I have always been a travel enthusiast. It was a 12-year-old me who insisted to my parents that we needed to go on a family vacation and pestered them till they took us to Delhi and Mussourie. Being a precocious pre-teen, I kept admonishing them about all the mistakes they did in their travel plans – the one they most heard about was not pre-booking hotels from Kolkata. My parents loved doing ad-hoc or as some may say spontaneous plans while I am like a programmed robot who loves order and sequence in my life.
When I got married, I found that I had chosen a life partner who is also very much about spontaneity and creativity. The Husband sways to a tune only he can hear and however much I harp on about planning, it often falls on ears, that hear only that tune. It was as if all my dreams were coming true when he seemed to have a change of heart and proposed a trip to visit the Somnath temple in Gujarat to me. Not only that, but he also did ALL, and I mean ALL the planning for the trip. This was a bonus dream come true. Not only was I getting to travel, but I had no headache about it.
The other aspect was that when I started on my Gujarat interlude a couple of months back, I was a true-blue Bengali who could not think about going all vegetarian, yet two months into this phase of my life, I happily eat vegetarian food. But that is enough about my personal insights.
Ahmedabad is well-connected to most places in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. We caught Somnath Express which takes off from Ahmedabad or Sabarmati Junction at 10:22 PM and reaches Veraval Junction in the early morning. The train was late, but we had to do a last-minute rollercoaster auto ride from Ahmedabad to Sabarmati, as that is not mentioned anywhere on the reservation slip. It was raining when we reached Veraval around 8 AM the next morning. Autos are a dime a dozen there, and you can get to wherever you are staying easily. We stayed at The Fern Residency, which is a good hotel, offering the weary traveler with all creature comforts. It is also only two km away from the temple, which was the main goal of our trip.
You can get autos from the hotel or there is an in-house travel agency that allows you to rent a car. Our auto driver took us to the temple, and we found it reasonably uncrowded. There are two temples. One is the old one and the other is the main one that was rebuilt in the 1950s. Everything is organized, and you can keep your shoes and gadgets at small stalls either for a price or avail the free facilities. Ladies and gents have two separate queues and the darshan journey ends with ladies coming out on the left side of the temple, if you are facing it, and gents coming out on the right side. Since you are not allowed cell phones, do plan a meeting spot, if you are traveling with the opposite sex. I went on two rounds of the temple before I spotted The Husband deeply immersed in rituals on his side.
There is a side attraction for those who love watersides, as a well-built promenade allows you breathtaking access to the Arabian Sea. The neighboring Triveni Sangam which is a confluence of three rivers is another tranquil spot to cleanse your sins if you are a believer or just take a breather if you are not.
The whole tour takes about a half-day or less time. We spent the rest of the day enjoying a nice lunch at The Fern Residency and catching up with family back home, giving them our trip updates. Because the hotel is surrounded by other hotels, there were a lot of dinner options, and we chose a nearby eatery adjacent to Hotel Ambar. It served Gujarati thalis. I could not catch the names of all the dishes, but I liked what I could – Bajra roti, phulka, sweet dal, gathe ki sabzi, mixed vegetables, green salad, jaggery, and buttermilk – all served at a breakneck pace, and all very fresh. The customers also kept entering at a pace only a beat behind the servers.
After dinner, we walked back to our hotel and then it was time to pack and prepare for our morning train ride back to Ahmedabad. Every place I visit has something I love, and I like to think, I leave something behind. This one was all about the tranquility, the lovely temple with its rich history and traditional architecture, and the people, who are organized, courteous, and welcoming in their way to two people unaccustomed to the language or the local area. As always, I come away with the places I could not visit, but that is what gives us hope – that we will return someday to experience it all over again.
Thanks to Rudra Chaudhuri for the excellent video.