Gujarat Visit (Part 2) : Dwarka, Somnath And Gir Lion Reserve

JyotirLinga

Click here for Part1
Click here for Part3

It was around 8:30 PM when we reached Dwarka, rushed directly to the hotel room, relaxed for an hour , packed our bags and left the hotel room to catch our bus to “Somnath”. We didn’t have time for dinner plus there was hardly any place available to sit and eat, Dwarka was overly crowded that evening. I went to the travel agent’s office got the tickets which I booked early morning. This time it was in a local travel and it’s not a sleeper coach. We boarded the bus; I brought two vegetable sandwiches, few packets of potato chips and 2 big bottles of water. All seats in the bus were full, and then happened the drama. The travel agent sold more number of tickets then there were seats, many more people boarded the bus, conductor gave them small plastic stools to sit on in the aisle and confirmed their seats. This was the first time I saw something stupid happening in Gujarat in last two days. Passengers who were sitting on the regular seats started shouting at the bus conductor and travel agent and also on to the passengers sitting on the plastic stools about this mess. It was a 2 + 3 bus which now became a 2 + 1+ 3 with loads of luggage kept on the aisle it now looked a Transports instead of “Tour Travels”. I am not hesitant to say that such local travels sucks, to tell you the truth even their bus seats were lousy, smelly, full of dust and shaky and filthy. Before, you ever book your tickets through such travel agents, think twice. Well, whole night went uncomfortably, felt very sorry to my mom and dad about this jungle ride, but then there was no other option.

roadside @ Somnath

We reached “Somnath” “the holy land of Shiva” before 4 AM in morning; I had no idea where to go at this very wee hour. The bus stop was not great, but there were few tea shops open, people like us sipping tea around them. I asked Mr. Gupta where to go now. Gupta ji is of my age, has family business in Ahmedabad, now travelling with his wife and 5 year old kid. We were in the same bus to Dwarka, in the same boat to Bait Dwarka, and now we were in same boat of confusion and finding rooms. All Guest houses and hotels are booked for next couple of days, we found; there is no single hotel room available. There were a few very big guest houses in the same location owned by “Somnath Trust” a charitable trust indeed but every placed was flooded. We tired; walking half asleep entered one such guest house, spread out a bed sheet on the cement floor in front of the gate, and lied down on it to relax our back and legs. Thanks to Gupta family who were at least carrying this bed sheet. By this time our two families had gelled well together, we decided even if we get a single room we all could share it. Just forgot to tell you we are actually very close to the main “Somnath” temple hardly ½ km away. I thought , I really enjoyed this early morning madness, sipping roadside teas back to back at 4 AM, relaxing on this concrete porch in open air with others and later asking everyone, “Hey, Do you know if there is any room available ?“ we even tried adding emotions by saying that we have two ladies and a kid with us. I felt stupid for not booking a hotel room or a guest house in advance; I could see a hairline crack in my fool proof plan.

Temple

Jay Somnath

 a park nearby

roadside@Somnath, Prabhas patan, Veraval

beach@Somnath

Gupta ji and I came out from our concrete porch, in search of at least one room, Jab we met one “Auto Rickshaw” uncle who said, he can definitely show us some rooms if we want. We jumped inside his auto and he drove it like a pathfinder in those narrow lanes in this place called “Prabhas Patan”, which is adjacent to the main temple’s premises. He showed us many rooms in residential houses, the owners rent out their rooms in such a peak season. It was anyways a normally looking old colony with very narrow lanes where everyone dealing with tourists for rooms. We finalized Raju Bhai’s single room for 1400 Rs for one night. Auto rickshaw uncle asked 100 Rs and left saying his name as Javed, interesting.


