Our North India trip

 We started early in the morning and took a flight to Delhi. We stayed at my uncle's home for 1 night after meeting him in his army unit {He is an army officer}. Me and my parents were going to a temple called Vaishno Devi{ The story of the goddesses are written below} along with a company called AVAADA FOUNDATIONS. They sponsored this trip for us and it was all free of cost. I woke up super late as we had not much to do in the day. We had an over night train to Jammu and this was the first time I had gone on an overnight tow tier train. I took the upper bunk bed while my mom took a lower bunk and my dad took the next upper bunk. I was sharing the lower bunk with some other people . To keep myself entertained, I started sketching and after a while had dinner. After dinner, we slept as we had to wake up at 5:00am in the morning. 

I got off the training and my dad booked a taxi to our hotel{Which was also sponsored}. It was and amazing hotel with delicious food and a huge comfy room. I watched TV all day but slept early after a heavy dinner. The next day we set off on our journey to the temple. Many people were going walking but we took a helicopter. AS soon as it landed I almost flew away {Literally}. Thank god my dad was standing behind me to catch me wen I fell. Half of our journey was cover by helicopter and the rest was just a 5km walk towards the meeting point of all the AVAADA group. We freshened up in a room and soon stood in line to enter something called 'Atka'where 70-75 people will be permitted inside the temple and will be locked in front of the cave where the goddesses are placed. We waited with sore feet and freezing hands outside the entrance of the temple because of the heavy rush.

After the rush was cleared, me and my parents along with the some AVAADA people enter the Atka with a book of prayers. After the pooja was done, we were shown an entrance to the goddesses. They were just stones but beautifully carved and perfectly rounded. We got out of the temple and were in a fix whether to go to the hotel by a 3 hour walk or stay in a guest house there.

I thought that we will stay in a guesthouse as I was tired. But we ended up deciding to walk. First, we had some food and then we stated walking on a decline which wasn't very steep. Then, after 5km, we started walking on a straight path. It led us to another ramp. We wanted our remaining journey to be short and fast. So, we took stairs. The stairs were made in different sizes which made it hard to climb down. On the way, we bought some stuff because the stairs went through a market. When we reached down, my toes were aching and my legs were sore. My head throbbing and my eyes were closing. I was about to sleep. We took an auto from the market where we had descended and immediately slept after reaching our hotel.

After a few days, we had reached Delhi and I met all my cousins. We then went to Chandigad and met my grandparents. My dad had some program so we took a cad all the way the Hamirpur  { To visit his old college} He gave a speech there and we stayed over for one night. The next day we headed back to Chandigarh. We stayed there for 2-3 days. My whole family went to Kotkhai {Where my grandparents are from} to visit a temple went back to chandigarh and then flew to Delhi where I did some shopping and got some early birthday presents from my aunts. We then flew bach to bangalore the next day. I was very happy to see our home again.