Glorious Gujarat, Part-1

While exploring for the next place of visit for Christmas holidays, we saw Kutch Festival in the media. After so many YES-NOs we decided to visit Kutch & draw a plan covering the places around it. On hearing Gujarat, kids wanted to visit Gir & Statue of Unity. We made 2 plans: including & excluding Gir. Finally Gir was dropped because the Safari was booked for the entire week. We managed to book the stay for Day 2 in Ahmedabad & for Day3 in Kutch.

The team for this trip includes my family (me, Srilakshmi & Smriti) and the Modak family (Prashant, Neeta, Harsh & Gatha).
And as usual, the decision was to DRIVE...

Day 1: Bangalore to Nashik, 1083 Kms

We started at 4:10 am from home to beat the Weekend traffic and we were good till Chitradurga where we stopped for breakfast around 7 am. After Chitradurga, there were many diversions because of road work. The next halt was at Kolhapur for lunch around 1:00pm. Now the game starts with a lot of 2-wheeler traffic from now onwards. With a hell lot of traffic, diversions & some congestion, we crossed Pune around 5pm. After penetrating through Pune, we touched Nashik Road and finally reached my friend’s home around 10pm.

Day 2: Nashik to Ahmedabad: 490 Kms

After a good night’s sleep, we started by 7:30am to Ahmedabad post breakfast: thanks to Neeta’s mom. We took one of the 2 routes as per Google, which turned out to be an adventure. The (no) roads reminded us of our Leh-Ladakh Trip, 2 years ago. After traveling for some 100+ Kms, we reached the highway. I knew that the next 100-150 kms also would not be easy because of the density of trucks on that highway. Meanwhile we halted in between to fill fuel tank & especially our belly with some Gujarati snacks. We tasted almost all the available items in the hotel, to name a few: Dokhla, Khakra, Fafda, Khandvi, etc. 

 

By noon, we crossed Vadodara and then the Vadodara-Ahmedabad expressway was awesome to drive. We reached Sabarmati Ashram around 2:30pm, had lunch in a nearby restaurant & visited the ashram. 

 
 
 
 
 

Real Vs Remake...


 

After spending some quality time there, we checked-in to our hotel.  Later in the evening, we visited the Sabarmati Riverfront that was close to our hotel. That was a nice place to relax with lot of space built to walk/cycle along the river. Smriti, Harsh & Gatha pedalled for 30 mins with the rented cycles available there, while we 4 sat and enjoyed the cool breeze.

 
 

For dinner, we decided to visit the Manek Chowk, the food-street that is around 3 Kms across the river. It is a vegetable market in the morning, a bullion market in the noon and street-food market at night. The place was crowded like anything. We tried all kind of cuisines there & retired back to our room around 10pm.

 
 
 
 

Day 3: Ahmedabad to Kutch: 417 Kms

The journey to our main destination started by 6:45am after some tea in the hotel. After a halt for breakfast, we crossed Bhuj around noon. There were some forts around on the way, but that was not in our list. On the way, we crossed the massive Salt Pans of Gujarat, where salt is produced. We even stopped at the place where Tropic Of Cancer passes, to take a few pictures.

 
 
 

Later we checked-in our hotel around 3:30pm. We wanted to visit the Rann but the hotel guys recommended us to visit by 5:30pm as it will be hot. So we relaxed a bit in the room & left to Rann by 5:30pm that was about 2 Kms from there. 

 
 
 
 
 
 

The private vehicles were not allowed after a certain point, from where either we have to walk or take a camel-cart. We boarded a cart that went slower than walking, but we had fun when all others overtook us. Finally we reached our main destination, the Rann of Kutch.

 
 
 

That's the watch tower...
 

The sight was awesome with the sun setting in the west, a watch tower in the middle and surrounded by white sand. By far you cannot see anything except white color. We walked inside from the watch tower to take pictures only with the white background, but there were people everywhere.  The view from the top of the watch tower was also good. 

 
 
 
 
 

View from the watch tower...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 


After spending a lot of time after sunset there, we returned back to the Kutch festival area. We visited the stalls, had some snacks & retired to the hotel after dinner.

Not real camels...

Day 4: Kutch to Mandvi: 213 Kms

The day started at 6 am as soon as we woke up to see the sunrise in the Rann. This time we could take our vehicle till the watch tower. It was freezing there as everyone was waiting for the sun to come up. We waited till 7:30 am and as some started to go back, we could witness one of the best sunrises.  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

After spending some time there, we got back to our hotel by 8:30am, had breakfast & checked out. And as it was Christmas day, the dress code for the day was RED & shades of it.

The sun was so bright as you can see all the eyes not fully open...
 
 

The next place of visit was Kala Dungar that was 45 Kms from Kutch. Kala Dungar (or Black Hill) is the highest point in Kutch and has the Dattatreya temple. We reached there in no time, took a camel ride, walked down to the view point area. It was little bit foggy as we could not see the whole of white desert. But it looked like a sea shore from top.

Camel ride...
 
 
 

That's not an ocean...
 

Selfie with a camel...
 
 
 
 

We left to Bhuj  & reached by lunch time. Apart from having lunch in Bhuj, we visited the Prag Mahal Palace & the Swaminarayan Temple.

 

That's a huge mirror...
 
 
 

View from top...
 
 

The kids were excited about the next place of visit; Mandvi, just because it has a beach. It was a compensation given for them instead of Gir. They were eager to play in the beach, and so we should reach Mandvi before sunset. We checked-in to the hotel around 4:30pm, dressed up according to beach standards & left to the beach. The beach was good with no waves at all but had some water sports. 

 
 
 
 
 
 


One can just sit & relax in the rides offered there in the backdrop of the sunset. The kids had a great time in the beach. As usual, we had dinner & retired back to the room.

