For Adventure lovers, trekking camps, nature camps and many more

Hi Friends,

Those who love to spend time with nature, who want to explore their limits, those who want to encounter with own fear, here come the opportunity. There are so many professional options available for trekking camps, but I prefer YHAI , because it is volunteer organization worldwide with motto like "જે ફરે તે ચારે (wandering one, gathers honey)". Their service is not like five star camps, it is below 1 star, but it is what required when you want to spend time with nature. Same way their cost is also much much lower than other. So you can visit below link for current treks and contact details, they provide online booking. 

I would like to request parents to send their child for trek regularly, at least once in a year, it will enhance your child, like how to meet interstate persons, how to do your things at your own, how to cope up with problems, how to overcome fear, risk etc. 


http://www.yhaindia.org/

Similarly a similar group called "vanashree, Gandhinagar"  is also doing the same thing under same name. I know these people personally and I must say that they are born nature lover, bird lover and wonderful guys. They know each and every bird by name.

http://www.vanshree.org

They have coming up with YHAI, a beautifull trekk in Utaranchal. details as below:
An exciting Adventure and Nature Education Camp announced by Vanshree Trust, which is going to be organized from May 6 to May 15 at Chopta, Uttranchal; a very beautiful place in hills of Himalays. expecting it to be a new and enriching experience as always. For more details Contact Anjana Nimavat on 9998810719

Also if you want to encounter with bears of mount abu, be prepared between May 20 to May 25th, there will be very good camp in Mount abu by Vanshree.

For more details about YHAI and Vanshree , Contact Anjana Nimavat on 9998810719

some other YHAI treks, 

NATIONAL HIMALAYAN TREKKING EXPEDITION 2012 (Apr - May) SAR KUNDI PASS

NATURE STUDY 2012(Apr-May) DALHOUSIE

MOUNTAIN BIKING EXPEDITION - JALORI PASS(Apr- Jun) 2012

HIMALAYAN FAMILY ADVENTURE CAMPING (Apr- Jun) 2012

NATIONAL HERITAGE TREKKING EXPEDITION JAMMU KASHMIR(MAY-JUN)-2012 

and many more, just visit 

http://www.yhaindia.org/program_bookings/index/national     for more details.       

Gujarat Navratri report 2010 -- Vibrant Gujarat Vibrant Navratri Vibrant People

Short link: http://is.gd/g7E9W
Friends,

With the God’s grace, in this navaratri 8^th oct to 16 oct, I have seen:

• Garba at AMBAJI chachar chowk.
• Garba at my home town Gandhinagar
• Garba at Ahmedabad’s VIBRANT Gujarat’s Vibrant Navratri
• Garba at traditional Gujarat village called Tarapur (sheri Garba ) with new thing
• Garba at holy place called DAKOR ( Lord Krishna). Eaten 56 bhog thali (dish) from krishna temple

So during nine days of Navratri, I have visited five distinct places across Gujarat, which served my purpose to shift to my Love Gujarat from worst Mumbai. Now if you love traditions, culture and Garba, you will sure love further reading, else you may wait for next post on other topic. I will write on entrepreneurship, organic farming, NAMO, interviews of secular and many other topics in coming post, so stay tuned.

Now to narrate my nine days:

This whole navaratri celebration is about to please goddess Amba,durga,kali (all are same). Main spot is AMBAJI (Amba mata, ambe gauri etc). It was a divine pleasure to be at Ambaji during Navratri. While Amdavad is as usual vibrant (more than 1L visitors per day). And finally Dakor, where I had seen such a good traditional Garba and that too on the bank of holy GOMTI lake (good combination). Now We will take each place in detail in two parts. Taking Ambaji, Amdavad first

AMBAJI: 

This place is one of the shaktipith of goddess and very famous in Gujarat, Rajashthan. It is very hard to find place for living during Navratri specially after five days of Navratri. Main temple has been developed very very well in recent years, the Main entrance, security, other arrangements, darshan, Prasad etc. You will surely not complain about the facilities now a day in any pilgrimage across Gujarat. 

