[parsh]

Good show Cheetah. Finally the King obliges. I can understand that first moment's ecstasy. When I spotted them first time, I had climbed and sat on the Gypsy's B-Pillar bar and shooting continuously, just didn't know how my rolls got exhausted. At times you can get whole families in the sight for long times. Plan for longer stay next time at Gir only and more safaris, you will not be disappointed.

[SDP]

6.5 Rukmaniji ka mandir at Dwarka

In another 5-10 minutes we reach Rukmaniji ka mandir. There are a whole bunch of other temples around which also claim to be important.


The Rukmani temple has the "Floating Rock". It is indeed a piece of rock floating in water. You can push it down and it resurfaces. This should explain how Shree Ram built a bridge from southern tip of India to Shrilanka.


One of the many other temples here.


That's the Gopi Talav.




4:00pm -> We start towards Okha port from where we need to take a ferry to Bet Dwarka.

6.6 Bet Dwarka
4:45pm -> At the Okha port


The blue sea




Does that remind you of the shot from "Swades" ?


The port getting farther away.


We had good fun with the seagulls during the 20 minute trip.














We reach Bet Dwarka's jetty.




The Dwarkadheesh temple on the island.




After the darshan, we had tea and started back towards the jetty.
The sun was about to set.






Clicked a family photo with the sunset in the background.


Having fun with the sun.






We get better seats this time.


A final sunset shot for the day with the Indian tricolor in the foreground.


6:45pm -> We reach back to the Okha port

We reach Hotel Gomti in main Dwarka around 7:30pm. We leave cameras and everything behind in the hotel room and go for getting the Dwarkadheesh darshan.

After the darshan, we spend time in the temple premises and see the Sharda Pith as well.

We come back to the hotel after an hour, have dinner and hit the bed. Its been another long day. I announced to my little group that our trip is over from sightseeing perspective. Our return journey towards Mumbai starts tomorrow.

[SDP]

6.7 Drive, stay, food and other observations from day-6

1. Today's route: Veraval->Gadu>Chorwad->Madhavpur->Porbandar->Dwarka->Nageshwar->Okha Port->Dwarka. Total distance covered -> 315 kms. Toll paid -> Nil.

2. Driving time taken for Veraval to Dwarka (excluding all breaks)-> 4 hours.

3. Once you leave Verval behind, the road improves. Although it is a coastal route, you get to see the sea only at few places like Madhavpur. Would have loved more if the road would have been closer to the sea throughout. Nice winding 2-lane road, a few blind turns and laid-back traffic ensure that you enjoy the route and not just cover it.

4. Although there are lots of stay options in Dwarka, the good places tend to get booked well in advance. e.g Hotel Damji, which was recommended by a few TBHPians had no rooms available when I checked 2 months before the trip. Even at Hotel Gomti where we stayed, Kesari Tours had a booking for 7-8 rooms and we used to bump into the Kesari gang during lunch & dinner.

5. Dwarka is quite congested and is not very clean & neat. An un-clean place, however holy, eventually degrades your experience of visiting the place.

6. Dwarakadheesh temple (just like Akshardham and Somnath) seems to have gone overboard with security measures. Seeing someone in military fatigues, carrying an automatic weapon, standing guard on the temple's border wall is not a pretty sight. All the NoCamera-NoMobile-NoElectronicItems-NoLeatherBelt-NoBags combined with a full body search, makes you wonder if you are a terrorist and takes away part of the satisfaction of visiting religious places.

7. Dwarkadheesh temples (the main one and the one on the Bet) also have just too much of 'bhog's and the darshan closes just too many times.

8. In comparison, Nageshwara temple was significantly unassuming and treated us like devotees (and not like suspected terrorists).

9. On Bet Dwarka, we visited the main Dwarkadheesh temple only. I am not aware if there is anything else there that is worth exploring.

10. The Water in the Dwarka hotel was as hard as the one in Somnath. Looks like even Dwarka survives on bore-wells.

[SDP]

7.0 Day-7 (24 Nov 2012) planning

Day 7 (Sat-24-Nov) -> Start around 9am from Dwarka. Possibly get Dwarkadheesh darshan in the morning. Head for Jamnagar. Call up Hotel president the day before to check the feasibility of visiting Narara marine park and low-tide timings in the morning. Cover Narara island if possible. Head to Vadodara through Rajkot -> Limbdi -> Vataman -> Borsad -> Vadodara. Reach Vadodara by 8-9pm. Stay at Vadodara.

We start our return journey today from Dwarka and take a night halt at Vadodara. Dwarka to Vadodara is 500+ kms. With breaks, the total time could be around 10 hours. Narara Island would take at least 3 hours. Plus the schedule has been hectic till now. So I opt out of the visit to Narara island. Instead, we decide to visit Dwarkadheesh temple once again in the morning and then have a "relaxed" start from Dwarka.

