It all started in March 2014 when a few people in my office were discussing about Amarnath trip. One of them been there a few years back and was narrating his experience. Being a travel freak  I quickly jumped into the discussion to know more about the place and experience. 

Till that time what I knew about Amarnath was its somewhere in north and tough to climb and I cannot visit as one has to take at least 10 days of holidays which was definitely not possible. Thats it! 

So while listening to their conversation I got to know that there are two routes to Amanrath, One from Pahalgaon which takes around 7 days to and fro and the second one is Baltal route which one can cover in 24 hours but the track is really tough.

So I googled all the available blogs for the Amarnath yatra but 90% of them traveled from Pahalgam and couldn't get much info on Baltal. So I thought, will write a blog after coming back from the trip which will help people to prepare for the trip.

Since one doesn't enjoy going alone and may feel lonely also would need support as its a tough trek I asked a few of my colleagues if they want to come for the trip. Finally two of my colleagues  and Deepak Bhalla & Rakesh and one of my old Colleague Pardeep and Parag (Rakesh's friend) confirmed that they will come for the trip. It was the first time for everyone so we had to gather as much information as possible for the safe and successful trip.

Next day I checked Amarnath Yatra Website www.shriamarnathjishrine.com and downloaded two mandatory forms. They are Registration Form and a Compulsary Health Certificate form.

Both the forms are quite simple to fill. You need to attach one passport size photograph on each form plus you need to provide three additional passport size photographs. For medical test, you can find the list of hospitals on the websites. I prefer getting the test done from government hospital as is very cheap. Most of the private hospital would charge anywhere between INR 600 and INR 1500. There will be Blood test, Chest X-ray, Height and weight and ECG. One has to go for the test along with the compulsory health certificate form duly filled. After the test they will take the form from you and next day you can collect the form signed and stamped by the hospital authority. Make sure they also stamp on the photograph on the form.

After passing the medical test, you have to submit both the forms to one of the listed centers like PNB bank, J&K banks etc and at the time of submission yo need to pay INR 50 as registration charges. After a week you can check with the bank if they have received your permit. The permit consist of three pages with same details (which includes day and date of yatra from Baltal etc ) manually filled and have one passport size photograph on each. The first copy is for buying a 7 day prepaid BSNL sim (after reaching baltal camp). Second copy for your self and the third copy to be collected by the BSF personal at Domail.

In 2014 the yatra started on 28th June and ended on 10th August. We choose to take the yatra on 18th July because of 2 reasons. One, in the first two weeks there will be lot of rush. Second, there were still lot of snow on the tracks (as per the news) which would delay the trip.

After receiving the yatra permit we were in seventh heaven. We never thought of going to Amarnath yatra and now we have permit to visit.

We booked a SPL train (scheduled by indian railways during Amarnath Yatra). 

15-Jul-2014

Myself and Deepak Bhalla left for home from office a bit early around 3:00 PM. We reached home and got ready but suddenly we received an invitation from our boss to attend an urgent project meeting. Due to which we got late. We rushed to New Delhi station where we had to board our New Delhi Jammu SPL train. We reached to the platform just 5 minutes before departure. Rakesh, Parag and Pardeep were already reached station and kept on calling us. Thanks to Indian railways the train was late for departure. We boarded the train, bought some biscuits, chips. Rakesh had also brought some eateries. 

The train departed 30 mins late and after some time it started raining. In fact, it was raining so heavily that rain water started dripping inside the coach. One should remember that since its a special train this should be expected from Indian Railways :P.

16-Jul-2014

Next day we reached Jammu an Hour late. The weather was fine there as the whole way it was raining.

Rakesh's brother (lives in Jammu) came to the station and picked us to his known Taxi Stand in Jammu as the next step was to reach Srinagar. We hired a nice Xylo for only INR 3500 (all inclusive). While waiting for Rakesh's brother outside Jammu Station we enquired with a few Taxi operators and they were charging INR 1000 per person to Srinagar that too with 10 passengers. With that this was one of the best deal.

Pictures taken on the way to Srinagar