Time: Mar 8 - 15, 2008
Place: Mumbai, Khandala, Lonavla, Dwarka, Bet Dwarka, Somnath
Company: Parents
Album: Click here
Highlights:
Day 1: Left to Mumbai in airplane. It was about 14 months since I had last flown. Felt nice. Taxi from airport and accomodation arranged by neighbor. Went sight seeing in Mumbai at 1 pm. Places seen (and what I felt) are as follows: Siddhi Vinayak temple (improper queue system), Haji Ali (unclean on the pavement), Lakshmi Temple (very nice; its said that since Lakshmi (Goddess of Money) has sat here, everyone makes wealth in Mumbai), Hanging Garden (nice), Gateway of India (construction going on) and Chowpatty beach (liked the concept of renting mats!). An hour of traffic to go and 2 hrs of traffic to go back home. Rashid, our taxi driver, was a very nice fellow. It felt nice to be in the same city as Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar and many such stars, who roamed in the same streets at one point of time!
This was my second visit to Mumbai. I had last been here in 1990, thats about 18 years ago, and I do not remember anything other than the visit to Essel World, stay at Gurudwar with local trains passing by and the steam of the steam engine that emanated from me when my mom gave me a good bath after she learnt that I hadnt taken bath (since it was cold water!) since 7 days! I liked the main Highway (the road that goes to Ahmedabad) connecting many parts of Mumbai, and how fly-overs are constructed at every major junction. The speed with which everyone hurried reminded me of US city highways like the one in Chicago, Rt 9 in Boston suburbs and Rt 90 in Boston. The skyline at Marine Drive (filled with lots of couples' PDA) especially when the lights lit up reminded me of New York's Manhattan. Just as how 'the city never sleeps' and 'all roads lead to Mumbai'. Of course, it is the 7th filthiest city in the world but one should appreciate the way how Mumbai never stops when there is a bomb blast or a flood-rain or if it is midnight or early morning. I liked it!
Day 2: Left early to Gateway of India again with Rashid to go to Elephanta Caves. An hour's boat ride to go and an hour's boat ride to come back and 2 hours to spend there. A toy train to go from port to main (is)land. A climb up the mountain for about 15-20 minutes. Nice caves, (broken) idols, etc. Lots of monkeys. A further climb of about 10 minutes leads to the peak (Cannon Hill). After reaching Mumbai again, had a nice South Indian lunch near Sion circle and left to Khandala. Mumbai-Pune expressway is as good as any international freeway. Khandala is just about 2 hours from Mumbai outskirts. Khandala/Lonavla are twin cities. Got a nice valley-view inn for a reasonable rate. Went to sunset point and saw the beautiful nature interspersed with man-made expressway!
Day 3: Early morning view of the valley with its now-and-then train-spotting was a treat. Went to Lion's Point (so much resemblance to Grand Canyon) and then to Bhushi Dam (a treat in winter when water falls through the steps) and then to Whalwhan dam (a great initiative by Tata) and finally to Karla Caves (have to climb 250 steps; caves in the rock resembling Canada-side view of the Niagara Falls; steep path beside a towering cliff). Journey back to Mumbai. Since we had time, went to Juhu Beach (but couldnt go to ISKCON). Rashid dropped us off at Mumbai Central where we caught the Sourashtra Mail to Okha at 8.25 pm. First time in my life, I went in AC 2 Tier (even used the Upper class waiting room). Was oh-so-wonderful!
Day 4: A lazy day. Got up at 10.30. Whiled away the time till 4 pm when finally we reached at Dwarka, train being an hour late. Excellent hospitality at Madhwa Mutt (Tel no 0992 4090326. Manager MR Ramesh). Gomathi River joins Arabian Sea near the temple and so the river itself is salty. River dries up to a trickle between 7 pm and 7 am. But the river can be crossed using boats too to go to another vast beach which is absolutely deserted. A stunningly beautiful beach with clear water which now and then keeps giving out multiple-shell-shaped conches. Story goes that actual City of Dwarka has submerged in the ocean. So, riches from that Palace where Lord Krishna ruled keeps coming out to the beach in the form of conches, pearls, etc. Esp found at night 2 am or 3 am when the Sea has receded.