Got up around 7am. Having a single bathroom meant it was almost 8:30am when everybody got ready. We decide to go to the temple first and then return for breakfast.

7.1 The morning visit to the Dwarkadheesh temple

After a 2-3 minute walk we reach the temple.


That's the Sharda Pith.




A snap with the Dwarkadheesh temple in the background. See the cow on the left hand side? She literally gate-crashed into the family portrait and was not ready to move.


She must be part our family in some previous life.


The sun is behind the temple. Not the ideal position for photography.


Intricate work on the temple


This is a building just in front of the temple. Lots of places in Gujarat still carry the wounds from the earthquake.


Darshan timings. The darshan closes during all the 'bhog's. We are there during the God's bath which lasts 1 hr 15 minutes. So no darshan.


Somehow I feel that the work is a bit too intricate. Looks cluttered.






(To capture the temple in better light,) I convince everybody to take a round around the temple, from outside the premises.
We spot a Chhakda blocking most of the narrow road at one place.


Its a unplanned town and there is a maze of narrow gullies.


Finally after 10 minutes, we reach a vantage point from where I could capture the temple in beautiful morning light.


Apparently this is another entrance to the temple.




While we complete the round, we encounter the Gomati ghat. Did not take photos as lots of people were taking a dip.






We circle back to the starting point and head towards our hotel.




That's Hotel Gomti where we stayed.


A few interior shots at the reception of the hotel






After breakfast, we checkout from the hotel, load the car and bid goodbye to Dwarka at 10:15am.

Here's a parting shot of the temple from the highway. Did you notice the changed flag?

[SDP]

7.2 Drive from Dwarka to Vadodara

10:15am -> We start from Dwarka. The kids doze off almost immediately.








While passing Jamnagar, you can not miss signs of Reliance.




1:15pm -> We have covered 218 kms in last 3 hours. We are somewhere near Rajkot and hungry. Going by previous highway-lunch experiences, I am not very hopeful of finding a decent hotel. We see one Hotel Shivshakti and take a chance.


Surprisingly we hit a jackpot. The place has a AC dining hall. The service as well as food was fantastic.






Look at the size of the tokri in which mounthfreshner was offered. Kids (and myself) have fun!


2:15pm -> Lunch done. We move towards the parking. The hotel seems to have multiple dining options.




Our Duma taking rest in partial shade.




A 100 meters ahead, we find another hotel Muralidhar. Going by the crowd, my guess is that even this place serves good food.


The dust from Sasan Gir - quite noticeable on the shiny part of the dash.


Some interesting temple on top of a hill.




4:30pm -> We have covered another 173kms in last 2 hour 15 minutes. This is the important junction which we are looking for. From here, we turn right and head for Vadodara, instead of going straight towards Ahmedabad.


After taking the turn, in 10 minutes we come to a railway crossing. Just before we reach, the barrier lowers.


What's that blue board?


Ah, Lothal is just 10 kms away! Should we? Why not, its not too late. The last sign showed Vadodara 114kms away. Should be able to cover that in around 2 hours.




The train passed.


This massive thing deserves a "Got BHP?" sticker!




Let's go to Lothal then.

[SDP]

7.3 Lothal - Harappan Civilization

Lothal was not in the plan and we treat it as a bonus.

5:00pm -> We reach Lothal and park.




The information board.


We explore the place.
































The museum closes at 5pm. Next time.


5:25pm -> We start back towards Vadodara.




Sunset on the way.






We take a 15 minute tea-break at 6:15pm. We reach the Hotel Sapphire Regency in the heart of Vadodara city at 8:40pm.
This is undoubtedly the best hotel in this entire trip. Sharing a couple of interior snaps.




Even the restaurant on first floor was very good.


We finish dinner by 10pm and retire to our rooms.

[SDP]

7.4 Drive, stay, food and other observations from day-7

1. Today's route: Dwarka->Jamnagar->Rajkot->Limbdi->Lothal->Vataman->Borsad->Vasad->Vadodara. Total distance covered -> 532 kms. Toll paid -> 213 Rs.

2. Driving time taken for Dwarka to Vadodara (excluding all breaks and diversion to Lothal)-> 8 hours 30 mins.

3. The average speed was very good till Lothal. Last 125kms took 3 hours! This included very slow progress in the Vadodara city, refueling break and asking for directions for the hotel.

4. Hotel Sapphire Regency has a 24-hour checkout policy. Quite convenient.

5. Very near to the Vadodara station, there is a cluster where all the main hotels are located. Hotel Sapphire Regency is also part of this cluster. The place is very close to Sayaji Baug as well as the Lukshmi Vilas Palace which we were planning to visit the next morning. Perfect location.

