I left for Kutch on last Monday, 6th July, I was pretty much excited as my main purpose of visiting Kutch was to meet my grandparents.. I am kind of fond of them.. clean hearted people.. We see the love in their eyes..

I had decided that I will keep the work on the backseat but then I got stuck in the small issues which eventually were blown out of proportion.. few things left me in deep shock.. basically behavior of few people.. I won’t be able to post much about it now as I have been told myself to keep my mouth shut till the issues are resolved but I would surely like to tell the world whole story about how people try to take you on a joy ride..  (Obviously without playing name games..)

So, 6th and 7th were almost spent on cleaning up the mess.. though the shadows of it still remains..

But on the positive site.. I felt really good meeting my grand parents.. I saw the joy in their eyes..

After taking rest on 7th, as per our plan, we left to explore Kutch on 8th (We had planned for 2 days).. though the plan kept changing till the end..

We first visited a place called Mata nu Madh.. it is basically a temple.. I thought it will be a good place to visit but frankly speaking, it was one of the worst place to visit.. (though my parents like the temple and all..), then we moved to a place called Narayan Sarovar.. this one is another temple but I had decided to go to this place just to enjoy the scenic beauty and hope to get a closer look at the Indian border.. (It’s not so far from there), but I was left disappointed.. It did not have anything what I had in my old childhood rough memories..

We moved to a place called Koteshwar from there.. now this one was a real shocker.. like the other 2, it was also a temple but this one was far more closer to the our border.. around 50 KMs distance..   We just got on to the temple’s terrace and were amazed by the beauty.. ocean all around.. I could see some BSF guys around.. the wind was blowing like crazy.. I had never expected this kind of wind flow or scenic beauty in Kutch.. this changed my views about Kutch totally… I just can’t express the feeling in words but by far it was the best place I have ever visited in Kutch.

We spent around an hour at Koteshwar and then moved to a new place called Lakhpat. We did not have much idea about this place, just heard about it from few people..

This place was another surprise for us.. it was basically a small village surrounded by a huge fort.. what surprised me was, presence of 200 odd year old Gurudwara (Guru Nanak had visited that place while visiting Macca), we never expected a Gurudwara out of nowhere in Gujju land.. the place was very holy, calm.. I felt like sitting there for hours..

The same village had around 200 odd year old Makbara (Tomb & Mosque) too, this work on the structure gave us clear idea that the Village must be full of riches.. as the work was resembling the work of artists from Gujarat (mainly from Ahmadabad).. and our guess was true too.. Lakhpat was known as city of lakhpati (millionaires), the whole city got destroyed in a major earthquake during that period..   After visiting the Mosque, we moved to check the fort.. the view from the Fort again left us amazed.. the wind was blowing like crazy.. you just can’t stand still.. the wind will make sure that it shakes your bones.. This place was again very near to the border.. we could see endless ocean in front of our eyes.. The fort was build very smartly, we could not explore much due to time constraints but we could easily figure out minor but smart provisions for the soldiers..

That was the last place to visit that day.. the ended with pathetic food in one of the restaurants in Bhuj.. but we returned with very happy faces and were still relishing the experience at Koteshwar and Lakhpat.. (We still miss these 2 places and feel like visiting again..)

The next day.. 9th July.. this one was basically without our parents.. We had planned to visit small villages in Kutch and a place called Karo Dungar (also known as Black Hills of Kutch). The day started with a short visit to Shrujan.. you get one of the finest clothes made by Kutchi Artisans.. (Sarees, Dresses, Bags, Shawls etc..) We picked up few things from there and moved to the villages.. the places where these guys get the stuff from..

We fist visited a village called Hudko.. Very small village.. around 25 – 30 houses maximum.. it was around 3 PM in the afternoon.. we got down from our AC car and our body started burning.. the hot wind was blowing… but we went ahead and checked out few houses.. The houses there were very different from our normal houses.. the structure was totally different.. a single room in the rounded structure.. these houses are not so hot from inside despite of the hot weather outside.  The material they use is very different from the normal houses. They have been living in these kind of houses since ages… Most of the people living here are the artisans.. mainly into hand embroidery on the clothes.. Surprisingly this small village had a hotel too.. it was made in same fashion as these houses.. the Hotel must have been built to attract foreign tourists.. and it is open in Winter.. as no one comes to these villages during Summer and Rainy season..

