Getting there:
Nearest Airport – Kochi International Airport
Nearest railway station – Chenganur, from where plenty of buses take you to Pamba
2145 hrs – Kanyakumari Express departed from Bangalore city railway station on dot surprisingly at the scheduled time. A trust mainly set up by the Shopkeepers in the APMC Yard organizes a small pilgrimage to Sabarimalai every month where the temple of Lord Ayyappa is situated. My father and his friends had approached them if they could accommodate us in any month. They were more than eager and happily accepted our names. They charged us only for the transportation from BLR to Pamba and then back to BLR, most of it by train and the last leg by a bus. The food, accommodation was all a contribution from the donors. The train journey was to last for almost 17 hours as we had to get down in Kottayam where a bus would be awaiting for our arrival to take us to Pamba, the base of the Sabarimalai hill which is again 4 hours away by road. A long journey though but we had no reasons to complain. Thanks to the Trust who ensured that we were well taken care of.
The train had just left the station; we were being served with dinner which was relishing. A while later we all retired for the night only to be woken up in the morning by the locals who were bombarding our sleeper coaches though all our seats were reserved. They simply refused to listen and even the Travel Ticket Examiner(TTE) wasn't of much help. 4 or 5 of us were found sitting in the seats meant for 3. Sandwiches, tikki puris and others were served for breakfast which was partly filling. Surprisingly the pantry guys never came to sell any food throughout the journey.
The train reached Kottayam at 1200 hrs, which was late by 35 mins. though none of us complained. Immediately we were shifted to a bus which was waiting outside the station. The rest of the journey kicked off in no time. Almost 4 hours later we arrived at Pamba. The place gets its name from the river which flows across the small village. The Sabarimalai has no road access which is located on top of the hill. All pilgrims have to walk up a shabbily made path which leads you to the temple town. For the elderly and the people who cannot walk, a service called 'Dolly' is available. 4 men carry a person on a chair to the top and get them down as well for which they charge anywhere between Rs.1500/- to Rs.2000/-. I chose to walk bare foot which I felt was a grave mistake much later. Women aged between 10 to 50 aren't allowed in the temple.
The Pamba river needs to be crossed from where the path to Sabarimalai starts. Lord Ganesha's temple is located just at the start of the path where his blessings are sought by all the devotees. A few other temples of Goddess Parvathi, Lord Hanuman and others are all located next to each other. Once we were done with taking their blessings we kick started our walk up the hill. 7 of us, my father, his friends and I went along together. One of my uncle's chose to make use of the dolly. I was told that the path is very slushy and is slippery. Since I was walking barefoot I had to be extra careful from slipping. The information received was from the people who had walked this path several years ago. While we were walking we came across a few stairs in the beginning and then a patch of big pebbles which are arranged almost flat on the ground. A steep climb started from then on. The path was made out of concrete which had a rough surface with an intention that it doesn't slip while it rains as this place receives very heavy rainfall in a year.
Half way through we heard crackers being burst. I was wondering it could be used to chase the elephants away as this hill falls in the forest area. When I enquired, I was told that the devotees burst crackers and is part of a seva to the God. Each God and the place have their own tradition. Logically if seen, it is for the same reason as I mentioned before i.e., to chase the elephants away. The noise of these crackers is deafening and travels several miles due to the proximity of the forest area where the sound waves aren't obstructed. We came across the place where the crackers were being burst. From this place it's almost a normal walk almost the same distance which we climbed till now. The path almost flattens gradually. This patch gave me all the trouble as the slush which they were talking about was very much there. The work on concretizing the path was on the way which added to the misery of the devotees. As if that wasn't enough it started raining which only made things worse. Each step was carefully taken considering that I am not used to walking barefoot though I slipped many a times. In some time we were almost on top as we could see the temple town from the path. Once we reached there we quickly moved to the accommodation office to enquire about renting a room for a day which we were allotted. Since I am a frequenter to Tirumala, I expected the rooms to be on the same lines; which wasn't to our surprise. They were worse than godowns which resembled dark dungeons. The accommodation arranged by the organizers was chosen eventually which was much better.
The temple is open only for 5 days in a month other than the seasons during Mandal Pooja when its open for almost 40 days. Prior information about the temple being open would be useful if one decides to visit the place. Freshening up we decided to have a darshan of the God. As the June month is off-season, there was hardly any crowd. In less than 2 minutes we could have the Darshan of the Lord Ayyappa. It was my first visit and I was very much impressed looking at the beauty of the idol which has a gold covering. The temple which itself is very small has a gold plating through out including the roof which makes it look spectacular. There were many lamps which were placed one next to the other of various heights in an ascending order starting from the door till the idol of the God. Receiving his blessings we decided to go around the town which is relatively very small. In a few minutes we were done. 8 of us retired in a two bed room.
Early morning, before descending we went to the temple for darshan. The crowd was much bigger than what we witnessed the previous day. It almost took half an hour for us to have the first darshan. Once we were done with that we came around the Dwajastamb and had a second darshan. We did this several times as the Abhisheka of the Lord was happening with ghee(The idol is bathed with ghee every day during the Abhisheka). It was a sight to be watched which is difficult to witness otherwise. Once our souls were satisfied, we decided to descend. There are two paths which lead to the temple town from the half way through where they burst the crackers. We realized about it only when we finished the climb the day before as they merge at the entrance to the temple town. The path was completely concretized and had a roof. Hence we had decided to take this to descend. While we took this path which was much better than the slushy one through which we had climbed the day before, we realized that the concrete base was only for a few meters after which it was a usual foot trail walking on which was a terrible thing in barefoot. Cursing myself for having chosen this path I continued further until we reached the original path. I was much relieved once we were there as it was much easier to climb down.
The bus was waiting for our arrival. We started our return journey and reached Kottayam station where we waited for the train. It arrived on time at 1645 hrs which we boarded. We arrived in BLR the next day morning at 0700 hrs.
The overall journey was indeed very good. Thanks to the Trust who organized the pilgrimage to which we are indebted. It was the 213th pilgrimage for the Guruswamy who organizes every month. The experience itself does the talking.
