Last Thursday one of my NITIE batchmates got married in Vadodara. My parents are currently stationed there, but coincidentally, they were off to our home town (Bhopal) on the precise dates when I was going to be there.
So I hatched an alternate plan - along with Sabya and Arijit, I decided to spend 2 days driving around Vadodara.
We started the first day lazily and started from home by about 11 for Pavagadh - home to a famous Mahakali temple. On our way we took a pitt stop at Sikander Shah ka Makbara (an ASI monument).
Unfortunately, the ropeway at Pavagadh was under maintenance, so we could not visit the temple. So, we proceeded to visit Champaner where remains of an old capital city of Gujarat are located; it is today the site of the Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park. The snap below is of the Champaner Citadels - a UNESCO world Heritage monument.
By the time we finished off, the sun of Gujarat had extracted all energy out of us, so we headed back to Vadodara. We felt utmost pity travelling only 3 in a car when we found this »
The next day we managed to start early and hit the creamy and speedy Vadodara-Ahmedabad Expressway (NE-1); cruising at a constant speed of 120 kmph, we reached Ahmedabad within 1.5 hours.
But then, we decided to move to Gandhinagar for the Akshardham temple - and hit a slow road to Gandhinagar.
On our way we took another pit-stop to have some 'Chai'
On reaching Gandhinagar, we were pleasantly impressed by the quality of roads and infrastructure. This mega traffic circle especially caught our attention, it seems they have a mini-jungle inside the circle.
Thereafter, after we completed our visit to Akshardham, we had had too much of 'traditional tourism' - and so we decided to change our plan on the spur of the moment. We knew that we were about 90kms from Lothal - the remains of a port of the Indus Valley civilization. It was already 3.30 and we had little time.
So we decided not to waste time in lunch (picked up grub from McDonald's and ate it while driving) and dashed to Lothal ...
We reached Lothal at 5.30 PM - well before dark. It was exciting to visit the place about which you've read in your textbooks. Also to explore and imagine what your fore-fore fathers lives were like.
Me and Arijit trying to 'excavate' details at the site ...
I was quite impressed by the fact that civilisation games like AOE and Ceaser have structures and layouts quite similar to what we found at the Lothal colony ...
Here's a snap of the trio on the godown of the port colony.
Overall, it was a nice trip - though we could have planned it better. Well - there's always a next time ...
So I hatched an alternate plan - along with Sabya and Arijit, I decided to spend 2 days driving around Vadodara.
We started the first day lazily and started from home by about 11 for Pavagadh - home to a famous Mahakali temple. On our way we took a pitt stop at Sikander Shah ka Makbara (an ASI monument).
Unfortunately, the ropeway at Pavagadh was under maintenance, so we could not visit the temple. So, we proceeded to visit Champaner where remains of an old capital city of Gujarat are located; it is today the site of the Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park. The snap below is of the Champaner Citadels - a UNESCO world Heritage monument.
By the time we finished off, the sun of Gujarat had extracted all energy out of us, so we headed back to Vadodara. We felt utmost pity travelling only 3 in a car when we found this »
The next day we managed to start early and hit the creamy and speedy Vadodara-Ahmedabad Expressway (NE-1); cruising at a constant speed of 120 kmph, we reached Ahmedabad within 1.5 hours.
But then, we decided to move to Gandhinagar for the Akshardham temple - and hit a slow road to Gandhinagar.
On our way we took another pit-stop to have some 'Chai'
On reaching Gandhinagar, we were pleasantly impressed by the quality of roads and infrastructure. This mega traffic circle especially caught our attention, it seems they have a mini-jungle inside the circle.
Thereafter, after we completed our visit to Akshardham, we had had too much of 'traditional tourism' - and so we decided to change our plan on the spur of the moment. We knew that we were about 90kms from Lothal - the remains of a port of the Indus Valley civilization. It was already 3.30 and we had little time.
So we decided not to waste time in lunch (picked up grub from McDonald's and ate it while driving) and dashed to Lothal ...
We reached Lothal at 5.30 PM - well before dark. It was exciting to visit the place about which you've read in your textbooks. Also to explore and imagine what your fore-fore fathers lives were like.
Me and Arijit trying to 'excavate' details at the site ...
I was quite impressed by the fact that civilisation games like AOE and Ceaser have structures and layouts quite similar to what we found at the Lothal colony ...
Here's a snap of the trio on the godown of the port colony.
Overall, it was a nice trip - though we could have planned it better. Well - there's always a next time ...
nice trip... :) and even better travelog ...
ReplyDeletechampaner. is it same one which is mentioned in movie Lagaan ?
ReplyDeleteand Chai looks tempting :)
Well .. the Champaner in Lagaan is a fictitious village and not a real place ...
ReplyDeleteIt was touted to be a village in "Central India" as per the commentary by Amitabh Bacchan in the beginning of the movie. There is a hint that this village is assumed to be in present day Uttar Pradesh by way of the linguistic mix used in the movie ...
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagaan#Location.2C_language_and_costumes