Another village we visited was known as Gandhi nu Gham, This one was build by couple of NGOs after the recent Gujarat earthquake.. Like the other village, most of the houses here were rounded cubes.. they were purposely made rounded as the villagers are not used to this type of living style and reluctant to change it.. This village had around 10 – 15 houses with a small school and playground for the kids..

What I have noticed that people in these villages are very different from us, they are way too friendly… they welcome you with a big smile, people are not so much aware about things like cars, mobile phones etc.. though they know what is mobile and what is car but hardly ever used them.. they gather around your car to check it out from close.. and if you are wearing shorts.. they will even consider you as a foreigner.. you will have to speak in their language (Kutchi or Gujarati) to make them feel homely…

Whatever it is, these small villages were fun to visit..

After this, we moved to a place called Karo Dungar (Black Hills of Kutch), the place is known for the story of foxes eating the parasd after the daily aarti. This was something hard to believe but we always wanted to know if it’s real or not..  The place is on top of the hills, with the Rann of Kutch on one side and the mountains on the other… The climate was pretty much different here, wind blowing like crazy and very cool climate..  The area was on the border of Kutch so it had a BSF base camp with radar and all… The view from this place was simply fantastic.. we could see miles and miles of Rann, the border was around 50 – 70 KMs away from there.. (this one was in the Rann, at Koteshwar it was in the sea) At Kari Dungar, there is a small point in the middle of the hills (You have to walk towards up (near the basecamp) for 2-3 minutes), we sat there for sometime, I felt like heaven.. clear sky, amazing weather.. very nice place..

We moved towards the temple at around 7 PM.. it was time for the aarti, and we all were curious to see the foxes coming down to eat the prasad.. as the aarti ended, a man with a huge vessel full of prasad started walking towards a place over the top, as he kept the whole vessel there, the foxes started coming in, jumping to eat the prasad.. We were still in shock, wondering how it is happening, what is the relation and logic, why would foxes from the jungle come up just to eat the prasad.. but without thinking much, we started clicking the photos and shooting the video of it.. you can find the photo on the left hand side of this paragraph.. (You will have to click on it to view the larger image). It was a wonderful experience for us. A new experience indeed, never imagined something like this can happen for real.

This was a memorable day for us, everything was perfect.. nothing badly planned, we had great food both the times at Prince in Bhuj, the places were just marvelous.

In our earlier plan, we had decided to visit a place called Dholavira too but we learnt that it is closed between April and August. It is basically like Haddappa and Mohenjodaro, 5000 year old city.. it’s a wonderful place to visit but we will make sure that we are there in Kutch in the right season..

We spent the next day i.e. 10th July pretty much being at Home.. we had planned to stay at home on 11th July too but in the morning we made a super quick decision of visiting Karo Dungar again.. we called the car and went off to the same place again Again, a very good experience..

Today, we are going to leave for Mumbai within an hour.. spent most of the day at our home.. was with Grandparents in the first half..

So, overall, our experience this time was just fantastic. I have visited Kutch so many times in the past but never explored it in this extent.. and now we are already planning to visit Kutch again sometime very soon.. and next time we will do proper research and dig out more places like this to visit..

From tomorrow, I will be back to my work.. will be seeing my office people after a gap of one week.. can’t wait for it.. lots of exciting things happening..

So, finally I decided to give myself a break.. though I wanted to go out for 10 days but like always, I could not.. so we (my wife and me) planned out a short trip to Matheran. 3 day trip… will be almost disconnected from the world.. no cell phone network.. no phone calls.. no messages.. and this is the time when I thank these mobile network guys for such a bad network.. it’s kind of fun.. this is what I wanted..

Okay.. so let’s start.. this post is going to be written in many parts.. it’s more like a diary.. I will be posting the stuff as an when the events occur and publish once I reach Mumbai…

Friday, 3rd April 2009 – We leave from home at around 8 AM for Matheran.. I decide to drive.. but as always.. I forget the road.. we take express highway.. miss the Khopoli turn and reach Lonavala LOL.. we realize we are on the wrong track.. haha, asked few people and somehow managed to reach Matheran (Dasturi) by 12.00 PM.. (we should have reached there by 10 AM).. driving through the ghat section between Neral and Matheran was fun..