Room was not very big, but we adjusted somehow atleast we got a room to get fresh and sleep. The owner Raju Bhai gave us three more mattresses and clean bed sheets. I slept immediately for around 4 hours and got up at 11:00 AM. Within next 1 hour we were ready for Darshan of “Lord Shiva” the “Aadi Jyotirling Shree Somnath Mahadev”. The temple premises are just a hundred meters away so it took just 5 minutes. We went through a long queue, arrangement to control the crowd, the devotees are better here than they are in Dwarkadheesh temple. The temple is located right on the Arabian Sea’s shore; the waves in the sea, to me appeared as a great wall paper placed at the temple’s background.

The current temple was re constructed post independence, when “Sardar Patel” decided to bring temple’s glory back, which was seen as an attempt of reversal of past injustice done to Hindus in India. I hope you know the sad history behind it; the same temple was destroyed several times by many Muslim Invaders and later reconstructed by Indian Hindu Kings. As per Wikipedia in 1701 CE, the temple was finally destroyed by “Aurangzeb”, who built a mosque on the site of the temple; the Hindu sculptural motifs remained visible in the mosque. Finally around 1783, temple was rebuilt again at the same site, which reconstructed by Sardar Patel and later M.M Munshi (started after 1947). It’s past glory, Hindu legends and importantly the unfortunate history of so many demolitions and reconstructions forced me to visit Somnath this year. I was rather angry and frustrated than happy being at Somnath at our history previous generations, kings, Indian Rulers who were always divided among themselves and could not stop invaders from looting this holy Land. Even in 2011 today things have not changed much , the current rulers the political parties are virtually doing the same thing, the invaders are still here…

Well, we finished our Darshan, took our lunch and returned back to our room at Raju bhai’s house. Meanwhile we lost Gupta Family in the crowd, could not contact them till evening as their cell phone got discharged. In the real world India was playing ODI home series against England, luckily we had a working TV in our room. In the evening, we three went to Chowpati , the beach, adjacent to temple.

roadside

Did I tell you that Somnath temple comes in “Prabhas Patan” area, which is in Veraval town, which is under “JunaGrah” district? When Gupta ji & family returned around 10PM in the evening they narrated the places they visit during afternoon “all nearby temples, “Bhalka Tirth”, Diu and the safari at Gir Lion Forest reserve.

beach@Somnath

beach view

camel ride @beach,Somnath

They met an interesting person who was the Cab owner and driver and showed them these places. We booked the same cab for next morning till evening to visit nearby temples in Somnath, Gir Forest and “JunaGarh”. From JunaGarh, next day we have our late night bus to Ahmedabad. Our second day ended calmly without any more surprises. “Chandu Puri Goswami” the cab owner, will give us a call at 6 AM next morning. Goodnight and till then “Jay Somnath”.

link for Part1

~bhupendra

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Gujarat Visit(Part 1) : Dwarka, Somnath And Gir Lion Reserve

Click here for Part3

Visiting Dwarka (the second home of Lord Krishna) and Somnath (one of the holiest dwadash Jyotirlinga, of Lord Shiva, in Part2) with my parents was my long term dream which finally came true this Diwali. Considering the fact that most of me is very lazy in advance planning, I got tickets easily during Diwali season, which is a big celebration time in Gujarat. Everything went comfortably smooth without us getting tired during such a long journey covered in those 5 days where we traveled 1800+ kms on road and 2½ hours in air (Delhi- >Ahmedabad -> Delhi). “Jai Shree Krishna”.

We started our journey from Haridwar on 27th October early morning and Delhi being our first stop. It’s the very next morning after Diwali, perfect time to travel northern India. We reached Delhi Railway station and then IGI Airport at around 1:30 PM to catch our 5PM flight to Ahmedabad.

Our plan for next 4 days was like this:

Day1: Reach Ahmedabad by evening on 27th, the same night start to Dwarka, the land of Krishna.

Day2: Reach Dwarka on morning of 28th, take rest and visit temples, meet lord Krishna and visit surrounding places whole day, and start for Somnath on 28th night.

Day3: Reach Somnath, (the holy land of Shiva) on early 29thmorning, take rest, visit temples and surrounding places, stay in Somnath on 29th night.

Day4: on 30th Start for Gir forest reserve, be lucky to see some lions, visit temples and places in Junagarh. In Junagarh, catch night bus to Ahmedabad.

