Come December and it was time to explore another beautiful state in India and this time I chose to explore Gujurat ( Kuch Din to Gujaro Gujarat Me 🙂  / [Translate : Spend some quality Days in Gujurat]). Usually the temperature in this part of the country stays high so the chills in December is the best time to explore.
The planning didn’t exactly start that way. It was Rann Utsav that I wanted to witness and thought of exploring the entire Gujurat while visiting the famous Rann Utsav.

All the plans were set , I had an early flight on Sunday morning ( budget flights ply too early 😀 ). So did my packing and hired a cab to the airport at midnight. Spent some time in the airport but mostly sleepy, My boarding was at 1:45 am. Some how managed to keep awake by watching some videos on youtube and finally boarding started , and well here I was ready to fly…

But no something different had to happen..It was my first time in Spicejet Bombergoom flight. Hiding low below the normal airbus..

And I was lucky to get the first seat which is also the emergency exit in this plane(but extra legroom is always happiness). Flight took off and with lights dimming my eyes also started to dim and slept well until the landing.
When I stepped out of flight, well it was chilling cold and I was not prepared for it, I was in normal tshirt no jacket.

Got out of the airport where my sister was waiting for me.

Pune to Ahmedabad Flight Costed around Rs 2200

Now it was time for our tour to start. Booked an ola to the hotel which was pre booked, but the maps fooled us and hotel was no where to be located, we just kept roaming around calling the owner and somehow found the Hotel . we took our luggage and moved to the reception, and well with me nothing comes so easy.
It was 4 am in the morning and now the hotel manager says that we booked from a boking site and with that rate its not affordable.

Now that’s our first encounter with a typical Gujju Businness model.
He made us call the booking site and get it cancel and pay him cash.
I was against all this but the time was so early that we had to get some rest before we start our day, so we agreed with some compensation.
We checked into our respective rooms and staright away slept.

Budget Hotel Costs around Rs 1000 for one room per night near Airport (Hansol)

Well the sun wakes up and so were we gearing up to explore as per plan. I had booked Rent a Car ( from Zoomcar) for the entire trip and the pickup site was very near to the hotel where we stayed.
So I quickly got ready and by 9 am I was gearing to go ahead and get the car which was booked from 10 am AND the biggest SHOCK, the car which I had booked had met with an accident and literraly ZOOMCAR had no other cars for us as backup.
And this was conveyed to me at 9:45 am when I almost reached the site, I was very angry and thought this is the end of the tour (the morning spat with hotel Manager was still fresh). I just sat next to the site cursing around my luck but had no option.
Not thinking much , just bantered to the Zoomcar Customer care who were more happier in giving the refund. In sad mood I walked back to the hotel. My sister was there in hotel itself, I told her but now, I thought whats use of being sad and sitting, when one door closes theres always another way.

So Auto was the best option, but now it was 10:30 am and we were hungry so had a quick breakfast (South Indian Uttapa’s 😀 in Gujurat ) and than uber/ola to our rescue.
We booked our auto to our first place and the one that comes to everyones mind to visit once at Ahmedabad is Sabarmati Ashram.
On route to Sabarmati ashram we got down on bridge and clicked few snaps of the Sabarmati river flowing through City Center.

We finally reached Sabarmati Ashram
It is this place where Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi March (Salt Satyagrah) which played an influential role in India’s Independence.

The belongings of Mahatma Gandhi are on display over here.
We explored the place, but let me tell you the place was very clean and neat.
It was very calm,peaceful and we could clearly hear birds chirping around with Sabarmati river just flowing besides it making it more picturesque.

We went through the events happened and explored the beauty of this place
There were many sewing machines ranging from years that I felt was the trump card of this place.
It was time to bid bye to this place.

The temperature wasn’t so pleasing in the afternoon and what more than Amul cool milk shake can refresh you with (Anand is the name of the place in Gujurat where Amul Dairy products are manufactured and sold all over country).

After getting refreshed we took another auto to our next destination Huthheising Jain Temple. On the aspects of architecture it looked really great. We clicked some snaps from outside. “Photography is not allowed inside the temple”. We took blessings on God and sat in the shelter just looking at the small and beautiful carvings.

Now we were starving and wanted to have something in our tummy.
So we decided to check online and take our break in adalaj . we checked a restaurant in tripadvisor and took auto to the restaurant destination
Enroute the auto guy (he seemed to be Maharashtrian born in Gujurat) told us that Maruti nandan is the best chain restaurants in Gujurat.
He told us to change the destination and he took us to that restaurant.
We had our first Gujurati authentic Thali and Kathiyawadi thali.
The food was sweet in amost all items. But the main part is buttermilk which u will get in ample.

We had our tummies full and to digest it we decided to have a walk to Adalaj step well
The architecture work of this step well is really worth appreciating. Ususally this step wells were buit to store the rain water.
Here people even come for pre wedding photo shoots that we witnessed.