Landed in the hotel at around 1.15 PM… enjoyed super cool nimbu pani on the way.. (Must have… don’t miss it.. you get it on the way to Matheran (from Dasturi)…)

Room wasn’t so impressive… (we are paying almost Rs. 4200 a night @ Regal Hotel) Had great gujju food..  the best food in Matheran.. we didn’t bother about the room much then.. for us… food is always the first priority.. right Megha? haha

So at around 2 PM, we crashed on the bed.. woke up at around 5 PM.. met sister and her friends at nearby hotel.. went for a walk with them… had some road side stuff.. Kala Khatta gola.. it was nice..

Reached back hotel at around 8.00 PM.. again.. enjoyed the food..

Now, sitting with Megha on this jhula.. live performance of old songs going on in the background.. enjoying.. the climate is pleasant.. it’s not at all cold but not hot too… better than Mumbai.. feeling relaxed…

More tomorrow.. as the day starts.. have planned out for a morning walk and play badminton.. let’s see when we wake up..

Till then cya..

Saturday, 4th April 2009 – The morning walk didn’t happen LOL.. we ended up getting up at 9.30 AM.. had breakfast.. joined friends in the nearby hotel.. played badminton for around 2 hours.. enjoyed it.. though my hands are still paining.. (coz of not warming up and playing like crazy directly)

Oh yes… my server had gone down last night.. I still remember that day.. 2-3 years back.. I was in Essel World.. server had gone down.. no one to take care of it.. was getting calls all the time.. and my whole day was spoilt.. but this time.. nothing like that happened.. Thanks to Ashish He took care of the things.. some issues with mysql database and exim.. had to trace out the culprit.. so had to keep the mysql server down for almost 2 hours and enable high resource sites to monitor the resource usage.. found the culprit.. taken care of the issue… all cool now..

Okay.. now back to Matheran….

After the lunch, slept in the noon as usual.. the evening period was good.. we spend around 2 hours in the pool.. it was very relaxing.. we went to the market after that.. had bhutta.. (sweet corn) nice stuff.. the next turn was.. chocolate gola it wasn’t that great..

Spend some time with friends in our hotel.. healthy discussion as we call it.. enjoyed it.. then comes the food..

And now.. we are sitting outside.. some aunties took our favorite place.. so we are sitting here in the dark… sister and wife chit chatting.. I am writing this post…

Tomorrow I am not expecting anything different than today.. we might go for horse riding in the morning but not sure.. thinking of staying on Monday too… let’s see.. it’s so refreshing here..

That’s it.. I am done for today..

Sunday, 5th April 2009 – Nothing great today, infact it was kind of boring towards the end, may be because sister and friends left in the late afternoon, so we had no company, the hotel had only 5-6 people left including us.. we ended up watching TV and going to the market to buy some sweets.. The food in the night wasn’t so good.. had to order something in the room… the day ended with repeat telecast of Roadies on MTV…

Monday, 6th April 2009 – The last day at Matheran, we left pretty quickly.. had breakfast and left at around 10 AM. Again, I lost the way haha but managed to get on the right track after asking few people.. enjoyed wada pav at Dutt’s outlet… reached home at around 1.30 PM, left for the office within half an hour.. and since then.. I have been working left and right… haha

Okay.. now back to the present..

Finally got time today to finish this post.. the server had problems in between.. was down for almost 12 hours.. had to get hard disk replaced and all.. now finally, everything is smooth.. though I need to tweak couple of sites.. but all smooth so far..

I have started sleeping early these days.. (today being an exception..haha) get up at around 8.45 AM and reach office around 10 AM… I want to make it to 9.30 AM..

So, that’s it guys.. I am done for today..

So, here is my diary of a short visit to Baroda.. (13th to 15th Jan)

We reached Baroda on 13th… we had no mood to have food at home… we went to a restaurant called Express to have Gujarati thali…. and for the dinner, we went to some Kathiyawadi Dhaba (can’t recollect the name) located on the outskirts of Baroda.. dirt cheap food but amazingly tasty..

