Visit to the land of Lion King of India

Gujarat is not much talked about tourist place, never had any plans of visiting it. It was always either mystic Himalayan ranges or deserts and palaces of Rajasthan as publicized by the media always inspired us. Even Amithabh Bacchan's words never made such an impact to take Gujarat so seriously. But somehow this trip just happened over a lunch time discussion at office. And I should say it was worthy trip to explore this untouched and rustic place. After we came back from the vacation I realize lot of people find the place quite appealing, wanted more details about Kutch or Gir.  So I thought I would resume my forgotten blogging medium to communicate more details about the it.

Our journey started off from Bangalore to Ahmadabad in a flight. A taxi takes us from airport till Dasada in little Rann of Kutch area to the resort, Rann Riders. After the stay there for 2 nights, we hired an Innova till Sasan, Gir forest area to Club Mahindra resort which was around 330km away. Finally, took a flight from Rajkot till Bangalore via Mumbai after 2 nights stay at Gir.

Little Rann of Kutch

Should admit that I never new about this strange place. Our original plan was only to visit Gir, but as a curiosity I happened  ask my best travel guru, Google  "what else in Gujarat? ". Images of Rann of Kutch came right infront of me. Instantly I settled for Little Rann of Kutch, just because it was quite near to Ahmadabad.

Just to give a short description about the place, Rann of Kutch is a land formed as a result of drying up of water from ocean and river. More details you'll find here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Rann_of_Kutch


There are lots of species of birds and animals in this area, which take advantages of shallow salt water. Since it was just after heavy rainy season this year, flooded water was yet to dry up even in the closest vegetated area when we visited.  

Best time to visit the place seems to be Jan to March as the water gets fully dried up and all the birds, other wild life end up huddling around little shallow water left. It would be a great spectacle with thousands of various species of bird gathered around same water body.



Stay was in a different kind of Eco resort called Rann riders. It gave us rustic local village experience as it was built with all local materials, art, architecture. USP of the resort is it's variety of pets, including a Persian cat to pigmi horses, the lake and friendly host.





Apart from the desert jeep safari, 11th century Surya temple of  Modhera and Rani ki Vaav of Patan were simply amazing, came as a surprise package.

Gir

As we approached landscape fully changed from flat scarcely vegetated lands to lush green slightly hilly region.We were lucky enough to have a nice safari in Gir, we were welcomed by a hungry lion resting just 15 feet away from our open jeep. By the time we came into terms to reality, he majestically walked away looking for some water to drink.

In Gir again, best time to visit in December till March where teak forest will become bare and tiger families can be spotted far more easily.

Other than wildlife sanctuary, Somnath temple is a place which can be considered for a day visit from Sasan. There are other places like Porbandar, Dwaraka which we didn't really consider, given that our stay was quite short. Didn't find Somnath temple such an appealing place as compared to Suraya temple or any other temples of those period.

Weather

Kutch, even during this autumn season is was hot and dry during the day time, night gets comfortable if not cold. It was quite conformable weather in Gir as compared to Kutch.

Food

Typical Gurajathi thaali in a local restaurant is a must during the trip to Gujarat. Kadi, meeti daal, chaas is something no one should miss. We did explore local food couple of times, in Patan, Rajkot.

Rann riders though had a rustic feel in all other aspect, failed to keep it up when it came to food, spread never included any local dish. On contrary, Club Mahindra served many varieties of local delicacies in whatever way they could.

Shopping

Gujarat is shoppers delight for cloths. But we never thought given out short trip and remote places we are going, we would get any time for shopping. But did manage to shop for bandhini materials in Jetpur on the way from Dasada to Gir.

Dasada also provided some basic shopping experience during a camel cart ride, thanks to Rajasthani nomads housed there.

Transport

There is a popular misconception about roads in Gujarat  due to various reasons we people from outside, feel that they have amazing condition of roads and traffic. Contrary to this belief, road condition is as good(or bad) as Karnataka coupled with unruly movement of vehicles. Expectation was fully set right after we landed and started our journey to Dasada, which was only 90km away, lasted for over 2 and half hours. Given that we spent more than an hour in Ahmadabad city itself, a feeling which was haunting me was, is this the much talked about Gujarat?
After 3rd day, we hired innova for rest of the journey, to visit Modhera/Patan, for travelling from Dasada to Gir and then to Rajkot on final day, which worked out well economically, logistically and comfortably.
Rajkot airport was quite an experience just to set the expectation, it is the smallest airport I have ever come across. Airport opens right in time check-in for Mumbai flight :). Hardly any food available in the airport, you just walk down and board the flight :D.

Overall a good experience, after all it is Big B's words - "Aapne Kutch nahi dekha to kuch nahi dekha, kuch din toh gujariye Gujarath mein", so it was worth following his suggestion :)