Kutch nahi dekha tau kuch nahi dekha

We visited three districts Mundra, Mandvi and Bhuj and more than 15 gaams in 4 days. Almost all derasar’s have lunch facility. One can find phone nos listed at derasar’s for the neighboring derasar and call and let them know to keep food (in case running late). Some temples also had afternoon tea and snack provision. So food wise one need not have to worry. Roads are superb. Lot of gaams have new community style living, though missed the old homes.

Bhadreshwar – Bhadreswar is now known as Vasai Tirth. The reconstructed temple is beautiful. There are 52 deri’s surrounding the main gabhara. On the day we visited, hardly any souls in the temple. But since we reached little before lunch and no one there, puja was performed very peacefully.

72 Jinalay – We stayed at 72 Jinalay for couple of nights, awesome facility – nice and clean rooms with hot water, meal options etc. They also have a common area for car drivers etc to sleep. Puja for mulnayak begins after navkarsi. But for other murti’s it starts early morning.

Vadil Vandana – Located in Gaam Gundala and close from Sacha Mata Mandir, it’s an old age home for folks who want to spend their life in kutch for a minimal monthly fee. Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner meals (jain only) are served and variety of activities for elderly. We visited the phase 2 location – It is a three story building with neat and clean rooms with bathrooms inside, elevator, professional laundry machine, physiotherapy room and most important loving and caring staff.

Vanki Tirth : Huge temple and compound. The area outside the temple is still being completed but has life story of Bhagwan Mahavir and his previous incarnations. All of us had a great time reading some of the stories.

Ahimsa Dhaam – Also known as Anchorwala Ahimsa Dhaam, located in the village Pragpur.
They treat sick animals here. A guided tour is available and it was heart breaking to
see all the animals in pain. Ahimsa Dhaam also has a museum and has pictures by
Vinesh Mamania (well known for his pictures, videos and posters of vegetarianism and animal welfare).
The museum has the horns of Gopal (A bull that has created a record in Guinness Book for the longest horns, almost 10 feet long).

Currently there is another bull in the premises – they call him Bal Gopal.

http://ahinsadhamkutch.org/

Ambe Dhaam – Beautiful temple of amba mata, located in Godhro Village. Next to the temple is a mini replica of vaishnav devi. Also has a small museum in the Vaishnav devi section.

Mandvi – Unlikely that anyone won’t know about Mandvi beach but just in case. Windfarm Beach is beautiful and clean beach with wind mills on the beach. Chowpatty like food stalls and small rides. Not sure if it is a regular thing but during December beach also had Jet ski, bungee jumping apart from the horse/camel rides etc.

Bandhni/Handicraft store in Mandvi – https://www.facebook.com/roopaleehandicraft

Don Temple : The temple is as such small compared to other places but the whole floor has glass tiles. Also it seems the lamp in the temple has burning for ages, i.e akhand jyot.

Dedhia Temple : Another gorgeous temple. The surrounding of the temple has a replica of samet sikhar, known as mini samet sikhar.

Suthri, Kothara and Jakhau derasar – These temples are part of moti panch tithi and temples were constructed more than 100 years ago. The details and color combinations are worth exploring. Unfortunately the modern temples don’t have the color usage as olden times. Due to lack of time we did not do Naliya, Tera and Nakhtrana temples, these temples are also supposedly very beautiful and part of moti panch tithi.

Bidada Sarvoday Trust – Am sure most folks know about this and doesn’t need more details.
This year marked the 40th Camp year of Bidada Sarvodaya trust. We were there during the inaugaration and it was a well organized function. The latest additions – Ratan Veer Centre, Jaya Rehabilitation centre are state of the art buidlings.

Karo Dungar or The Black Hills – This is known to be the highest peak in kutch. From here, one can see the ocean, the land and forest. The drive up the hall is very narrow and at few points road gets blocked as small cars are unable to climb up.Some of the buses have their stops before the final climb. It took us approximately 2.5 hours to reach Karo Dungar from 72 Jinalay.

There is a huge gazebo to relax at the peak. Plenty of opportunities to click pictures, enjoy the view and an option to do a small hike as well. The path to the peak is very nicely made (depicting the surrounding forest animals etc). There is a temple there and every day at noon after they offer prasad, a fox comes to eat the prasad. We had timed our visit to be present around prasad offering, they rang the bells few times but the fox wasn’t ready to show up :-). Finally after about 20-25 minutes one fox showed up to eat the prasad. It seems folks have seen 4-5 foxes as well.

White Dessert of Kutch – The beautiful Rann of Kutch and worth a visit. The Rann is gorgeous and pure white, though initial part of the is now muddy but as you walk inside it keeps becoming whiter and whiter. One needs to get car permit at the highway junction before entering Dhordo village to see the Rann of Kutch. It took us 15 mins in line to get permit. Car parking on the regular sand and then walk on the white sand. It’s not sand but salt crystals.

Every year they have a festival called Rannotsav, which is next to the white rann. This year Rannotsav entry (Entry to Rann is different than Rannotsav) was only meant for folks who were staying inside the Rannotsav cottages.
Good time to spend a night in Rannotsav would be during full moon day. We were there during no moon and with all other activities we wanted to do and logistics did not stay at Rann.

Craftsmen and food stalls are located outside the rannotsav area so that general public can visit :-).
And Portable toilets are available too, otherwise no facility in the rann.

Near the Rann area couple of private resorts have come up, their rates are much reasonable compared to the cottages inside the Rannotsav.

https://www.facebook.com/RannResort or http://kutchrannresort.com/ – This is a permanent resort, right next to the Rannotsav area but privately owned. They are open Oct – March. We toured the facility, rooms are really are nice and various different sizes/packages. Meals are served and they also offer entertainment programs at night (similar to Rannotsav).

Shaam-e-Sarhad – This is also in dhordo village, little far from the Rann area. But has been around longer than the Rann Resort so is more popular.

There is another resort close to Rann, but I seem to have forgotten the name 🙁

Bhuj Swaminarayan Temple – Gorgeous Swaminarayan temple in Bhuj. Must visit. We went there on Sunday evening and it was crowded.

Train journey – We traveled via train, Bandra –> Gandhidham –> Bhuj –> Bandra. This is the first time I went to Bandra station for out of town trains and was happy to see an underground tunnel walkway to go to other platforms. While going we had packed food from home but during the return journey we ordered food which was delivered at Valsad station. We called up the previous day to place the order. Awesome food quality, delivered hot and packed in a box with compartments – two vegetables, rotli’s, salad, farsan, sweet and chaas.

It was a fun filled, religious to some extent as well but overall a memorable trip to kutch.