After that, we had my favorite, chocolate pan (Paras Pan – don’t miss it if you happen to visit Baroda)

Around 11.30 in the night.. we went to old Baroda (city), to check out the market area.. markets are open whole night on 13th for kite selling… it was an amazing experience there..  no place to walk.. no one was ready to leave, everyone was busy buying different types of kites, manja (threads) and even glares.. it was a fun experience…

So finally on 14th.. we all go to the building terrace with around 50+ kites.. but sadly.. there was not enough wind for the kite flying… but still we did not lose hope… we saw other people also, trying.. everyone was enjoying.. playing loud music on the terrace… we waited there for couple of hours but luck wasn’t with us…

We returned back in the evening.. around 4.30 PM… and this was the best phase… perfect weather for kite flying… good enough wind.. pleasant climate… without wasting much of time… we started flying the kites… the scenario was amazing… almost every terrace was full of people.. the sky was full of kites.. I have never seen anything like this ever.. it was too good.. we continued till the dark.. (around 7 PM I guess…)

And.. then.. the Diwali started.. everyone started bursting crackers.. pure fun.. the whole day, sky was full of kites.. and in the night.. crackers took place.. there were few people flying paper kandeels too..

We were still not satisfied and over excited.. all of us, decided to meet up next day in the morning too…

The next day… (i.e. yesterday), the fun continued.. it was still the same scenario.. no one was in the mood to work… everyone was set on their building’s terrace with music systems.. infact, this morning was much more crowded than 14th January… Megha and my sister tried their hands on the kites…. to be frank, they were much better than me.. haha

So.. around 1 PM.. we left the terrace as we had to catch our train at 4.. we had food and left around 3.30 PM… we didn’t want to go so soon but work commitments.. can’t say no to work..

So… finally, I am here in front of this laptop… thinking what more to type…. haha…

But this is going to be one of the memorable trips… we all have decided to visit Baroda every year to celebrate Makar Sankranti…

Okay… so let me end this post with some pics… (I have uploaded all the pics on my flickr account but most of them are limited to my contacts)

The kite shop in the market (around 11.30 PM)

The market scene at around 1 AM

The Kites..

The Kites..

The blue sky..

Flying Kandeel

Chikki (Indian Sweet)

Fire crackers

More pics on my Flickr account

Day 1: Friday around 1 PM, reached Marriott Goa. Had great food there. Checked in the room, fantastic ocean view and finally got chance to SLEEP on the SUPER COZY bed. To be frank, after spending a night at Renaissance, Powai (One of the Marriott group hotels), We were actually waiting for this kind of bed, I just jumped onto the bed as I saw it. I mean, it was like heaven, I didn’t want anything else, just that bed, COZY bed on which I could sleep for whole day..damn good. Friends asked us to come over with them for a walk but we decided to enjoy the sleep.

On the same day, a kind of very bad incident happened with few tourists (females mainly) staying at Marriott. Some guys were clicking their photos, they caught the guys, deleted all the photographs and called the police but then decided to handover the guy and not lodge the complaint. This had happened outside the Marriott, but one of the members explained the incident to Marriott staff and they finally got convinced to lodge the complaint.

We were watching this right there sitting the lobby area of Marriott. I never expected any hotel guys to be so helpful. Marriott guys called their security people, arranged a car and all went to the police station and with the help of Marriott staff, finally all those culprits were caught and put behind the bar.

We were really impressed by the support staff of Marriott. A very strong positive mark.

Ok, so now what? There was lovely beach connecting to our hotel, just needed to step down from the hotel lobby and you are at the beach. . I strolled there with Megha for sometime. Sat at the poolside and headed for the Dinner.

We then went to the Casino, won some, lost some.. but we were winners in the hand with some decent amount of winning money in the hand. The day finally reaches the end.

Day 2: Started with late morning around 10 AM, that’s when we woke up. Had breakfast and jumped into the pool. It was super fun. A hot sexy babe in Bikini but Megha and 3 of my friends blocked the way.. so I was kind of kin soup but still got good amount of glimpse of that babe, haha..

