feet and pack up the stuffs

 out of the bag.In 3-4 hours we were back in Jammu Tawi.The station was in a very bad state with almost no maintainince at all.After waiting for an hour or so,at 11:15 the train to Delhi came (on platform 2 but was being announced as 3  :P .Probably the announcer was pretty tired and sleepy too ) and we got in,pushed our bag under the seat and slept.

A Day Of Travel:By the time i'd opened my eyes,we were almost in Delhi.Soon,within 30 minutes Delhi showed up.It was about 10:15 when we got down from the train.We had very less time that day since our flight to Mumbai was at 3:00 pm.We collected rest of our luggages from the Railway Station cloak room and took a pre-paid taxi to the hotel.There we collected our passports from the hotel manager,bathed ,had our lunch in a 'udupi' hotel,got back into the taxi again and headed to the airport.

                    We collected our boarding passes,cheched in our baggages and after a while of sitting looking at the aircrafts on the other side of the glass wall,i was inside th

e Air India's Airbus A3221 to Mumbai.It was a new flight and a good one, with in-flight entertainment system and for the delight of my tummy,we were served food which made me all the more happier   :)  .I could witness a beautiful sunset and it appeared as though the clouds were on fire!It was an amazing view!.We reached mumbai in 2.5 hours and were taken in an airport bus to the international terminal.The Mumbai International terminal is huge! and also a very beautiful place.Lots of shops and galleries to spend time.After completing our immigration, customs, more frisking and checking, we were at the waiting at the waiting lounge and we waited for more than 3 hours.Our flight to Singapore was at 12:05 am.I explored almost every stall and exhibits there to wail away the time.No matter how slow it seems,time somehow passes away.Soon it was 11:30 and we went

 to the check-in gate and in 15 minutes we were inside the Air India's A319.The plane took off at it's scheduled time and after sometime we were over nothingness.I was pretty tired and didn't really bother to check out the movies/serials in the TV there and slept off after eating the light dinner that they served in the plane.Our day was thus entirely spent travelling.This flight also marked our exit from this beautiful country of ours and enter into another beautiful one.