Day5: Reach Ahmedabad on 31st morning, take rest, visit ISCON temple, Akshardham temple etc if time allows and in night fly back to Delhi. Reach Delhi; catch a bus/car/train to Haridwar/Hardwar ( हरिद्वार )

I thought I should share the etymology of the word Haridwar. “Hari” ka “dwar” and “Har” ka “dwar” both make sense and have great significance. In Sanskrit “Hari” means Lord Vishnu who resides in Badrinath Dham and Har means Lord “Shiva” who lives in “Kedarnath” . So, Haridwar means "Gateway to Lord Vishnu" and Hardwar stands for "Gateway to Lord Shiva". So, to reach Badrinath and Kedarnath, Haridwar is the place to start your pilgrimage.

tour de gujarat

Our flight landed at around 6:30 PM at Sardar Patel Airport in Ahmedabad. There is a direct train between Ahmedabad and Haridwar but takes close to 20hrs. If you have enough time and you are big group then there is no better way than railways to do overnight journey , provided you have tickets and reservations which are more like lottery tickets now a days. We hired a prepaid taxi from Airport to “Paldi”. Paldi is the place where most of the private bus operator offices are located. I had booked our bus tickets to Dwarka using Redbus website around 20 days prior to our travel, ours was Patel travels sleeping coach.

Udupi
Cafe Menu

Bus’s departure was at 11 PM so we had ~3 hours for our dinner. We left our luggage at the Patel’s office , I was quite impressed , the booking person politely said don’t worry about your baggage’s and I realized we were in Gujarat , a different state , different culture than other northern states .We found a nice restaurant/cafe near the Paldi traffic signal. It was “Udupi” café/restaurant, a clean place ,little bit crowded but they served delicious food a real value for money. Even small time restaurant in Haridwar are almost twice as expensive as Udupi café @ Paldi.



                                                                                                                         *DWARKA* is derived from 'Dwar', a door, and in ancient times its flourishing port was considered to be the gateway to the main land. As 'Ka' means 'Brahma' meaning, gateway to Moksha. So our sleeper bus started on time and reached Dwarka town around 6 AM. Road from Ahemdabad to Dwarka was fantastic , around 450kms we covered within 6 hours that’s amazing, if you want to hear , till 1 year back it used to take me around 7-8 hours to cover 200KM from Delhi to Haridwar. That’s where gujarat is shinning. Good roads, good transport , fast connectivity leads to great business.

This was Diwali season so tariff surged even in small time hotels and loadges. We found a hotel , hired a room till 10 PM in 1400 Rs ,it was small but a neat place, recently built. We rested till 10 AM , got freshed , had breakfast in a tea shop , fantastic “Milky tea”, Jalebi , hot Gathia &, dhokla, what else do u need in a place like this.

street @dwarka

@dwarka

Dwarkadheesh

The main Dwarkadheesh temple was nearby so we walked. It’s a very small town, so narrow are the lanes, similar to any other holy Hindu town in India.A walk takes you back in past , many people I saw dressed in typical white or in bright yellow , green , orange clothes just like another “Gopalak” you see in those movies and TV serials.

I could feel the “Krishna Magic” in air everywhere. Camera, cell phones were not allowed. These prohabited gazzettes were kept safe in their locker rooms outside the main temple’s premises. We then entered the Temple through a long queue passing a security check, finally after waiting for 30 minutes in that crowd in the main Hall. The hall looked like a human sea, worshipers standing on their toes to get "darshan" of their beloved “Madhav Murli Manohar”. 

gomti river

Loud chants of “Krishna the Mahayogi” were easing out the long waits for doors to open and curtains to fall while it was becoming difficult to stand in that human pool. And meanwhile few “nutkhat” devotees were trying to enter and join from sides which others didn’t welcome. We had a quick darshan and then came out of temple. Took a walk nearby , had lunch and went back to hotel room till 3 PM. After 3 PM we were part of a guided tour package to visit Beth Dwarika ,Okha, with others in a bus.


