Mt.Kailas continued

The Southern Travels washed their hands off at Kathmandu and Heritage Travels took over the tourists.

To go to Kathmandu, you need a visa. No charge for the first 3 days. Also, (USA) Passport and an extra passport size photo.  Indian currency is not accepted at the Airport. Need to take another 3 day visa for returning from China/Tibet. He spent an equivalent of 130 Indian rupees for that.

The happy news is he visited Pasupathinath Temple for Aarati at 7 p.m. and, he chanted Rudram there.
Please click on Pasupathinath Temple above to see the link of photos which I got from the website.

Heritage Travels gave him a set of big 54 Rudraksha mala. I don't know whether each passenger got or not. In addition to that Rao bought a string of 108 panchamukha rudrakshas for 125 rupees. Set of 7 Eka mukha rudrakshas for 1500 rupees. He could immerse them in Manasa Sarovar. Why buy so many? He wrote in his diary - Eka mukha to wear. Small group in Puja and 108=1 for dhyanam. All this is quite mathematical to me.

He says the food was good and the hotel Royal Singi also was very good in Nepal.
Now the real yatra begins on August 4th, 2006, after breakfast.

Mt. Kailas and Manasa Sarovar yatra in 2006

After our first ever Yatra of 2006 to Chardham, I returned to the USA. But my husband Rao stayed back in Hyderabad with the family. Then, he suddenly decided to make the Manasa sarovar yatra, after shopping around, decided to use Southern Travels tour. Until today, I did not hear the details about his adventure directly from him. But now, I found a small note book where he jotted down bits and pieces of his trip. With his permission, I have decided to add it to my blog. Since it is not my first hand experience, the information may not be hundred percent accurate. I posted above some maps I found on the web.
He flew from Hyderabad to Delhi. There is an information desk, but no one was there. After waiting for 2 hours, someone came. The travel agency representative was supposed to meet and greet. The bus came after 10 a.m. Brunch at 11:15 a.m. Not much vegetarian food choice was available. He had a subway sandwich and Tea. I can't imagine him eating that Sandwich.  There was another Telugu family, but were aloof.
At the Sahara check-in, there was some confusion. The scale was incorrect, needed his Passport as further proof. This is just a beginning. I will continue Kathmandu etc. in the next post.