Shirdi-Nasik-Ellora Trip

After a long time, here is one other blog. On my recent trip to Shirdi. It was during June/July time frame, my better-half asked for trip to Shirdi. Soon I checked with some local travel organizers, but they said darshan is available only during August and September and asked a package of 9k per head, including airfare. I really dont plans small trips that far, so left it as it is. One good thing happened during the interaction was that I got a 3 day trip itinerary from them that had places to visit in and around Shirdi. During October, I got a call from the same travel organizer with ticket availability and asked me if I'm interested for Shirdi trip. If you are bit scared to explore new places all alone, it’s best to go as a group. Travels will suit fine. But if you seek some freedom, private space and flexibility, it’s best to have your own plans. This time, the organizers asked for around 12.5k per head. Having heard that, I decided to explore what the real rates are to plan my own itinerary.

Rooms we booked

Quickly checking for flight fares (2 weeks down the line), it was not that costly. It was costing 7k per head round trip. Even after one month the flight cost is almost the same. Confirming the plan with my better-half, I blocked the tickets. Booking the tickets is almost crossing half the well. Second half was to find a good accommodation. Makemytrip listed some 100 hotels near that place, starting from 400-6000 per night and most of them had availability. After snooping through a lot, I shortlisted on "Hotel Golden View", that was exactly opposite the Sai Temple on the main road. Makemytrip listed the cost as 2500+ taxes per night. I called up the hotel and enquired the availability/tariff. They also said the same rates. But since the trip is almost a week away, and Shirdi had lot of hotels with easy accommodation, I asked for deal. After few rounds of negotiation we settled down to an AC double room for 1800/- per day without breakfast. That sounded a fair deal for me. [PS: Don’t expect the same rates if you are going to book. Tariff varies purely based on demand. You can get the same room even cheaper during off-seasons]

Soon I enquired with them for Cab availability with the draft itinerary I already had from other travels. It goes like the below.

Day 1 - Land in Pune (10am) - Reach Shirdi and do evening darshan. Stay overnight in Shirdi

Day 2 - Travel from Shirdi to Nasik. Visit Triambakeshwar temple, Panchavati, Triveni Sangam, Kapaleshwar temple. Return to Shirdi.

Day 3 - Checkout by noon. Reach Shani Shingnapur, Renuka Devi, Mana Ganapthi temple and drop at Pune Airport by 8pm. Flight by 10.30pm

They asked 10.5k for my above package and came down to 9.5k finally [including toll/parking]. Meanwhile I got quote from another Cab operator in Shiridi, and the quote was almost same. Hence I decided to go with the Hotel cab itself.

Temple view from the Hotel

With all set, we left from Chennai to Pune. Driver was there on time [well, 15 mins late], but he came. A Red-Hyundai-Accent. After interacting with him in my broken hindi, he informed the car was the Hotel Owners personal car and he was his driver for around 15yrs. I think the hotel didn’t have registered travels as of now, but since I asked for Cab, and it’s a new hotel, the owner gave his own car and driver. The driver [Mr.Shaukath] was such a nice guy, he spoke less and interacted whenever required. He even brought his own lunch box and didn’t bother us for lunch, though I asked him every time for join us for lunch. Soon as we boarded, he switched on the radio in his car. It was all hindi songs and I said him to reduce/switch off the radio. Next three days, he never switched on the Radio.  A peaceful ride and lot of time to chat with my better-half. A small break in on the way to Shirdi in a local dhaba, we munched on some Vada-Pav and Misal-Pav and reached Shirdi in around 4hrs time. Deep inside I was really scared to see how to rooms would be like. Generally, rooms will look fantastic in Hotel's website, but in reality few will disappoint. But this hotel room, I need to say, it was exactly as in the gallery, tidy, had a restaurant, nice service and just exceeded my expectations. That gave a big relief and a great head-start for next two days travel. As I said earlier, the hotel is just opposite the Sai Mandir, and once you come out of the hotel, you can see the Golden vimana of the Sai Mandir.