Temple itself is magnificent. Constructed by Vajranath (who is son of Aniruddha who is son of Pradyumna who is son of Lord Sri Krishna) by the power of Manthras using Vishwakarma as an architect. It has 2 portions : Front and back. Front has 4 storeys indicating Chardham (Badrinath, Puri, Rameshwaram and Dwarka) and back has 7 storeys indicating Sapthapuri (Mayapuri aka Haridwar, Avanthika aka Ujjain, Madurai, Ayodhya, Mathura, Kashi aka Varanasi, Dwarka). Temple is about 5200 years old. It has 2 side doors. One is called Swarg (Heaven) dwar (Door) and another is called Moksh (Enlightenment) Dwar. The Former has about 56 steps indicating something (couldnt understand!). One thing I didnt understand is why this temple was an exception in terms of idol facing towards west. Almost all temples that I have been to face East (exception of Udupi which has a convincing story though) but this was facng West.
Day 5: Bath at Gomathi. Took a taxi and visited Nageshwar (one of the 12 Jyotirlingas), Gopi Thalab (where we get Gopi Chandnas for sandhya vandanam when lake gets dried up in Summer) and Bet Dwarka (western-most point of India, situated on an island where Krishna had his residence; have to go in a jetty filled to the brim and scary with hardly any life-jackets aboard; very windy too and birds try to get foods from patrons who throw stuff into the air and sea). Returned back to Madhwa Mutt. Went to Badakeshwar temple in the evening for an unbelievable sunset. Its a temple situated on the sea and almost 200 degrees from north to south is just arabian sea. The sea shores are similar to those picturised in Bollywood flicks taken in Australia. Again, hardly any crowd which adds that much more to the naturally beautiful scene. Again back to main temple, saw aarthi (30 mins stranded in queue, but filled with awesome Krishna devotees who kept singing amazing songs one after the other)
Day 6: Private bus to Somnath. left at 7.30 am and reached at 2.30 pm with stops at Harshad Mata and Moola Dwarka. Nothing great about them but just another tourist spots. Road from Dwarka to Somnath is almost beside sea shore for full 7 hours. Took a temple trust's room. Took an auto to visit nearby places like where Krishna was shot at, shot from and finally departed Earth. He was shot on the foot by an unsuspecting archer from a distance who thought it was a bird. Archer breaks down when he realises his folly but Krishna consoles him that it was all a part of master plan and this is how he had to leave Earth. Also archer is none other than Vaali who was killed ignominously in Krishna's previous birth as Rama. Hence, justice to all! Krishna was then resting below a tree and it is this tree that we can see now. Also the place from where the archer shot is another facinating place where we can see 3 Lingas (Shiva's idols) in open sea washed every now and then by waves!) Krishna finally departed from a place called Prabhas Kshetra where his feet are etched as a mark of respect. A board displays his end date as Feb 18 3102 BC 2:27:30 hrs. (He was born on Jul 19 3228 BC). Another nearby place where Kapila, Hiranya and Saraswathi (underground river) meet as a Triveni Sangam and then finally head towards Arabian Sea. Lots of 'punya' if one takes bath here, and hence we increased our punya counters!!
Somnath temple itself is great. Old and new temples are one beside the other. Another Jyotirlinga darshan. Nice light and sound show depicting rise and fall and rise and fall and rise and fall (phew - yeah, it sorta gets boring) of the Somnath temple. But an interesting fact is that there is a tower in the temple premises (just beside the sea) from where there is absolutely no obstruction direct to the south pole.
Day 7: 9 am Somnath to Veraval railway station in Auto. 10 am Veraval to Rajkot in Jabbalpur express train. 2 pm lunch at Rajkot station. 5 pm Saurashtra Mail (from Okha) to Mumbai. [Tradional sleeper seems so unluxurious after AC!!]
Day 8: 7 am Mumbai Dadar. Taxi to Domestic airport (international standards). Long wait from 8 am to 1 pm). Indigo flight back to Bangalore.