6. Today was a lucky day as far as food was concerned. A proper south-indian breakfast at Hotel Gomti in Dwarka, good lunch at Hotel Shivshakti at Rajkot bypass and fantastic dinner at Sapphire Regency at Vadodara.

7. Long hours spent in the car today. The kids got a lot of stories about Krishna's life, Ramayan and Mahabharat from the grandparents. Was a good refresher course for me as well.

8. The story about how Krishna gives his army to Duryodhan and he himself joins Arjun as a 'sarathi' was eagerly absorbed by the kids. How Krishna as the sarathi played a key role in the victory of the Pandavas was also told. I quipped "The 'sarathi' - the person who drives and takes others along - is extremely important."

9. Made another wisecrack about the Sanjay from Mahabharata having divya-drishti. Because of all the fun in the car, the journey did not feel long and tiresome.

[sach.sri]

very nice and detailed TL - appreciate the patience that it would have taken you to put it down on paper

I think you were very lucky to see the jungle cat. It is a very rare sighting - i have never seen one in all my trips to the jungle. It is shy and does not give you time to click a pic, but this one really obliged you.

[hiren959]

Superb travelogue with details from SDP.
We have just finished our Sasan Gir trip yesterday night. We have visited Junagadh first then Devalia, Sasan Gir, Diu, Somnath Veraval, Virpur and back to Ahmedabad.
We have sighted a Lion, Lioness, Leopard and small Alligator in Jungle safari at 3:45 PM on Friday.
We stayed at Avadh Farm in Sasan, the owner is known to me. He told us that at Diwali time few lions were at his farm only and visitors have enjoyed the free safari.
Leopard is every night visitor at his farm. Few days before three lions have killed a cow nearby his farm.
Even while our dinner at night the leopard has visited their farm, we have seen it clearly and that was a wonderful and somewhat horrifying experience as we have small kinds in our group. Even today in our local newpaper there is news of killing a 5 years girl by a Leopard in Sutrapada, nearby area of Gir.
Yesterday at around 8PM he called me that five lions have visited the Avadh farm and killed his own cow, and still sitting in his farm only. He called the Forest officials to take care of them.
So the trip to Gir was wonderful and memorable for lifetime.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by sach.sri

very nice and detailed TL - appreciate the patience that it would have taken you to put it down on paper

I think you were very lucky to see the jungle cat. It is a very rare sighting - i have never seen one in all my trips to the jungle. It is shy and does not give you time to click a pic, but this one really obliged you.

Thanks sach.sri! About the jungle cat, I guess it was our lucky day. We passed it and stopped a bit ahead. I asked the driver to reverse a bit. The Guide said, if we reverse it will run away. But the driver reversed anyways. The cat did not run away, looked at us once before eventually walking off.

Originally Posted by hiren959

Superb travelogue with details from SDP.
We have just finished our Sasan Gir trip yesterday night. We have visited Junagadh first then Devalia, Sasan Gir, Diu, Somnath Veraval, Virpur and back to Ahmedabad.
We have sighted a Lion, Lioness, Leopard and small Alligator in Jungle safari at 3:45 PM on Friday.
We stayed at Avadh Farm in Sasan, the owner is known to me. He told us that at Diwali time few lions were at his farm only and visitors have enjoyed the free safari.
Leopard is every night visitor at his farm. Few days before three lions have killed a cow nearby his farm.
Even while our dinner at night the leopard has visited their farm, we have seen it clearly and that was a wonderful and somewhat horrifying experience as we have small kinds in our group. Even today in our local newpaper there is news of killing a 5 years girl by a Leopard in Sutrapada, nearby area of Gir.
Yesterday at around 8PM he called me that five lions have visited the Avadh farm and killed his own cow, and still sitting in his farm only. He called the Forest officials to take care of them.
So the trip to Gir was wonderful and memorable for lifetime.

Thanks Hiren! Lucky you that you guys saw the leopard. Can you please PM me the contact details of the Avadh Farm gentleman. Would love to stay there the next time I visit. Thanks!

[SDP]

8.0 Day-8 (25 Nov 2012) planning

Day 8 (Sun-25-Nov) -> Cover Laxmi Vilas palace and the Sayaji Baug in the morning. Start for Mumbai around 1pm. Reach home by 7-8pm.

Today we will cover the remaining return journey from Vadodara to Mumbai. Should take 6-7 hours. So the plan is to cover a bit of Vadodara in the morning, have lunch in Vadodara itself and then start for Mumbai.