I planned no-sight-seeing for the day. Only the Sai darshan was booked for 9pm that day. So, we had lot of time to relax and roam around. We went for a lunch in their restaurant. No so economic, but the quality was very nice. Tried all good North Indian Roti/Dal Fry/Jeera rice stuff and came back to room for a power nap. Thought we'll have a nap, but the local TV showing Kungfu Panda movie. Couldn’t resist switching off the movie. Watched it in full. By around 7pm, had a good hot shower, followed by a chai and started out to explore the temple. Internet ticket showed entry at Shani gate. So have to figure out where the gate is. Security personnel near the gates were too assistive and asked us to go for darshan even now if we want. Actually slot was for 8.45pm, and they let us in by 7.30 itself.

Internet ticket (200/- her head) bypassed the free-darshan queue to some extent and merged near the main temple entrance. Within 30 mins, we had a wonderful darshan (except the police guy near the Sai baba silently demanding money from everyone) and came out. The main agenda completed cool. No rush and sweat. It was a clean and satisfactory darshan. Then slowly, we roamed around the temple got pradasam (sweet boondhi), purchased laddu (20/- per packet), holy-ash (Udi), Milk Pedha and exited the temple. After a light dinner we set off for the journey ahead.

Triambakeshwar Temple

Driver informed us to be ready by 8am, so we can cover Triambakeshwar and other places in Nasik the next day. By 8am, we were ready and so was Shaukath. After munching on some Idlies with Sweet Sambar :), we set ahead to Nasik. It was around 3hours ride from Shirdi to Nasik. Credit’s to some 40kms of worst roads ahead. Finally we reached Nasik. First he took us to Muktidham temple. It was like that Jainese/Birla Mandir type all-marble temple hosting various hindu gods. After a darshan there, we set ahead to Triambakeshwar temple. By around 11.30, we reached the temple. Not to take much chances waiting in the queue, we went ahead with special queue (200/- head), that lead us to the main entrance directly. The nadai (sanctum door) was closed for pooja by that time, we had to wait some 30 mins. Waiting in the vicinity of Jyothirlinga for 30 mins was very good. After 30 mins the doors opened for darshan. It was like a 3-lingam in it’s aavudai, representing brahma-vishu and shiva. The lingam was not protruding out of it’s base, but inside, and they kept some face kind of top covering the base. The temple had a lush green mountain backdrop and it should be heaven to visit the place during rains. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFXtzD-4lYY]

Triveni Sangam - Nasik

Our main agenda during this trip was to visit Shirdi and Triambakeshwar and it’s done. Whatever we cover further is extras. After having nice cucumbers, lassi and Kachori’s near the temple, we posed for some 2-minute print photographs (40/- Rs) as memoirs. Our next stop was at Panchavati. After some 2 hours of journey, we reached Nasik Triveni Sangam, where two Mythical rivers Aruna & Varuna meet Godavari. I thought of having a dip, but then dropped the idea. We stepped inside to wash our feet, spent some time and came back. Near the Sangam was Kapaleshwar temple. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scJYUf_lOTk]. After a good Shiva darshan there, we felt a bit tired, and asked the driver to get back to Shirdi. After few hours, we were back to Shirdi. After relaxing for few hours, we set out for local shopping. My wife wanted to buy a small Saibaba idol. Rather purchasing road-side, we went to a big shop that had more varieties of statues. The shopkeeper kept us two Saibaba idols of the same size, weight and color - one priced around 150/- and other at 400/-. I couldn’t see or feel any difference between the two, but the shopkeeper said one was marble cut and the other is some chemical-powder-cut. The 400/- had "Krish" or some brand name embedded in the side of idol and that means authentic company product. I assume the road-side vendors might sell the other one claiming it as marble. After purchasing some accessories for the idol, we closed the shopping part.

