Being devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba, we were planning to visit Shirdi. With Baba's grace we were able to visit his place. Based on my experience, I have provided my guidelines, if any of you planning to visit Shirdi in near future.
Destination Shirdi:
Prior to this trip, I had visited Shirdi 7 years ago and there have been many obvious changes to this place. It is crowded with pilgrims, hotel agents, taxi agents, petty shops selling idols / flowers, beggars & so on. Overall this is a commercial place now with expensive lodges & expensive food. Horrible taxi / auto rickshaw walas always planning to lure the customers for money. If you aren't smart enough then you will certainly lose money.
We (myself, my wife and my B-in-Law) had planned for 3N/4D trip to this place. With the help of travel agent we booked tickets (Tatkal) from bangalore till Kopergoan (round trip). What surprises me is the railway booking. I searched for almost 5 months range and tickets are already booked. I am sure there is some golmaal here.
Suggested plan :
1. Book train tickets in advance to shirdi through travel agents preferably KK Express as it takes less time to reach that place. You may not be able to book it by yourself as it is already prebooked by agents. Don't plan for shirdi during holiday season or Thursdays. Best time is a weekday. I'd suggest booking train in 3rd AC as the crowd is not so inviting.
2. Train starts at 7:20PM from bangalore station (Majestic) and reach kopergaon by 1:00PM. There will be autorickshaws (shared 8 seaters or 3 seaters individual autos). Depending on you they will ask between 200-300 on 3 seater autos and in normal shared auto they will charge 30 per person. Its your choice. But you need to bargain. The distance from Kopergaon to shirdi is 16kms. We took shared auto while going to shirdi (Paid 30 per person) and individual auto (Paid 200) while returning back. Mind you, they have a good union and the price is uniform & high.
3. We didn't book hotel in advance as we didn't find any good hotels. Besides, it was off season.
So, you have 3 options -
a) Book hotel in advance through MTDC online booking (Maharastra tourism)
http://www.maharashtratourism.gov.in/index/index.aspx
b) New Bhakta Niwas (It was full when we visited and had to wait for sometime to book. So we came back). There will be free bus facility from Baba mandir to this place and is owned by Sri Shirdi sai trust. Food and stay is very nominal rather very cheap (not
sure how much,someone told me about this) and heard rooms are very neat.
c) Book hotel close to mandir.
We booked hotel near Sai mandir itself after searching for few hotels. Luckily we found a hotel near sai mandir and paid Rs 850/- per day for 3 bed room. It was new, clean and had basic facilities including TV and has 24 hours checkout facility.
Here is the address if you like
Our Plan :
Day 1 (Feb 25th, Friday)
Our Train to Kopergaon (KK Express) left at 7:20PM from Bangalore. We reached the station by 6:30PM and train started on time. Had dinner in the train. Food was very average as expected, thanks to IRCTC.
Don't ever try Upma in train. It is horrible. The best bet is Dosa / IDLI or Veg Biryani. When you order tea, ask for an extra tea bag as the tea which they prepare will be very light. Never try coffee in train unless until you like watery Bru coffee.
We reached next day by 1:40PM. Took shared auto and headed towards Shirdi. Reached in about 30 mins time and it was extremely hot. Check these out
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| KK Express |
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| Only green patch we saw enroute to Kopergaon |
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| Not sure if this was a lake or river but it was huge |
Day 2 (Feb 26th, Saturday)
After some research we finally zero'd on Hotel Shivam. It was decent hotel and very close to the temple (may be 200 metres).
There will be many agents for the hotel search. You can take their help if you like. Got fresh'd up and had snacks in nearby hotel (Hotel Neem in MTDC hotel). It was a calm and cool place. I'd suggest everyone this hotel as the food is good compared to any other hotels (we tried many).
