Amarnath Yatra Part-1: Preparation for yatra
Amarnath yatra is one of the difficult and most beautiful and amazing yatra’s in India. In a nutshell, You need to experience the yatra insted of hearing and viewing from someone.
We went to Amarnath Yatra in 2018. Here in this article, I am sharing our experience with you all. My Father wanted to do Amarnath yatra before he completes 75 years. So my brother-in-law, I and my father started preparations for Amarnth yatra.
One of my friend Satish Kumar helped me a lot with his advices every time I get a doubt. He visited Amarnath Ji 4 to 5 times. He has a lot of experience.
We reached Guha through Baltal base camp. So all the information is related to this route. You can see the Baltal base camp
I dedicate this article to all the soldiers who are working in Kashmir because of them all Yatris are safe
Here I am going to divide our entire yatra into 4 parts
- Preparation for Amarnath Yatra – Current article
- Amarnath Yatra: Until Baltal base camp
- Amarnath Yatra: Journey to Guha or Holy cave
- Amarnath Yatra: Other information
Preparation for Amarnath Yatra:
Age restrictions: You need to be above 13 years old and your age should not cross 75 years of the age. This will be the first and primary rule. These restrictions are made for the benefit of the pilgrims because everyone has to face a tough environment during yatra time. All the pilgrims
Medical certificate: Once you decided to go and satisfies the age restrictions rule then you need to get a medical certificate from the authorized doctor. Every year Amarnath Yatra website will publish the list of doctor names and government hospital names on their website. You need to go and visit the hospital to get the certificate. The doctor will prescribe you few tests like echo test (CLICK HERE for more information), ECG test (CLICK HERE for more information) and any lungs related tests to identify if there are functioning perfectly or not.
Once doctor sees the test results he will give the medical certificate. This will complete the first step. You just make 3 color xerox copies of medical certificate for your reference. You can see the sample one beside
Challan Payment or Getting yatra permit: Once you receive your Medical certificate you need to go to the nearest approved bank to get the Yatra permit. In our case, we got it from Jammu Kashmir Bank. You need to pay 50 rupees to each person so that they will provide you Yatra permit. Before going to the bank you need to carry below documents: 3-4 stamp size photographs, Original medical certificate. Fill the challan for the payment Yatra permit. specify the date when you need yatra permit then Bank will issue Amarnath Yatra permit. You can get the Yatra permit form in Bank
In case if you are going by air plane, You need to plan your travel at this stage. So that you can reduce your cost of travel.
Best thing to do this planning well before in advance so that you can save on airline tickets. Find out the low fair dates from the airplane and mix that combination of dates with weather conditions and choose the Yatra permit date. Bank will have
Very importentlimitted slots for a specific day.
Cold clothing: We took all the below
- Raincoat — this will protect you from rain
- Jerkin – to protect from clod weather
- Hand gloves
- Monkey cap
- ear cover to protect from cold, umbrella, Torch
- 4 pairs of cloths
- medical certificate duplicate copy
- cash for transactions and debit and credit card — Cash will be more useful
- Flight tickets
- Dry fruits – During Yatra in case if you want to eat while climbing or near Guha if you wanted eat
- Blankets,
Shaluva . - Yatra permit which will be issued by Bank — Without this, they will not allow you inside
- Identification cards– Aadhar or PAN
- Shoe and 3 pairs of sox — Shoes which has good grip/soul. Do not try shoes directly in Yatraget used to it before Yatra itself
- Fever and headache tablets, cotton and first AID kit– Just in case if you fall sick.
- Hotel booking details and their phone numbers
- Write your address and emergency contact numbers keep them in a cover in each language
- Take a photograph of the address and phone numbers and keep that as a screensaver in your mobile. so that when your phone is in locked state other can see the address and emergency contact information. Do mention your blood group in the slip
Where you get more information: You can get more information in Amarnath shrine board http://www.shriamarnathjishrine.com/
CLICK HERE to go to the next page and read about Amarnath Yatra: Until Baltal base camp
My Friend Satish Kumar explained over all Amarnath Yatra process. You can listen to him in below videos
