“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”

Our next annual holiday destination with both the parents was Dwarka the 3rd Dhaam on our list. It was a surprise gift for my in-laws for their pearl anniversary. We went to Ahmedabad by flight, stayed at Ginger hotel for a day and went to the famous and beautifully crafted Akshardham Temple. It was mostly a relaxing day. We were advised by many people that the roads in Gujarat were excellent and that we should go by road to Dwarka.., we decided to try it. Early next morning we started for Dawarka in an A/c Innova. As expected the entire route was very good…no bumps, no bad roads, lots of greenery…not at all tiring. We reached Dwarka in 7 hrs. just in time for lunch. We were boarded at Hotel Damji (considered to be the best hotel in Dwarka). As we had enough time on hand, we decided to 1st go to “Bet Dwarka” .To reach Bet Dwarka we had to drive to Okha and then take a boat from the port. It takes 20mints to reach Bet Dwarka which is famous for the old palace of Lord Krishna. Most of the structure is said to be submerged in the water and only a part of it can be seen .It was a little disappointing to see that what we fantasized of was not what it actually was…several modern changes were made to the structure. While on our way back to Dwarka, we visited the Nageshwar Temple which is one of the 12 Jyothilingas. The next day, we completed the Dhaam at the Dwarkadish temple. The 5 storied temple was very impressive. As we entered the temple, we attended the morning aarti followed by the darshan of various Gods which were connected to Lord Krishna. We took a dip in Gomati river which passes from behind the temple. It is said that there is no sweet water in the entire Dwarka as per a curse given by a rushi. After the Darshan, as usual the ladies were on their shopping spree for Prasad and mementos for everyone…we then got back to our rooms and relaxed for the whole day. In the evening we again went for darshan. It had started to rain and the entire power supply in Dwarka was gone…the hotel was running on generator for 2 consecutive days, we were suppose to go to Somnath the next day, but due to heavy rainfall all the routes were closed and so we had to return to Ahmedabad. We stayed in Ahmedabad for 3 days at the Platinnum Inn (a beautiful hotel at an affordable price). As Ahmedabad is famous for its cloth, the next 2 days all we did was loads of shopping!!!! The biggest cloth market at 3 darwaza was delight for mom & Ruchi. On the last day we started early from the hotel and headed to the Sabarmati Aashram, where we could read and see pictures of Gandhiji’s life. Our respect for him had grown stronger after this visit. All in all, we can say that Gujarat with its clean big roads and no traffic jams surely impressed us.