Junagadh -> Beyt Dwarka -> Dwarka (29.1.25)
Leaving Junagadh (6.30 am)
Yes, you read the time right. We left really early, shaking the guys at the reception awake. Apparently, Beyt Dwarka shuts its doors from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm, and since we were about 5 hours away and had to provide for some breakfast time - you do the math…
At 6.30 am, Junagadh was pitch dark and fast asleep, except for some chai shops. Sun rises late on the west coast, and we were treated to the usha time when sunlight slowly lights up the east-facing surfaces and colours everything golden. Although I was not driving this time, it would be remiss of me not to bung in some appreciation of the highways in Gujrat - good road quality and disciplined traffic. However, as soon as some town crops up, the municipality digs up 50% of the roads on one side and goes for a sabbatical. Mystifying, absolutely!
Breakfast at a dhaba (9.00 am)
Forgive me for harping on food, but we were really thrilled to get a proper Gujarati breakfast at last, and that too at a live station. The guy actually rolled out and made theplas for us, and fried fafdas on the spot, embellished with jalebis. We stood at a high table in the open, our backs to the sun, the warm food providing a nice counterpoint to the 16 degC weather. It was a place where drivers and daily workers stopped their trucks and motorbikes and sat around on charpoys, demanding food like mother made them. Quality and freshness assured.
Beyt Dwarka (11.30 am)
Beyt Dwarka is a small island, around 2 kms away from the mainland. Till one year ago, the only way to reach it was by private ferries. Passengers had to buy tickets and invest 30 mins on the crossing. In Feb 2024, the Sudarshan Setu was completed, a 2.3 km long cable bridge (said to be the longest cable bridge in India), which cut the crossing time to 5 mins. We zipped across, parked the car and took an auto to the temple which was 1.5 km away.
This being the residence of Krishna, it was not really structured like a conventional temple, but was more like a building with a flag (dhwaja) on top, and idols installed in various rooms. We had happened to land up on mauni amavasya, a very auspicious day, as the visitors at the Mahakumbh are also realising seeing an inflow five times the usual. Even here, the crowd and the queue were serpentine. Now, I am blessed with a mind that boggles easily, and luckily a very young Purohit popped up and offered to take us through the back door, for a consideration. Supply and demand having been reconciled, we followed him around and completed all darshans in ten minutes flat! Money well-spent I say, but a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation told us that he was earning more than a lakh every month from this side hustle.
There are many temples on the Beyt Dwarka island, and we visited another one, called Golden Dwarka (since the walls were painted in golden colours), dedicated to Rukmini, which had different displays on Krishna’s life in dolls.
Lunch at Charmi Restaurant, Dwarka (1.30 pm)
We drove back for an hour to Dwarka (35 kms).
Now, I am quite a loyal chap by nature, and "When in Gujrat, eat Gujarati" would be my motto in general, but Kathiyawadi thalis have an incipient dose of chillies in everything that was getting the goat of non-chilly (read hot) people like us, when imbibed in successive meals. So we vetoed two suggestions by Hemendra (our driver, remember?) and dived into Charmis that promised to provide Punjabi fare. A sumptuous meal of palak paneer and tandoori rotis followed, with zero chilly, and we repaired to our hotel.
Hotel Shree Vallabh, Dwarka (2.30 pm)
The risk with booking hotels from the net is that though the rate is known, the other parameters are mostly left to the Man Upstairs. But we were lucky. A small hotel, it turned out to be next to the Gomati-side promenade, just 100 m from the Dwarkadheesh temple!
Another useful feature in Gujrat (and maybe other states, I am not sure) was that drivers were always offered free lodging, and sometimes free boarding as well. Having said that, I found that Hemendra was getting a pretty good deal - better than me. He was actually being paid to do a bunch of sightseeing without spending much from his pocket, except CNG, which was also a cheap fuel. AND getting to drive the car, which I was deprived of in this trip. Life is not fair, no sir!
We took a quick walk on the promenade, since the temple was closed from 1.00-5.00 pm. The Gomati, which met the sea at Dwarka, was pretty shallow, and people were wading across. The foot traffic was enhanced by the fact that the proper footbridge across the Gomati, called Sudama Setu, was closed for renovation. The ghats were the usual chaotic scene - cows, camels, girls selling fish food and gou-mata fodder, and lots of tourists. Dwarka exudes the air of an ancient place of worship, just as Varanasi does, and the muted enthusiasm of devotees is quite infectious.
Dwarkadheesh temple, Dwarka (6.00 pm)
We hit the promenade just as the sun was about to set. The sunset was not visible from our side of the river, though, so Panna, the intrepid photographer, waded across the Gomati and climbed up the other bank to capture a few stunning shots of the sun setting over the confluence.
We had to deposit our chappals and mobile phones before climbing up the steps to the temple. Today being mauni amavasya, crowds were heavy, and the queue to the darshan quite dense. I, as usual, begged off from a close up view; I could see the idol from afar and that was good enough for me. Our eyes met across the 20 yards of teeming multitude and we tipped our hats at each other. Panna ran the gauntlet and had a lovely darshan, bless her.
The energy in a popular temple always amazes me; it is so unlike the serious propriety of a church or a mosque. I have always maintained that the idol or building does not bring forth divinity - devotees do. Dwarkadheesh was better organised than Beyt Dwaraka, and though the rush was similar, the crowds had more space to move around. The last head-on approach to the idol also gave people more time to gaze rapturously before they had to move away sideways.
We spent some more time on the promenade before having a simple dinner of pao bhaji and hakka noodles, and turning in.
Tomorrow we travel to Jamnagar, 150 kms away.
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