Lets Go! Gujarat - 2. The Trip begins - In and around Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad
- Krishna Prabhu
- Oct 31, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 17, 2019
The day that we were eagerly waiting for, finally dawned. We started out at the crack of dawn, to catch our early morning 6.30 a.m. flight to Ahmedabad - carefully chosen, so that we get the entire day to spend after reaching there. Our flight reached on time and our travel from Ahmedabad Airport to our hotel in Gandhinagar was smooth. Ahmedabad is connected to its twin city Gandhinagar, by a beautiful six lane highway, for a short distance of about 25 Kms. We marveled to see the clean and broad roads in Gandhinagar, with very moderate traffic, unlike the choked ones in our bustling city of Bangalore. There was a lot of greenery and many parks on our route, but we were surprised that we didn't see much residential or even commercial areas en-route.
My choice of hotels for the entire trip was done, keeping simple requirements in mind - budget friendly and easy on the pocket. But at the same time, they needed to have have air conditioning and above all clean rooms. Our hotel in Gandhinagar, met all these conditions and we were satisfied with our stay there. We found the staff in all our hotels, service minded. We were happy to note that, most of the Gujarati people in general, with whom we interacted during our trip, were very soft-spoken and quick to help when required. Also as it was Navaratri festival time when we visited, we were wary about large crowds everywhere. But this wasn't the case in most of the places we visited and we found out later that it was actually off-season time. The peak season started from early November during Diwali and lasted upto end of February each year.
Our first stop in Gandhinagar was at Dandi Kutir, an excellent museum, depicting the life of a single great man who needs no introduction - the father of our nation. Different incidents in Mahatma Gandhiji’s life were presented here, using modern technology and the audio visual medium, which were par excellence. The entry fee was just Rs.10/- per person. They gave us really nice Sennheiser headphones too, that served as our audio guide (at no extra charge). The infrastructure inside along with the presentations, were truly world class and not to be missed, if you are in or around Gandhinagar. It takes roughly 2 - 3 hours, depending on your level of interest, to view the exhibits. After the semi-guided audio tour, we went back to observe the exhibits in more detail.
Our next stop was at the magnificent Swaminarayan Akshardham temple. One could easily spend an entire day here. Entry is free and mobiles/ cameras are not allowed inside the temple, so we couldn’t take any photos there. We visited various exhibitions and a short film screening depicting the life story and deeds, of the avatar of God Swaminarayanji.
After sundown, we proceeded to view the excellent open air sound, light and water show at the temple - depicting the famous story of Nachiketa and his meeting with Yamaraj, where the latter tests the former and eventually blesses him. There were couple of other places worth visiting in Ahmedabad/ Gandhinagar area, like the Auto World Vintage Car Museum and the Adalaj Stepwell, but we skipped them due to lack of time.
Sun Temple, Rani ki Vav and Indroda Nature park
Next day we hired a full day taxi and went to places nearby and outside Gandhinagar. Our first stop was at the magnificent Sun Temple at Modhera, which is one of the only two Sun temples in the world! The other one is located in Konark, near Puri in Orissa. This one is about 1,100 years old and built by the prosperous king, Bhima the first of the Chaulukya (Solanki) dynasty and dedicated to the main deity - Sun God. After a glorious period of 50 years since the temple was inaugurated, unfortunately the temple complex was mercilessly looted and mutilated by the rampaging Mahmud of Ghazni and his army. He robbed the main idol of Sun God which was made of solid Gold and almost 11 feet tall.
Legend has it that there was a large Gem on the Head of the idol of Sun God, on which the first rays of the sun fell on each solstice (twice a year), which in turn lit up the entire Garbha Griha (Sanctum Sanctorum) of the temple! Such was the precise mathematical, astronomical and architectural skills of our ancient Indian forefathers, which is something all Indians should be proud of. Our guide gave us many more such interesting details, as we covered the temple complex. Guides are available for Rs.300 to 350/- (depending on your negotiation skills!).
Next we proceeded to the majestic Rani ki Vav or the Queen’s stepwell. If you have never seen or heard of a step well, then this is definitely one of the finest ones that you can see! This national monument is depicted on the new purple coloured Rs.100/- currency notes. This was a recently discovered monument around the late 80’s, by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) before which, it was hidden underwater for hundreds of years! The sculptures here are thus preserved intact, in their pristine beauty, untouched by any marauding kings or their henchmen. It was built by Queen Udayamati in 1063 AD in memory of her late husband King Bhimdev the first, to provide water to the surrounding village folks. At the very centre of the stepwell, is an idol of lord Vishnu, majestically reclining on the Sesha shayana.
Seen below are the intricate Patan Patola designs, which is a fine and unique art of hand woven Sari (a long garment worn by women from South Asia), given by the people of Patan to the world. Each Patola sari cost upward of Rs.2 lakhs and takes around 6 months for four people to make! The unique part of this work is that, the design of the sari is pre-inscribed on the silken thread, which is then hand woven together, thread by thread to bring out the actual design on the final Sari! Unlike the conventional Saris, here there is no printing done on top of an already woven fabric.
From there on we proceeded to the town of Sidhpur to Bindusarovar or Matrugaya, which finds a mention in the Hindu Puranas as a holy place. From a tourist’s point of view, there was nothing much to see here. People were performing the last or annual rites of the elders, especially for their mothers in this holy place.
We returned back to Ahmedabad in the evening to a place called law garden, where our ladies did the mandatory rituals to the shopping Gods, till late in the evening! Law garden with its teeming line of make shift shops sells a wide variety of clothes and other handicrafts.
The next day was our last in Gandhinagar, when we set out to see Indroda Nature Park. It’s a gigantic park located on either banks of the Sabarmati river. It’s a Dinosaur and Fossil Park - where fossilized remains of some prehistoric plants are placed, along with statues of different types of Dinosaurs and a Zoo, all of which kids will definitely enjoy. It is regarded as India's Jurassic Park and is the only dinosaur museum in the country, run by the GEER foundation.
Another unique thing at the park was the massive skeleton of the blue whale, which is one of the major attractions of the Park. It is strategically located towards the very end of the park (so that folks don’t miss anything else!). These beautiful creatures of God are the largest living mammals on our planet, and grow up to 50 meters (or 150 feet) in length! It was saddening to note the facts on the inscribed plaque that man had mercilessly hunted about 29,000 of these blue whales in the Antarctica (in one season alone!). About 3.6 Lakhs of them were killed in total in the 20th century - mainly for Whale oil, bones, meat and other products.
We then had a quick lunch and boarded our GSRTC AC bus for Bhuj, the capital of Kutch region, where we were eager to see Nature’s marvels like the Great Rann of Kutch and white sand desert. Our bus journey took almost 9+ hours and we reached late in the night at Bhuj. By God’s grace we found a couple of Autos to take us and our extensive luggage to our hotel! The folks there welcomed us even at this late hour and made us comfortable in our rooms and we were glad to retire for the night after a long day.
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