Got up a bit late and got ready. There was complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Finished that and ventured out around 8:45am.

We head to the Laxmi Vilas palace and reach there in 5-10 minutes. The security guy informs us that the place opens at 9:30am, but we are welcome to park and wait at the entrance point. Rather than waiting, we drive out. Let's check out Sursagar lake and Nazarbaugh palace.

8.1 Sursagar Talav

Another short drive and we pass by the Sursagar lake. I didn't knew till this point that there is a huge Shiva statue at the middle of the lake.


We circle around the lake to get a view from all sides.






8.2 Other misc scenes from Vadodara

We start looking for Nazarbaugh palace. We see the following building and assume it to be the Nazarbaugh palace.


Turned out that it is not. Apparently its the "Nyay Mandir".




Another interesting building


The Kirti Stambh


Just before 9:30am, we reach back to the Laxmi Vilas Palace. That's possibly the main entrance. Visitor entry is from another gate.


We get the tickets and drive inside.


First glimpse of the magnificent palace.


We park very near to the palace.


We are the first visitors today.


We want to spend 15-20 minutes here and spend a lot more time at the Sayaji baug as the Baug has quite a few attractions.

But the palace had other plans.

[SDP]

8.3 Laxmi Vilas Palace

We admire the palace from outside




Even at the widest zoom, I struggle to capture the entire palace.




Although the palace is about 120 years old, it is in an excellent condition.




That painting is not actually a painting. Its made from small colored chips. Details later.


Beautiful carvings everywhere


You stop every now and then mesmerized by the beauty and the grandeur.


We get inside from a equally beautiful door.




We are directed towards the office. There is no photography allowed inside the palace. The ticket price includes a audio tour. We get a mp3 player and headphones. Choice of Hindi and English. There are 14 sections in the palace which the visitors can visit and there is a separate chapter for each section. You move along with the narration and when the audio file ends, you move to the next section and the next file. Perfect! The narration is excellent and gives insight into the history and the lifestyle of the Gaikwads as well as interesting glimpses about the palace's construction and structure.

After getting our audio-sets we realize that from where we entered is actually the back side of the palace. The front has a huge lawn/garden which now houses a golf course as well.


The main porch.




All the exhibits are on the ground floor. The upper floors are exclusively for the heirs of the royal family who still reside here.




The Audio tour starts with the exterior of the beautiful palace. We feel enchanted standing in front of the magnificent structure.


I go back to capture the complete structure in the frame, but it is just so huge.


I go back even further, but a little bit still gets clipped on the sides. The audio informs that the shape of the structure is inspired by the places of worships of 4 different faiths - the leftmost portion has taken inspiration from a mosque, the next tower portion from a church, the center portion from a Hindu temple and the rightmost portion from a Sikh Gurudwara.


The garden area is section #2. You see a board with that number so that you know from where to start.


Interesting pieces from the garden.






More views of the front of the palace.








Photos in the porch

[SDP]

8.3 Laxmi Vilas Palace (continued)

There are so many 'European' sculptures in and around the palace that you sometimes wonder if you are exploring a place somewhere in Europe.


The protruding balconies also have a purpose - to provide shade and protection from elements to the main structure.








The main palace right from the entrance lobby, the staircase, the shastragar all the way to the gaadi-darbar and the main darbar-hall are extremely beautiful. The audio-tour which gives minute details about everything further enhances the experience. The palace is truly extravagant. The attention to detail and more importantly the 'taste' of Sayajirao Gaekwad, the 3rd, really needs to be admired. Its one thing to be rich and entirely another to have class. And you see 'class' in everything in the palace.

Unfortunately no photos allowed. But here's a video from the internet what gives you a glimpse of what you can expect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMY1jMzWuOg

Outside of the Darbar Hall are water fountains where photography is allowed.


While we are admiring the beauty of the place, I hear a snigger from the kids. They have obviously spotted something interesting.














11:15am -> Its almost 2 hours since we got in. I come out again to relieve my hand which is just itching to click.





Finally after walking 200 meters or so, I get a vantage point from where I can capture the entire palace.


There are more sculptures here.




A few more exterior shots.










That's the porch again.


God knows what that old Santro is doing there.


The 'painting' on the outside wall. Its made from small colored pieces and is amazingly detailed. Even though exposed to the elements, the colors have not faded even a bit. Apparently this one has been made by some European artist. Forgot the name of the art style.


11:30am-> We all come out, really really impressed.

[parsh]

Thanks for the Laxmi Vilas Palace pics, nice captures of the details, art, statues, landscape and various perspectives. Never been there. Your pics make me keep it as a MUST on list of travel itinerary to Gujrat next time.

[hiren959]

@SDP

Surely I will PM his contact details.