On the way we visited “Rukmani Mandir”, “Nageshwar Mahadev”(a dwadash Jyotirlinga), “Gopi Talav”. I loved the legends behind Ruksmani mandir and Gopi Talav. Our guide was Brahmin/pandit cum guide an interesting person. He narrated these stories and everyone in bus believed him.

Gopi Talav

One legend for Gopi Talav(pond) says, Gopikas were unable to live away from Krishna, offered their lives to the soil of this pond , merged into the soil and turned into yellow clay, known as Gopi Chandan. The soil of the Gopi talav is smooth and yellow in color. It can be bought outside the Talav(pond).

Our guide shared a different legend which is , because thousands of Gopikas flooded to Dwarka to live with Krishna. Overwhelmed Krishna asked Arjun to send them off back to Mathura. Arjun agreed, but he was a bit arrogant on his DhanurKala(archery skills) so Krishna thought of teaching him a lesson. So he magically created some tribe people (bheels) to give Arjun a tough time on his way while he was accompanying by several thousands of those gorgeous Gopikas. Poor Mayavi bheels defeated Arjun and claimed all gopikas , so out of shame all gopi jumped in to this pond and got converted into gopi Chandan.

Rukmani temple

For Rukmani temple the leagend was narrated by the main priest, it says , once Lord Krishna and his wife Rukmini went to invite Durvasha rishi (sage) at Dwarka. Rishi agreed but on a condition that, if Krishna and Rukmini pull the chariot, later while pulling his chariot, thirsty Rukmini drank water without offering it to Durvasha. So the insulted Rishi cursed Rukmini that she would be separated from her beloved husband. Hence Rukmini temple is located few kms away from main Dwarka mandir. And just FYI as per the priest this is the only Rukmani devi temple in the whole world.

Rukmani temple, CFL

 

Rukmani Devi temple's holy water

Nageshvar Temple

Nageshvar Temple

Nageshawar : Located on the way between Dwarka and Bait Dwarka. It is one of the twelve swayambhu (self-existent) jyothirlingas. The 25 meters high Shiva statue in the temple premises can be seen far from the road side.

It’s also known as “Nagnath” temple and represents the removal of evil activities from earth and has myths about its origin.

Our Guide.

Finally we reached Okha, a small coastal town , you can see fishing village, colonies on route , the dead dried fishy smell welcomes you in this Naval town. Bait Dwarka (भेंट द्वारका ) is located on an island; local boats do ferries between Okha port and Bait Dwarka. We boarded one such boat, getting on to this boat was little scary actually, it was around 5 PM , Sun started setting down ,the unbarricaded down stairs to the boat were overcrowded, a slight stumble by any foot could have lead in a deadly stampede , I opposed to go but no one wanted to leave this opportunity to visit Bait Dwarka after coming so close. Ticket was cheap 10 Rs/person so was around 200 lives. We finally reached the other side of sea , visited the place, "Bait Dwarka temple" and returned Okha in total total dark in a different boat this time. It was scarier this time ; everybody pushing each other and wanted to board the boat first . To add more anxiety the boat’s driver captain stopped it in the middle of sea in dark. Unless ticket collector finishes collecting rupee 10 from each passenger Captain refused to move the boat, now this act was horribly cheap. most of us were in panic as we had buses to catch from Dwarka and it was getting late in the middle of the sea.

@boat, see the captain

port from boat, a waiting human sea

'Bait Dwarka' main gate

boat while returning from bait dwarka, it was a real bait

We finally reached Okha port, ran to reach our mini bus in that pitch dark parking. Dwarka was still 30 KMs away. From there we had to catch bus to “Somnath”. So a very tiring day well spent in visiting so many important holy places in Lord Krishna’s town.

Next day it’s Somnath , in Part2, till then "Jai Shree Krishna.Please do leave your comments (good oR bad) about my attempt. Else you can also click on this Google's +1 button ,below. It means a lot to me. 

BD