Tirupati Balaji Temple Darshan

Tirupati temple the home of God Venkateswara Balaji a form of God Bishnu who is believed to save mankind for its grieves and sorrows in the kalyug. The temple is one of most famous and considered as the richest hindu temple of the world. The temple is beautifully located on top of tirumala hills comprising of seven hills. One has to  be surprised  to  see the size of such a devine place on top of the hills. Indeed after visiting the place like me am sure everyone will admit to the belief that truly its the home of lord venkateswara Balaji Lord vishnu.

We had been planning this visit since more than  a year now since  our baby was born to thanks God to this beautiful gift but due to pandemic and considering the baby is too young to travel our visit got delayed. Finally after a year and 3 months we decided to visit God Venkateswara Balaji. We booked our slot online through the official website on 23rd May 15:00 hours.

Considering the time required for  darshan which is around 3 - 5 hours in the queue  and as we had a small baby with us to carry  we kept enough time to take rest from the journey to bangalore, for the darshan and to return back to bangalore. We planned a 3 day  the trip, Sunday morning at 8am, our journey started after breakfast. The journey was about 4 hours, we took the kolar chitoor route. The roads were lovely and easily you can cruise in speeds of 100 - 120 kmph safely. Traffic was less and roads were so good that you hardly feel any tiredness or fatigue throughout the journey. We reached the hotel at tirupati at around 12 noon. We booked a private hotel in tirupati that is very close and that is on the foothills of tirumala hills. The name Raj Hill View had a beautiful view of the hills. After taking lunch we took a little rest and then around afternoon we headed for a drive around tirupati city and to the hills to have a view of the city from top of the hill. The city tirupati is a beautiful place with all basic amenities. The drive through the ghat road to the temple is around 40 mins. The view of the town from the view points was indeed mesmerizing. The hills is a reserve forest full of greenery and the road to the top is different to the road down to the city. It was a one way and the drive through the twisties was a real fun.  We saw the temple and gathered all necessary information for the hair giving and about the Darshan gate for the next day. We then headed to the hotel had a early dinner and slept off early. Next day after having the traditional south Indian complimentary breakfast, we took shower and left hotel at 12 noon considering their is a security check of  the luggage and entire car at the temple gate before heading to the temple. After all the security check we reached the tenple up the hills at around 1:30pm. We then donated some of  our baby's hair to God at Kalyana katta and then parked our vehicle near the museum and headed to the special entry 300Rs  gates at around 2:45pm. For your information people who just wish to donate their hair to God can do that without tickets at Kalyana katta if they dont have the darshan tickets. Now coming to Darshan, we had left all our mobile, smart watch and airpods at car as those are not allowed inside the holy temple,although their is locker facility available to deposit these items inside the temple. At the first gate our printout of the ticket along we adhaar cards were checked and then we were allowed inside the darshan gates. In the queue, it took around 21/2 hour for the darshan and at around 5:45pm our darshan was over. We then took some refreshment near the exit gate food stalls and walked to our car. We then drove back to our hotel exhausted and took some well deserved nap in the hotel. Evening after some coffee at our hotel we went out to have the traditional andhra thali with  my favorite poppu(daal) at a nearby hotel and headed back to the hotel for the night. Day 3 we had our breakfast and after a quick shower we checked out at 12 noon and headed towards the Chandragiri fort that was  on the way to bangalore. It took us around 45mins from the hotel to reach the fort. The fort entry fees was 60/head. The fort was conserved by The archeological survey of India and now its tranformed to a museum. There were two forts inside the campus one was called the Raja Fort and other the Rani fort. The raja fort had a collection of idols of vishnu and other gods, arms and swords of the era. The idols although very beautiful but almost all of the idols heads were missing. Upon enquiring it were saddened to know that the idols were recovered from a nearby temple and the idol head's were chopped off my mughal tyrant while they took over the kingdom. After that we headef to the temple that was closed, took some pictures and then finally started our return journey to bangalore. The trip was very rejuvenating and devotional and one of the most pleasing trips to one of the biggest richest and most visited holy place of india. Thank you guys.