At around 4.30 PM, we left to visit a 400 year old church and Baga beach. I regret going to those places. I do not mean to say that those places were bad but I prefer going to the places with less crowd. Baga beach was full of not so good crowd, felt like I am at Juhu beach. Have heard that beaches in South Goa are much better than North Goa. (We were at North Goa)

I prefer a clean beach with very decent crowd Yea, I do not like people playing around on the beach and blocking the way, I do not like tattoo females banging the head to get the Tattoo done from them and all.. I just like a clean beach with lots of peace and no nuisance.

We returned at around 7.30 PM, started with the lunch bit early, at around 8.30 PM, enjoyed each and everything at Dinner, specially Hummus and those yummy dessert and yea, my “customized” mango ice cream with chocolate chips and some more toppings.

Again, we hit the Casino. I again won some money, joined my friends for the Jackpot game. Won some amount and  the winners headed towards the room but stopped at the Cafe / Lounge near the reception area. A sea facing cafe, cool breeze all the time (even if it’s afternoon) Spent around half an hour there and finally landed in the room and the day ends here.

Day 3: This one was the best day. Again, a late morning, had breakfast at around 11 AM. Directly jumped into the pool after that, we just loved floating around on those floating beds. Left for the lunch at around 2 PM, after Jacuzzi and quick shower. Slept for sometime and again jumped into the pool at around 6.30 PM, left for the dinner at 10 PM. (Again, had quick shower and Jacuzzi before the dinner)

Casino had become our daily routine, so we bumped into the Casino. But this time, for a change, lost good amount of money but those coin based games gave me profit of around Rs. 400. But in the end, we were not the winners. But enjoyed it.

At the end of the day, there was bit sadness coz we had to leave on the next day, none of us wanted to leave so soon but we had to..

Day 4: The last day. We left the hotel at around 11 AM, bought some Cashew Nuts and reached the Thvim station. The bad phase starts now. The train was late by approximately 1 and half hour. We waited in the waiting room. The place did not give us good feeling. We were getting frustrated, the place was not at all clean. The train finally arrived at 1.30 PM.

OK, now let’s talk in the present tense as I am currently in the train. (The post will be posted as I reach home though)

We are in the A/C compartment but it is more like a 2nd class compartment. Some guys with kids got in, bribed the TC and making noise all around. The food is pathetic. Tea / Coffee almost without the milk, Sandwich without the butter and stale vegetables. (The food is prepared in the railway department’s pantry car). I am hearing 3 different songs from 3 different places, some kid is showing off his Sony Erriccson walkman phone by playing new phones, other guys is showing off his radio. Damn, it totally sucks.

We are just waiting to reach Mumbai and have decided will never travel by Train for longer journeys.

Yea, Yea, I have become more like Amitabh Bachchan (He is known to blog very long posts) But for all those lazy readers like me, here is the summary.

The Goods:

• Marriott Hotel at Goa. Very good place, reasonable rates, excellent service and very polite and helping staff members.

• Mini bar in Marriott room. They had a small fridge with all the common stuff like Cold drinks, Beers, Pringles, Cashew Nuts and chocolates. We just need to pick the ones we need, they will bill us in the end for it. (The rates were very reasonable, e.g. Rs. 20 for the diet Pepsi can)
• Pool, enjoyed the pool. You should not miss the pool whenever you go to any hotel. And specially if you are at Marriott Goa, pool is real cool. (It is ocean facing)
• The food, though they had few items repeated but the quality of food was very good. Desserts were very good.
• Live performance at Marriott. They had a live / karaoke performance on Sunday noon for the lunch. It was really amazing, all the guests enjoyed and many of them came forward and sang the songs too.

The Bads:

• The beaches, I personally did not like roaming around at the beaches. Like mentioned earlier, I prefer cleaner ones.

• Bathroom at Marriott, they should have had a bath tub.
• The Butlets aka Cutlets in Jan Shatabdi Express. It was so pathetic, it was full of potato and tasteless, so we ended up naming it Butlet.
• Jan Shatabdi Express. NEVER EVER GO BY THIS TRAIN. It sucks like hell. I would prefer flight rather than train.

I guess, that’s it. I will be reaching Mumbai in approximately 5 hours (hopefully).

Will be posting the pics within couple of days.