My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
Our trip to Ambaji was combined with a visit to Mount Abu and Udaipur. We travelled mostly by local buses, and thanks to the timing of our bus to Udaipur, we had a few extra hours at Ambaji, which we used to visit a few more temples located in the area. We hired an auto for the purpose, and left the temples to his discretion. Here is where he took us to.......