05.03.18 Our Gujarat Tour Report - Day 3 at Great Rann of Kutch

Hodka and White Sand Desert     

    

On the third day of our visit to Great Rann of Kutch we never thought that day was going to be the most exciting day of our visit to the Rann.

On our way to Hodka village, where our night-stay had been planned, we visited a few villages like Bhirandiyara, Ludiya, and Khavda in the Banni and Pachcham region of Kutch, stopping over a few small shops where they sell some of the beautifully crafted handicraft items and dress material. Inside small huts where their showrooms are set up cute, charming, little, village girls, dressed in their traditional village attire adorned with a number of finely crafted ornaments hanging from their arms, necks, nose, ears and head, manage the business very efficiently. Our driver told us that the livelihood of these villagers which depended on the tourists shopping at their places had greatly improved due to the vision of our Shri Modi, who, as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, had done a lot to attract tourists to Gujarat.

Visiting these villages, we proceeded to Kalo Dungar, the black hill, the highest point in Kutch – some 1300 feet altitude. At the entrance to the viewpoint, there is an ancient (now rebuilt) Dattatreya Temple. 

Kalo Dungar offers another fabulous panoramic view of the entire Great Rann of Kutch, the sea, and the border with Pakistan in the far distance (which can only be viewed through a powerful binoculars). A lot of tourists were there at this viewpoint. One can have a camel ride here and also have pictures dressed in the traditional folk attire. The village musicians played their traditional instruments and sang along with them very melodious, rhythmic folk songs. I enjoyed their music and conveyed my personal appreciation to them. 

BSF army people monitor this place as it is close to Pakistan border, and on the day of our visit, the unit members were all from Tamilnadu. If one had the right binocular, I was told, one could view the famous Dolavira, the recently discovered and excavated township belonging to the Harappan civilization too. I was sad that I couldn’t include Dholavira in our itinerary, which was already jam-packed.

From Kalo Dungar, we had another long drive to Hodka village. It was a deserted road, smoothly laid, vehicles passing by occasionally, and vast salt mash covering on either side of the road. You may look at the beauty of the road in the picture alongside.

In Hodka, there are several farm houses designed to be resorts for the tourists. These farm houses are, typically, beautiful mud huts – called Bhungas - with all modern amenities. 

We stayed in one such Bhunga for the night. Just opposite to our resort, a huge stage had been set up, and every day, there were dance, music and other cultural programs as part of Rann Festival.

That evening, we went to the white sand desert which was close by. One needs to take a permit to go inside. Vehicles can reach up to a point, beyond which one can either walk down the three-fourth of a kilometer distance or use camel ride or horse-driven open cart drive. 

On either side of the road, one can see vast stretches of dry land covered with white salt deposits.

People arrive in groups and groups. Some engage in playing, some just walk down, some sit in secluded spots, and many on the viewing tower at the far end. The panoramic view from top of the viewing tower is awesome, and people waited anxiously for the sunset. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this white sand desert, and it was a rare opportunity in life.

In deserts, days are hot and nights are cool. When we returned back to our resort, it was already dark and cool. Several artists were performing on the stage opposite to our resort. The entire place looked heaven on earth. We got excellent vegetarian food at the resort.  

I learnt from websites that the Banni region, in the middle of Great Rann of Kutch, form an island of some 3700 sq. kms, merging some 40 hamlets, surrounded by the Great Rann of Kutch covering some 12000 sq. kms, was once upon a time a fertile area due to rich water from the Indus River flowing through the region towards the Arabic Sea. It also used to be home for a variety of wild animals like leopard, hyeana, fox, wild boar, bluebells, gazelle, etc. And that, people from Sind, Marwar, and even Persia migrated to Kutch in ancient time, the major migration taking place during the 15^th and 16^th centuries when Bhuj was established as the capital of Kutch region by the Jadeja rulers. Banni region was also the destination for ‘Maldharies’ (the cattle herders) and they lived along with their cattle, cows, buffaloes in ‘bhungas’ in small hamlets. Even today, on almost all roads, one can see cattle crossing the roads or grazing among the dry bushes in large numbers. Importantly, those animals get the first use right for almost all the roads.Everything seems to have changed for this region after the great earthquake in 1819. A fertile land had turned into a desert. 

To be concluded in the final part...

15.02.18 Our Gujarat Tour Report

Though our initial ideas about a Gujarat Tour were confined to only the temples of Nageshwar (one of the 12 Jyotirlingas), Panch Dwarka, and Somnath, later we expanded the scope of our tour to include a few historically important places, the deserts of Kutch and the beaches of Diu.

Some comments on tourism in India in general

India, its diversity, and ancient history offer tremendous scope for development of tourism. Unlike many other countries, different places in India offer differing tastes to the tourists. There is a great amount of variety here in India, which is very unique. Nature tourism, Eco tourism, Religious tourism, Spiritual tourism, Leisure tourism, name anything, it is all here in India.

