Dwaraka to Agasthiarpatty , Dhokla to Nellai Halwa .(D) - 551

         DWARAKA TO AGASTHIARPATTY 

KHAMAN DHOKLAA TO NELLAI HALWAA

As I had mentioned earlier,   the Distance from Dwaraka to SAMA our  place of stay in Baroda is  580 Kms .

With our departure from Dwaraka scheduled at around Noon , we expected to cover this distance and be at our temporary home at Baroda  by 11.00 pm . 

Enroute ,  we would have crossed JAMNAGAR (PLACE OF RAVINDRA JADEJA ) , RAJKOT ( PLACE OF YOURS TRULY AS A KID ) , CHORWAD ( NATIVE PLACE OF THE AMBANIS ) CHOTILA , BAGODARA AND FINALLY SAMA IN BARODA

We were dot on time at our place of stay at Sama - Baroda  at 11.00 PM as planned , which included a wait for nearly Extra  45 mts at the CNG Gas Station at Bagodara because of a very long queue waiting for their refill .

One outstanding feature of this long drive was seeing  Men and Women in their  dazzlingly Coloured Bright Dress of  RED , YELLOW AND GREEN  embedded with Small Round Glasswork on their Blouse or Tops . 

They were  walking along the Highway in large batches  with the  scorching Sun upon them . Our Driver informed us that they were on a pilgrimage to have a  Darshan of RANCHHODRAJI MAHARAJ TEMPLE AT DAKOR .

 As I had said earlier there was hardly any Greenery of any sort . Trees of any size , small or big  were a very rare sight . People were walking more than 150 Kms during their Pilgrimage . 

Mass ( Maasi )  Pournami is of special significance and hence the extra crowd . Huge tents as resting places for these pilgrims were a common sight . Tractors carrying their essentials followed them . They only had the Water Bottle and a Stick in hand for Company during their walk .

We had our Dinner at Hotel Tulsi in Bagodara . The Pav Bhaji , Dahi Paapdi and Lassi were simply out of this World 

Our Hire charges for the 1350 Kms , 3 days Travel  by the Ertiga Car which included the Toll Charges and the Driver Bata Came to Rs 21835 /- or roughly Rs 3650 /- per head for the 6 of us .

One last thing however remained to be completed . How could one return to your Homes down South without a collection of the Gujarati Sweets and Savories ?

Our Cousin at Baroda was only too willing to help us in this regard . Dhokla , Khaman Dhokla, Fafda, Thepda , A special type of  Samosa , Chole , Kachori , Besan Kee Laddoo and so on , the list is almost endless , the Local SHUBHAM SWEET AND FARSAN MART at SAMA had a huge collection of all these items and more . We too got our Selected Collection of the same . 

Self and Better Half had originally planned to  make a short visit to Mumbai to meet my Cousins and College Mates and had made the Train Bookings accordingly . Unfortunately , the Mumbai Dadar  to Tirunelveli Train got cancelled from Salem due to some Technical Issues for a Week or so . We made a sudden change of plans and cancelled the Train Ticket and Booked our return journey by Air from Baroda . What this meant was that all six of us had to travel together from BARODA TO HYDERABAD and we two ,  take an earlier flight to Chennai with the rest of the four members leaving 60 minutes later . We both waited for the arrival of the other four of them to join us at the Chennai Airport Baggage Collection area and were finally home at Vadapalani by 9.00 pm . We two caught the Nellai Express the following evening and reached Agasthiarpatty on the     1 st of March 2023 .

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR GOING THROUGH MY  FOUR BLOGS ON MY BARODA DWARAKA , BEYT DWARAKA  AND SOMNATH VISITS. 

Hope this does help those who have plans to visit these places at some point .

HAR HAR MAHADEV  

JAI   BHOLENATH 

HAREY KRISHNA HAREY KRISHNA 

KRISHNA KRISHNA HAREY HAREY