Day 5: Mandvi to Ahmedabad: 661 Kms.

We started early by 6:30am to reach the Western tip of India, Narayan Sarovar. It was so cold that we stopped in between to have some tea in a shop that had a campfire set-up in front of it. The roads were empty as we entered a forest area. On the way, the road passed through the water body, which was a magnificent site to watch. It reminded us the Pamban bridge of Rameshwaram, of course, on a smaller scale. As we knew that there were no restaurants, we finished our breakfast on the way.

Can you guess that this guy is making tea...

 



Narayan Sarovar is one of the five sacred lakes of Hinduism. Thousands of pilgrims come to perform funeral ceremonies on the bank of the Narayan Sarovar. We visited the ancient Koteshwar Mahadev Temple. There is also a BSF Check Post at the tip of the ocean.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Also at one place during a sharp turn, two guys in a motorcycle came right in front of us. Somehow I maneuvered the vehicle & avoided a head on collision. They both just missed a direct ticket to heaven/hell. Not to mention that they stopped later and were shivering in fear when we crossed them safely.

On our way back, we finished our lunch in Bhuj & rushed to visit the Kankaria Lake Carnival in Ahmedabad. The lake is the second largest in the city, is circular in shape with a lakefront around it. There were many cultural programmes going on with so many food stalls. We spent a lot of time there till dinner & retired to our hotel.

 
 
 
 

Day 6: Ahmedabad to Vadodara: 409 Kms.

Today was supposed to be a local sight-seeing day. So we planned to visit Akshardham Temple , that was around 30 Kms from the hotel. We reached early & hunted for some hotel nearby for breakfast. As not many were open, finally we found one & ate whatever he had in his shop. We entered the temple premises, of course with lot of restrictions and mainly no photography.  

SelfTea, not selfie...
 
 
 

After spending some time there, we visited the Adalaj stepwell that was 15 Kms away. The well, built in sandstone in the Solanki architectural style is five stories deep and is octagonal in shape.

 
 
 
 

My daughter wanted to visit the next destination as she had read about it in her GK books. I was also keen to visit it after I saw the monument in our new Rs. 100 currency note. It is the famous Rani ki Vav or the Queen’s Stepwell. It is located in the town of Patan. The stepwell has 7-level of stairs with structural panels and has a fine architecture.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

View from other side...
 

The well was damaged due to an earthquake...
 

The last place of visit is the Sun Temple at Modhera that is 35 Kms away. This is only one of the 2 most prominent Sun temples in India, the other one is in Konark, Odisha. This temple is shaped like a giant chariot & also has a huge stepwell.

All those people are junior actors...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The place was crowded as we reached and later we came to know that some Ad film shooting was going on there.  Around 100-150 people left when the shooting was over. The architecture of the temple was excellent as we strolled around the temple. After some tea & snacks, we left the place to our last city of the trip: Vadodara, 220 Kms from Modhera.

As we crossed Vadodara, the traffic police was stopping few vehicles to check for presence of any alcohol in the car. As soon as my friend said that we work for Ministry of Defence, the policeman immediately left us unchecked. Anyhow we didn’t carry any.

On the way, we checked & booked a hotel on the highway itself for the stay. We reached the hotel around 9:30pm and finished our day after dinner.

Day 7: Vadodara to Pune: 638 Kms

Some art work in a hotel...
 
The penultimate day of our trip started at 7:30 am after a light breakfast at the hotel. The kids were all excited to see the tallest statue in the world, so was I. The road leading to the statue was too good & we reached there in no time. The first glimpse of the statue was picturesque as it was standing tall amidst the foggy mountains. 

Standing tall...
 


We parked at the designated area & walked towards the statue. The statue is really huge; one has to see it to believe. The statue is 182 metres tall on the bank of Narmada River facing the Dam. It has a museum & an exhibition area on its pedestal and an observatory at its chest. Of course we couldn’t get the tickets for the observatory as it was sold out due to Holiday rush.

 
 
 
 
 

We visited the museum & climbed on top to reach the base of the statue. Now you can truly feel the size of the statue. After spending some time & taking pictures, we left the place to return to Pune.

 
 
 
 
 

You can imagine the size of the statue now...
 
 
 
 
 

Last but not the least, Statue with my Beast...
 

The road from the Statue connecting to the Pune Highway was so horrible that we wasted a lot of time. The plan was to have lunch and bid adieu to Prashant & family at Chikli; which is closer to Nashik, that didn’t happen due to bad roads. So we finished our lunch first & then dropped them at Chikli around 3pm. Formal ‘Good Byes’ & ‘Happy Journeys’ were exchanged once again at that very same place after 2 years.

Another 350 Kms to the last night of the trip, we had a tea break in between & reached my friend Shailesh’s home in Pune by 10:30 pm. We had a nice home-cooked food after a week. After some discussions about our trip, we went to bed by midnight.

Day 8: Pune to Bangalore: 854 Kms

Just before leaving, Last Selfie of the trip with Hitesh, Shailesh & Kavita Modak...
 
This route was done N number of time by us. We decided to start a bit late by 8 am, as we slept late last night. Thanks to Modak family for the delicious breakfast that gave us the energy to start the final lap of our journey. As usual there were a lot of 2 wheelers till Kolhapur.  With a break for Lunch, evening tea & dinner, we reached home just before midnight.

Overall, everybody had fun for the last 8 days and I loved the drive as usual. Still lot more is left to visit in Gujarat. The roads were too good except for the two instances as mentioned above. A lot of time was wasted in road diversions and the tolls as the transition period for Mandatory FASTag was going on.

Total Distance traveled: 4765 Kms.

PC: Prashant, Smriti & Me

Pictures captured on: iPhone, Nikon D5600 & Redmi Note7 Pro

...Stay tuned for Part-2...😈