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this is about my escapade during feb 2010 to vadodra.. it was a 2 days weekend visit.. genesis of this trip is in my earlier visit to junagad last year.. in junagad i came to know that there are 2 forts in gujarat namely, junagad and pavagad.. also during visit to museum in junagad i got references of historic places of dabhoi and champaner.. in all it looked quite attractive package.. vadodra city tour, champaner, pavagad, dabhoi.. i dont know why most of the vadodra tourist sites dont have mention of sardar sarovar dam. i realised it quite late and dint manage to visit there..
we left mumbai at night by train and reached vadodra before sunrise.. as a pleasent surprise we found rickshaw driver speaking to us in marathi... Marathi is a local language of Maharashtra. Vadodra is in Gujrat and Gujarati is states language.. Although, because the king of the vadodra was from maharashtra, still most of the population in vadodra speaks marathi.. you can assume that every third person in vadodra speaks marathi..
we hired a car for 2 days and decided to start with city tour.. with so many tourist spots of various importance in
vadodra it becomes very difficult to decide where to start from and where to end..
1 Sur-sagar .. its is a lake with huge statue of shankar midist the lake.. nearby is the criminal court.. had a view of court from cars windows without stoping..its also called nyay mandir..temple of justice..
2 Nazarbaug palace .. its is the old palace of gaekwad in city.. its in very bad condition.. photography is prohibited and its currently a private disputed property.. the ground surrounding the palace seems a playground for childrens.. no tickets .. need to take permission of owner to enter..
3 Gita mandir.. we were going towards qutubuddin tomb.. but in way found temple on left side of road.. temple has pictures of shri krishna and arjuna, shri ram and hanuman and others..
4 Qutubuddin tomb .. Also called Hazira Maqbara, was built on Octagonal platform, is standing quite and lonely in the silence of the nice garden surrounding it..next to the road on west side is the step well from where it used to receive water..
5 Irfan pathan house .. his old house is inside masjid.. and new house is in different area.. if you are lucky
u might get a change to meet.. i wasnt..
6 Arbindo society.. A place where meditation is taught.. photo gallery showing life of freedom fighter and philosopher Maharshi Arbindo Ghosh..place where you can find solace
7 Laxmi Vilas Palace.. Its the reason for our existance in vadodra..huge beautiful royal palace.. large golf ground type garden around it..the palace has a prerecorded mp3 player which will guide you through the various architecture of the palace..it also has a step well besides.. The mp3 player is treat for ears, mind and soul.. it take you in the past.. hand over yourself to it for an hour and feel the glory.. because of mp3 guide the i ud rate the experience lot better..
We managed to see all these from 9 am to 1 pm.
8 Museum and Sayaji baug.. After lunch we left for baroda museum which is present in Sayajibaug.. It seemed to have more of stuffed animals and birds..why dont they have light and sound show at museums...??? at times museums are boring.. then had a walk thru the sayaji baug.. baug reminds of sakar baug at junagad..there is a planetarium.. but it was house full.. so no
luck for us..
9 Kirti mandir.. It has status of Sayaji rao gaekwad.. Statues of his mother and relatives.. Dressing and outlook of marble statues are clearly of maharashtrian type..The sun, the moon and the earth in bronze with the undivided map of India is visible on top of kirti mandir..
10 EME temple.. Its a temple in army area.. some science fantacies made by the geeks at army.. like bang the ghanta and water falls on shivlinga.. water falling from the tap hanging in air.. presence of army official every where gives you a different feeling..dare you break a rule inside..
This is where we end our day one and went early to bed.You can follow above sequence for city tour.. Also try to finish Ajwa on day one itself.
11 Champaner .. We started our journey towards pavagad.. champaner is a historical village on the base of pavagad.. Most of the monuments were converted into mosques.. Its a world heritage Site.. If you been to humpi.. this is very much like that.. Historic relics spread across kilometers of land..
12 Pavagad.. Left our car at the base village of champaner and took a shared jeep which
would take us throught uphill drive to the pavagad midway.. from there there we have to take ropeway to go to top.. Frequency of ropeway is very good.. and after that there was a walk of around 15 minutes to reach to the temple.. Temple is on the top point where you get darshan and blessings of Mahakali mataji.
13 Dabhoi.. Then we took SH-5, SH-11 to travell all the way around 70 kms..Could have taken SH-194 and SH-63 to reach Dabhoi by 50 kms straight route and save time.. Dabhoi was a bit disappointment.. Had only 1 monument where some work was being done by archeological dept.. has no museum..
14 Ajwa-Nimeta botanical garden.. Nice walk through.. Palm trees.. Green longe..Rosses and rosses.. its a good place .. especially if u reached ajwa before time.. as the ajwa garden has fountain show at evening ..
15 Ajwa Garden and dam.. Sayaji Sarovar Dam is not open for visitors.. Ajwa garden is nice walkthrough.. Its a place you should visit in dark as the fountains in light are nice sight.. There is a fountain show with light and sound.. This light and sound show has much much scope for improvement...
Although a good attempt.. Ajwa is a weekend destination -for the locals it seems as it has many water resorts and amusement parks. gardens in vadodra has sea-saw, swings and trains of miniature sizes.. such that only kids can play on them.. kind i saw only in vadodara..
By night trains we were on our return journey.. but it seems that me and vadodra has some unfinished business.. need to still visit sardar sarovar dam some time .. i missed it this time..
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jaymin kansara
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what is the name of village
please give me name of this village