Ambience

Navratri in Gujarat- India

Gardens by the Bay – Singapore

Lost in the Nebula cloud, NASA- Florida USA

For other entries in this category, check out DP Photo Challenge – Ambience

Gujarat, India

In this blog we will go to the beautiful, vibrant and culturally rich state of Gujarat, India. I have heard a lot about its growth and development models – which I did witness but apart from that I also witnessed the rich culture that they have held onto which I feel is missing in many other parts of India.

So coming back to the trip, it was a 2500 km drive.

 

 

 

Pune – Mumbai Expressway goes through the Western ghats, the winding roads which takes you through 4-5 tunnels was a very good start for the trip.

And then came Mumbai – one of the busiest cities in India, we hustled ourselves out of the crazy traffic of Mumbai, best thing about India – you can just honk your way out of the traffic 🙂

As we were on the border of 2 states – the traffic scene didn’t just end after Mumbai, but now the competitors we the huge trucks, now here you don’t want to piss off the big fellows so you just quietly and articulately make your way out.

Our first stop – Vadodara, it was Navratri festival that day so we had booked tickets for viewing the dance festival.

Navlakhi grounds

These are all local people who have dressed up for the occasion and not hired dancers.

And in no time the whole ground was filled with people dancing in sync and in full zeal to the mesmerizing live music.

If interested you can watch a few videos I had taken here and here and here and here and here

taken from my shaky phone (I had no idea how the event would be else I would have at least freed up space in my phone).

Day2 – drive to Dwarika

Look at those horns, you better not mess with them

We share the road with everybody 🙂

The cows in India have the right to be anywhere they want and there is no debate on that 🙂

Dwarkadhish Temple,

The point where the Gomati river joins Arabian Sea

The street hawker who has all the marketing and management skills she needed and the colorful market place.

And the journey continues

The bridge we were supposed to cross Vs The bridge we crossed

The local highway dhaba, this is a kathiyawadi gastronomical delight – all vegetarian (which makes me happy) and authentic taste which you will not get in any of those high priced imitation restaurants in the city and it is dead cheap plus served with smiles :), so I put all my manners aside and enjoyed my appetizing meal.

There is a small bunch of flamingos in there, Indian bustard – an endangered species, some pelicans, herons and ducks, not much of a bird watcher so just clicked a snap for the record 🙂

Somnath Temple

Phone and cameras are not allowed inside the temple so will have to do with the long shots. If you go to Somnath you should not miss the evening aarti, the music – the drums beats are so transcendental.

Gir National forest – 3 hours back breaking safari to see these and a few other of their relatives but no predators(lion or leopard).  We saw some lion poop and on analyzing that our guide concluded that the lion had a deer for his lunch … so yeyyy, I wouldn’t have mind seeing the lion in action – even if it was pooping.

After a soul enriching trip we headed home.

I’ll miss Kathiawadi food and hope to see you soon.