Only, we don’t seem to have made sufficient efforts to give a boost to tourism. We haven’t fully realized the potential of tourism as a great catalyst to economic growth. So, in the past, we hadn’t focused sufficiently on infrastructure development like roads, electricity, water connection, communication, hotels, and other facilities to encourage tourists to visit thousands of small places that offer excellent scope for tourists to go.

To cite only a small example, there is a place called Thiruppudaimaruthur in Tirunelveli district, close to Cheranmahadevi. Here is a magnificent temple for Lord Siva, with a partially complete temple tower in the front, five circumambulating corridors around the Garbhagriha, right on the banks of the river Gadana (a tributary of the river Tamirabarani), a clean bathing ghat, and to cap it all, eye capturing scenes of flocks and flocks of birds foraging for their food and pecking for water during particular seasons. Not many are aware of this place.

Brahmadesam near Ambasamudram is another example. And there are several places in and around Tirunelveli alone.

In developed countries, they make a hill out of a small mole. Volumes of printed brochures, information, visual aids, and promotional materials are created for many places there that are nothing more than a damp squib.

Why, I write this? Because, I found that in Gujarat they have made a conscious effort to promote tourism of every sort. They had rightly identified that deserts can be beautiful like the forests, and scary too. In fact, they are. And people go there in numbers.

Now, let me tell you briefly about the few places we were fortunate to visit:

Little Rann of Kutch:

This is a salt marsh, lying near the Great Rann of Kutch. We stayed in a place called Patdi. This place is famous for its rare wild ass sanctuary. Besides, it is also a destination for a variety of migratory birds like pelican, flamingo, crane, ducks, Indian bustard etc. The farm house where we stayed took us for the open jeep safari around the marshy land. We also saw the beautiful sunset in the evening. The scary thing about this open jeep safari is that there are no route directions or paved roads to roam around in the 100 and odd kilometers-deep desert. One will be lost in the wilderness if you have no guide. Also, although the marshy soil is mostly dry, at some places it is still wet. There are shallow lakes due to collection of rain water. In fact, when our jeep driver-cum guide was a little distracted for a second, our jeep plunged into a wet marshy soil, and we could extricate the sunken vehicle from the soil only after some tense struggle. Thank God, we were safe.

In the evening, we were at the Swami Narain temple, a fabulous structure of white marble, glittering under lights of different colors and shades. The evening Aarti was a memorable and exciting experience, with the Aarti song playing in the background over the speakers and immediately after Aarti, one of the pundits dancing in front of the Lord for another song. 

To be continued...

05.02.18: Our 11N/12D-sightseeing tour to Gujarat

Introduction

To visit Gujarat had been a topic of acrimonious discussions in my house during the last couple of years; it wasn’t a fight over whether a visit was needed or not, but over the length of the visit.

Initially, we were only interested in a religious, pilgrimage type visit to Panch Dwarka and Somnath. Unless we flew by air, the trip would still have lasted at least 7/8 days. I was against a hurried air travel, spending a lot of money.

Also, a small passion to visit several places in India, subsequent to compiling my book: I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT … INDIA, ITS STATES, AND IMPORTANT CITIES, that lay dormant surfaced again and forced me not to ignore the great deserts of Gujarat (Rann of Kutch), a few historical and ancient places (Junagadh, Jamnagar, Mandvi, Lothal, Dolavira etc.), and the beautiful beaches of Diu.

Besides, several reports in media during the last several years on Gujarat about the developments that had taken place during the time of Mr. Modi as its Chief Minister had kindled a curiosity in me to see, after all, what those developments were.

After some hectic negotiation with my wife I, finally, settled for an 11N/12D trip to Gujarat. We identified the name of a decent travel agent from the Gujarat Tourism website. We made a few changes to their standard published itinerary and decided on the following tour plan. The cost of the tour included travel by an air-conditioned car and accommodation in hotels/resorts at places of stay:

Day 1: Little Rann of Kutch (Patdi)

Day 2, 3, 4: At Bhuj and Great Rann of Kutch

Day 5: Mandvi

Day 6: Jamnagar

Day 7: Dwarka

Day 8: Porbandar and Somnath

Day 9: Diu

Day 10 Junagadh

Day 11: Bhavnagar

Day 12: Return to Ahmedabad

The stay arrangements were at some of the finest cottages in resorts and hotels. Though the trip turned out to be a little costlier than what I would have spent if I had planned it on my own, we had the opportunity to spend time in some of the finest places during the trip and visited some of the rare places people usually go. We also enjoyed excellent food in all the places. We left out some of the important commercial centers like Vadodara, Surat etc.

It was a fantastic tour.

The following are my impressions on Gujarat. Please remember, they are my personal impressions only and not based on any factual data. So, don’t jump guns on me if they do not meet yours.

... Await for my impression in my next report tomorrow