Kai po chhe !! kite festival in Gujrat

Hi ,

This is my first travelogue. Even though from last few years I have been following travelogues on road trips religiously. Now it seems that I need to give back something for the different forums from where I have learnt. So here I go.

Me and my friends have decided to visit Gujrat for Uttarayana festival on 13^th to 15^th Jan 2017. This time we have a purpose to visit Gujrat as our friend from Borsad is moving to Netherlands for pursuing his masters.

I started preparations a week before, All the way from convincing other friends to join the trip - car cleaning – servicing- shopping.

We assumed 2 bottlenecks for this road trip. One is vasai creek bridge crossing (hotel fountain) and other is Bharuch bridge crossing. Hence we started a bit early at 5 30 AM  (though we planned it by 5 15) from Vikhroli west.

Journey started with setting ODO to zero in so called coolest temp of Mumbai this season (13 deg C)

I have picked my friends from Powai and JVLR Jnct and started moving ahead towards Vadodara from WEH. We cross Dahisar toll in No time but There was a bit congestion at the vasai creek Bridge but We still managed that in 10 mins or so.

Everyone was hungry (as we entering in GJ ..the state of food) so we decided to take halt at Hotel Atithi near charoti toll. It was a descent hotel with ample space of parking. We ordered quickly without wasting much time since we wanted to touch Vadodara before lunch.

Once we cross Maharashtra border, traffic was sparse till Vadodara and surprisingly we crossed Bharuch bridge in a single go, we didn’t even stopped the vehicle during diversion .

We reached Vadodara by 1 30 & directly headed to Mahakali usal spot. (near the Laxmi vilas palace)

after a yummy meal we went to Laxmi villa palace (Sayajirao Gaikwad’s residence) which was built in 1890 as a HO of Vadodara province. It took 60-90 mins to see in detail and listen the stories through audio pad.

In late afternoon around 4 30 PM, we headed towards Borsad (Friends place) It’s a 30 kms affair from Vadodara.

After reaching Borsad my friend took us to some uniquely peaceful spots in town.

The day ended for us at friends farmhouse with awesome Undhiyo party. (Specific Matka Undhiyo) It was so yummy that no words can express the deliciousness. Night stay in friends bungalow was frizzing cold for all of us.(Being mumbaikars!! )

Next day was the Uttarayana day which started with preparation of Kites & threads. Friend’s mom had made “Methi bhujiya” for breakfast. (Again it was very delicious)

Then we headed to terrace for kite flying. It was a mind blowing experience of all of us. All terraces were occupied by people around. Looks like whole town was celebrating this festival with us.

We captured a many moments in DSLR  & had lots of fun.

Lunch was typically gujrathi style “Khichdi - curry with papads and salad” (Again delicious)

Then we rested a while and later headed to another village called Bhadran (another friend’s hometown) This evening was even more special than the morning kite show. we were privileged to be in the tallest building in that village for kite flying. Terrace has amazing view with DJ set ,fire crackers and many types of kites. We stayed there till sunset dancing to the moves of Dandiya, Garba & yo yo honey singh’s songs.

For dinner we selected Vidyanagar’s street food (30 kms from Borsad). We started with khau galli (Panipuri, bhel, butter vada pav..) and had Dhokla ( First time I understood that dhokla and khaman are not same thing  ;-)  )

And next cuisine for dinner was at bhukkad galli which included Lasuni Pavbhaji , Ice-cream &  mouthwatering special pan.

Next day, 15^th Jan was the last day of our trip so we planned to relax a bit. After freshening up we went to friend’s farm for chilling out.

On the way ,we saw “Chudail mata temple” whose peculiarity was hanging sarees on the trees for completion of “mannat”.

On farm, We had a bumpy tractor ride and we saw many different species of birds. Later we went to a village called “Ras” which is famous for leather work. We shopped a bit and headed to friends home for lunch.

We had “bajara bhakri and bringle bharata with chhas “for lunch. After eating a lot we started journey back to Mumbai around 2 PM.

We travelled till valsad for 230 kms without any pit stop ; Where we had a fuel stop for us as well as for my zest. We covered  this 230 kms in 4 hours. Had a bit traffic on roads though.

We had a 15 mins pit stop and again started moving towards Aamchi Mumbai.

We crossed vasai creek bridge around 9 PM. (again 250 kms in 4 hours) .I dropped all my friends to their places and reached my home at 10 PM. Odometer showed 1080 kms at the end.

We had amazing & memorable Gujrat tour.

- Zestified Vishal