Trip to Thirupathi

Thirupathi is just a five hour drive from Chennai and I visited the Thirupathi temple last weekend to get the blessings of Lord Venkateswara. I booked a tour package with Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation for a weekend trip that costs Rs.1200 per individual. I boarded the air conditioned bus on saturday at 6.30PM and landed at Tirupati at 12AM early sunday. We were allocated a room at the Pilgrim Amenities Centre. The room is for two and it had good facilities. After relaxing for a couple of hours we boarded a local bus by 2AM that climbed the hill all the way up to Thirumala temple. The entire uphill journey took nearly 50 minutes. We had to stand in a long queue and it took almost two and a half hours to get darshan. We had our breakfast at a local APTDC restaurant. The food was not great but satisfactory enough. From there we visited the Sri Padmavathi Ammavari Temple which is about 5km from Tirupati. Finally we stopped at the famous Srikalahasti temple which is 36 km from Tirupati. Wherever you go you have to wait in queue to get darshan. I got two Tirupati laddus and two more laddus at Padmavathi temple. I landed at chennai on sunday by 5.30PM. It was a tiresome yet holy trip but I felt that the crowd management system at the Tirupati temple could have been far better than what I had to experience.