Some pics of hotel just to get an overview
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| Rooms looks organized .Isn't it? |
After having food, we went into mandir for darshan. It was close to 5 PM. By the time we reached samadhi it was 6 PM and we were made to sit for evening arathi (Dhoop aarathi). It was a good feeling to do bhajan.We came out by 7 PM. Roamed around for some shopping. Finished dinner and came back to hotel. We didn't see Dwarakamayi as there was a very long queue.
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| Sai Mandir |
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| Shoppers stop in shirdi |
On the way to hotel, we went to a travel agent and booked for next day's trip (one day trip to Nasik, triambakeshwar & Panchavati). We paid around 200/- per person for this shared trip.
Day 3 (Feb 27th, Sunday)
We were ready by 8 am and headed towards Nasik on a tata sumo. There were 9 of us in the sumo. There was many andhra people in our vehicle. It was a nice company.
It is a organized day trip and so we visited these places - Nasik, Triambakeshwar & Panchavati. Check these pictures to have a view.
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Road condition to Nasik
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Shop for dry fruits in Nasik. It is very cheap. Good raisin is around Rs 100/- per kg.
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| Our taxi |
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| Surrounding Triambakeshwar |
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| Main Temple |
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| Landscape view |
Cameras are not allowed inside the temple. You can deposit in the lock room nearby or leave it in the taxi if he is reliable.
There is "sita guha" (cave) which we didn't take the picture. All these places shown below are very close and you don't need an autorickshaw to go. You can take a guide if you need.
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| Sri Kalaram Temple, Panchavati |
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| Shopping place |
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| Godavari river in Panchavati |
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| Kapileshwar temple |
Returned back in the evening. We did some more shopping and snacks. Tried chats / masala soda / Pav bhaji & Vada pav. It was good.
Pedas are good here and if you want to buy, below is the address. - M/s Gangwal A.S & Co.
Don't buy the packed boxes instead buy the other ones which are weighed and packed in front of you. Try it before you buy. It is very good.
Day 4 (Feb 28th, Monday)
We got up early by 3 AM and went for Kakad arthi. There was sufficient crowd to fill the whole room. There will be TVs if you are not able to watch it directly. It is better to be at that place by 2:30AM to stand close to the baba samadhi.
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| At 3 AM |
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| Main entrance |
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| Chai @ 6 AM |
After bhajan and arthi, we came out at 6 AM. Finished breakfast and headed towards "shani shingnapur". This place is kind of different in the fact that none of the shops have "Doors". It is believed that if anybody steals from here, they will be severely punished by the lord himself.
On the contrary, i feel it is infested with thiefs & goondas. Its just a hype that they show that there are no doors and talk about the god. We had a bitter experience with this place.
The taxi which we took dropped us near the temple and immediately the shop keeper came with many wet dhothis and pooja items. We didnt want to buy anything & said no to him and walked towards the temple. But then the owner of the shop and other guys came and forced us to buy from here (and the price of these items starts from 200 till 500). We didn't budge and so did others in our taxi. They threatened us that they won't allow us to go back to shirdi till we buy. I really got pissed off and after a verbal fight, decided to boycott the taxi and took bus.
It was a terrible experience and the taxi driver was one among them. When complained to the temple security (as there was no police ), they just ignored saying nothing can be done and those guys are like that. I wonder if Sri Shaneshwar is really present in that place, then such kind of people wouldn't exists. :)
I wanted to complain in Shirdi but couldn't do that as we had to rush back to catch train.
These are some pics enroute to S Shingnapur.
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| Sun rise |
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| Our taxi |
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| The govt bus |
Before booking taxi, clearly tell him that you are not going to buy any pooja item from anyone. And don't pay money or advance till you return back (except for booking).
We check'd out from the hotel and returned to Kopergaon after taking an autorickshaw. Overall, the darshan was a very pleasant experience and follow my tips if you need to have a problem free trip.
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| Dirty & stinking Railway station |
Read about baba if you can (& If you don't know about him) before you visit this place. You feel really good and all these places makes sense when you visit each of these.