After some snaps at 4 pm we moved to our next destination i.e the famous Akshardham temple.Enroute to Akshardham which is in Gandhinagar the capital city of Gujurat, we saw all the administration offices and minister house

We stepped down of auto and could see the beautiful temple from road side and SUn setting just besides it, a pretty cool time to take snaps, before I just got to know that we cant carry any electronics device inside (The terror attack that took place may be the reason behind it).

We kept our mobile, camera, smart watches everything in the locker and moved inside. The site of temple with fountain in the middle and well maintained garden was pleasing to our eyes. There is a photograher inside ( from the trustee ) who clicks photos eith temple background for you to keep in your memories which costs a mere Rs 100 for one copy. We clicked the photo and moved ahead (Just to note, they click photos only till Sunset). We took blessings of lord Swaminarayan and gone through the events and stories that were exhibited within the temple. The Golden carvings right from roofs to the walls and eye catching idol that you cant just move away within seconds and it will make you hypnotize by itself by its sheer view.

By the time we moved out of temple it was 6 pm and since it was the winter days it had already been darker and lights started playing its role. The View at night with amber lights flashing all over the temple is a must see in a lifetime thing in your bucket. We just sat across next to the water fountains viewing the temple and the water fountains.

There was a musical fountain nearby which we didnt explore but it starts around 7 pm. Also there are some simple adventure rides for all age group. We than had our tea and some batata wadas (which was sweet as expected) from the temple canteen. There are many options for eatery and price too very cheap.

At 7 pm we moved out of the temple campus and it was time to explore some street markets set just outside the campus.

We roamed around and checked the prices of some of the authentic Gujurathi dresses, bought a few and by now it was 8 pm and our last destination was Kankaria Lake, but we were tired by this time and had to think on what to do for the rest trip as we didn’t had a car now, so we rushed to our hotel rooms.

It was very cold and chilling and in auto we were just waiting for us to reach the hotel.
The afternoon Thalis was average so we decided to go with some fast food at night. Once we reached hotel room we ordered regular pizzas and while binging on it, it was time to search for self drive cars
Finally we were lucky enough to get a car from Revv But it was Maruti Alto K10 but atleast we had something to roam with.So I booked it for our next 90 % of the trip and the best part was it had door step pickup and delivery.
So I mentioned time at 7 am in the morning and slept praying that hope this time luck doesn’t ditch us.

Next morning I woke up at 6:30 am to the call of the representative who was coming to deliver the car, I was happy that finaly we have a car. The representative came and called me and I just rushed to register my DL with Revv (Unlike Zoomcar, Revv does registration on the spot within 15 mins and that’s a good advantage for first timers) and finally I had view of the car. It was a brand new car with Karnataka registration ran only around 490 kms (i.e getting car from Karnataka to Gujurat) and I was the first guy who would have taken it for a trip. Now new car so I was excited but was bit scared as wanted to keep it as new as it can. I completed the registration procees took the keys and went up to get fresh. Post that completed my checkout formalities and loaded the luggage in car.
The car is a bit less spacious but for 2 people can be manageable.

“Ganapati bappa Morya” and we started the road trip now with Google maps on the dashboard.

Our first destination for the day was Sun Temple Modhera.
The roads in Gujurat let me tell you are amazing and I thought just the city roads are good but whichever turn u take it doesn’t disappoint, so good were the roads that going on high speed wasn’t risky at all. The max speed however set by Revv is 125 km/hr (Drive cautiously )
Tried to hit as early as I can so that didn’t wanna spend time roaming in afternoon schorching heat

On way around 9 am we took our first break in one of the dhabas.Ordered Aloo Parantha and tea, and should mention they were delicious. Did some photo shoot with car and with chewing gums in our mouth pushed ourselves to the Sun temple.

We reached the beautiful place around 11 am and just entered the main gate and we could get a glimse of temple some meters away with long lawns of green grass infront of it. The ample of greenary is always a stopover for photos :P, we clicked some photos and than moved ahead. The temple is way too beautiful and every angle you look at it will just make you snap it for your memories. We clicked more than hundreds of photos over here only a few could share it here.

We were literraly tired of clicking photos so just sat in the shade for some time and left the place around 12 : 30 pm to our next destination.

On the route we found some camels and you cant resist to snap them :). They literraly started giving a pose.

We reached Rani ki Vav (Gujurat had tableau representing this place for Republic Day 2020) which is in Patan very near to Modhera at around 1 pm. The scorching heat had dehydrated us a bit and we were a bit tired as well. It was another step well, very well architectured and had around 7 floors.

We sat there for about an hour and about 2 pm left this another archaeological place.

And now it was time to move to another district i.e. Kutch

Untill next destination signing Off 🙂

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