Kapaleshwar Temple

During out way back from Nasik to Shirdi, our driver Mr.Shaukath was sketching the plans for our next day’s return journey to Pune Airport. He said us to relax in the morning and start by 1pm, visit Shani Shingnapur on the way and reach airport by 7 to 8pm. He also added that if we can start early, we can plan a visit to Aurangabad and Ellora caves. That was a nice proposal. I skipped Ellora from my original travel list because it was not on the way Pune. We need to travel 150kms away. But Shaukath said if we can check out early, say, by 8am, we can cover Ellora and reach Shani Shingnapur as planned.  Soon I checked out Internet for Ellora and amazed to find that the world's biggest monolithic, out of humanly, kailash temple was there. I thought it Ellora was should be some Jainese caves. This change of plan costed 2.5k extra on my regular package, but I was happy to pay for that. By evening, I met the hotel owner and he didn’t object much when I asked to accommodate this Ellora visit for 2k rather 2.5. He even charted down detailed plans on when should I start and what time we will reach the temple. He said me to visit Ghrishneshwar temple near Ellora. Since I didn’t know much about the temple, and I already cut down 500/- from the package cost, I said I would skip the temple. But he said it’s just on the way, and it’s a must-visit Jyothirlinga temple. So good guy he is, he charted down the following plan for me and also instructed his driver accordingly. On the way, in Aurangabad there was a mini Taj-Mahal built by Aurangazeeb, but we skipped it due to lack of time and we already had seen the original Taj Mahal.

Check-out - 8am

Ghrishneshwar Temple - 11am

Ellora Caves - 12 to 1pm [2 hrs]

Lunch, Shani Shingapur - 4pm

Pune Airport - 8pm [Flight - 10.20pm]

The next day, I checked out the hotel by 8 and started to Aurangabad. By 11am sharp, we reached Ghrishneshwar Temple. The temple was much like Triambakeshwar temple, except that it’s white and the deity was a black small lingam. Men have to remove their Shirt to enter the sanctum. There was no rush and we both could touch the lingam and get his blessing. There are priests who can help you perform abhishegam to Shiva yourselves as couple. I wish to do it, but we were running short of time, and we very nicely touched the lingam. So we thought of skipping the pooja. Considering the fact that we need to shell lot of bucks, to even get a glimpse of Kasi Vishwanath, this was a very very satisfactory darshan.

Ellora - Kailash Temple

Some more travel, we reached Ellora caves. It was a WoW sight for me, and I really couldn’t control myself after seeing the Kailash temple. I've read that constructing such a monolithic temple by carving out excess stones is humanly impossible, and I agree to it. Just Jaw Dropping architecture. I can proudly stand on the top of earth, point to this architecture and say to the rest of world "see what my ancestors have created.. I’m from their lineage". One should have this as must-visit place in India. After visiting the main temple and other Jainese and Buddhist caves, we headed to Shani Temple.

Shani Bhagwan - Shingnapur 

In Shani temple, the main offering to Shani Bhagwan is jaggery oil, and it’s sold in all shops nearby. I read in internet that shopkeepers outside will sell it for high rate and it’s better to buy it INSIDE temple premises. Soon as we parked our car in the lot, shopkeepers persuaded us to by oil from their shop and they said they are selling it for the rate specified by temple only. They even had rate boards with temple logo. Trusting that I bought 250ml oil for 150/- Rs. After entering the temple, I saw lot of oil counters and the rate was 70/- for the same 250ml. If you plan to visit Shani temple and offer him jaggery oil, counters are available inside the temple only. Don’t purchase anywhere outside. The temple was very free and had a good darshan of Shani Bhagwan as Digambara.

After Shani temple, we proceeded back to Airport with a pit-stop in a mall nearby airport for dinner. We were well ahead of time reaching the airport (7.45pm) and leisurely spent remaining time till departure. It was overall a very good trip with good darshan everywhere. Now some learning out of the trip

1. If I had gone with travels, my budget for two would have been ~30K. This trip costed 6-7k more, but gave the comfort of flexible planning.

2. If you are travelling from Bombay, first visit Nasik, then to Shirdi and then proceed to Aurangabad.

3. If you are planning to visit Ellora during return, it’s best to book return flight from Aurangabad to Chennai rather Pune. This will save lot of cost and journey time. Also you can spend more time exploring Ellora.

4. Negotiate good with road-side vendors. Near the temple, my wife wanted to buy a colorful chain. The shopkeeper said it’s 150/- per piece. Without much thinking, we asked it for 40/- per piece. He said a firm NO and we started walking away. Farther we went from his shop, he started reducing the price.. 120.. 100.. 70… 80.. and finally he said 55/-. If I had walked one more step, I could have got it for 40/- only. But okay, the craft is worth 50/-.  Similarly, photographers start with 150/- for an A4 size photograph. I negotiated one for 50/-. Snap in a point-n-click camera and print in a photo printer won’t cost him more than 15/-. But okay, let him have a chai..!! Big Blog. Now, let me have a Chai..!!