Tirupati Temple

As we planned from London that when in south India it was a must to go and visit the Tirupati Temple which is the temple of Lord Venkateshwara based in the Andra Pradesh state.

Getting to know what was the most convenient way of getting to temple was a bit of a headache as everyone has there personal opinions and us guys who are not familiar to everything had decisions to make. A guy who we met at the England vs West Indies match gave a number to call, they are like a local directory and you tell them that you want to visit Tirupati on the 1100rs package which covers the journey there and back, lunch, 300rs VIP darshan and dinner. The number for anyone planning to go in th future is 00914426444444.

We got up at 4am as our minibus was going to leave at 5am, being a long journey and a long darshan wait we we're mentally prepared for everything. We met some really nice people from Kanpur, Hyderabad, Dehli and Chennai who joined us on this spiritual trip. On the way there the driver did get carried away with the a/c and it was damn cold! We visited a temple on the way to Tirumala which was very nice. Approximately 75kms from Tirumala our driver skip the signal of the crossing due to brakes not working and what better then police waiting on the side of the road. Brake failure and here was the last thing we expected to happen. Getting on a alternative vehicle we arrived at the temple with thousands of people queuing up for darshan.

There were 50rs tickets for normal queue, 300rs which was fast tracked and VIP which was for the people who come walking to the temple. We had the 300rs ticket. With thousands of devotees eagerly waiting, all coming from different states in India it was certainly an experience.

As we finally arrived for darshan, we were stunned to how amazing it was, all covered in gold and just a beautiful sight. With our tall figures we were able to get good darshan from Lord Venkateshwara. We were given 2 small ladoos for prashad but as we wanted to take some to London we had to buy a special ticket for another few not knowing what was going to happen next. We bought tickets for 6 each, as we went to the counter they gave us 6 hugeeee ladoos weighing 160g exact per ladoo,lolz!

We took some amazing pictures of the temple from outside, it was truly a amazing experience...






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