If you go from Ahmedabad, take Visnagar route, it is shortest one than himmatnagar. Road condition is excellent. Here some snaps of Ambaji; don’t forget to visit Mansarovar Kund in Ambaji. Govt authority is developing shaktipith van (forest) and parikrama path arounf Gabbar. I have talked with local guys, shop owners, and all have to say one common thing that in recent years Ambaji developed a lot and within 4-5 years, you will see totally new ambaji. 

 People were playing garba in the front of maint temple whole night, in long trek (almost 30min/round). One imp thing, go to back gate (exactly behind the mandir). IF you are brahmin, you can make direct entry to the temple, just be in pitamber and show your janoi

Ahmedabad (amdavad):

Here ronak of Navratri was slightly come down, because of ban on Party plots, but Govt organized Vibrant Navaratri was alone enough to counter that. I have already written detailed article about the same in

Link:

http://hims30482.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-gujarat-is-so-vibrant-report-of.html

Now, good thing was that almost each and every society, mandal’s have organized sheri garba’s across Ahmedabad. They all were start only after 12. Officially there is a rule to play loudspeakers until 12, but here and almost across Gujarat Garba starts at 12. There was no single case of resistance from single person, NGOs, Secular guys unlike Mumbai & Delhi. Roads were full of colorfull dresses moving, ladies in traditional cholis, traffic jam around University ground (vibrant navaratri location). Here are some snaps

 

I will cover Gandhinagar cultural forum and DAkor in next post. Please don’t stop yourself to write a comment and also if possible click on Google ads, I am going to donate the earnings from adsense to mentally retired people and Panjrapol (shelter for holy cows) as mentioned at top right corner.

Gujarat Tourist places III- How to go there and full list

Update: Latest parieej lake flamingo photos here  &

click for more details.  or see the latest post of this blog about upcoming trekking program and family program

 A humble request to you all .......

By Himanshu Acharya

Friends,

We have covered various places from mostly north and central Gujarat till date, which includes;

Sundhamata, zanzari, rupal, balaram, delwada & galteshwar , Tua & Timba, Mangadh, Untadia Mahadev, Nal Sarovar. Links for the same as below;

http://hims30482.blogspot.com/2010/09/some-known-and-unknown-tourist-places.html

http://hims30482.blogspot.com/2010/02/some-known-and-mosty-unknown-tourist.html

Now in this post I will give you some useful information for wandering in Gujarat. Some useful websites for the reference. Please don’t consider it as end of the series. We have lot more places awaiting to be placed here, like;

·     

·        Vijayanagar na Khander and mandir (on the way to ider-modasa)	·        Matano Madh (kutch)
·        Patan ranki vav	·        Yakshini dev mandir (kutch)
·        modhera	·        Bet dwarka
·        pariej lake (near kheda)	·        Thol lake
·        kanewal lake	·        ghela somnath mandir
·        vehra khadi (mahi river)	·        hastinagiri mountain near Palitana
·        Dhuvaran sea shore	·        lothal & ancient koth ganpati mandir
·        Sikotermata mandir at Khambhat sea shore	·        Khambhalida caves (near gondal)
·        velavadat kaliyar sanctuary	·        Harsidhdhi mandir (near porbander…worth)
·        Pirotan islands near Jamnagar	·        Bhanvad Ashapura mandir on hill
·        Koteshwar (Last stop of Gujarat-kutch)	·        Junagadh uppercot fort and mira datar
·        Rajkot’s newly developed ishwariya park	·        ratanmahal sanctuary & jambughoda

Friends, I have visited 95% of above places till date and wish to visit remaining 5% till I write about it. Some of the places I have visited through YHAI Gujarat unit, some places alone and some places with local relatives. 

Now, for those who don’t know much about YHAI, it is youth hostel association of India. They do have their local units across Gujarat, like 

• ·        Gandhinagar which organize 1-2 days nature camp at Indroda,
• ·        Sanand Unit which organize Nalsarovar 2-3 days camp regularly,
• ·        Palitana unit which organizes trekking to palitana and hasgiri through jungle route,
• ·        Jamnagar unit which organizes Pirotan island camps.
• ·        Baroda unit for pavagadh and jambughoda jungle trekking.

 There are many other unit and they keep updating the same in advance on their websites, like

http://www.youthhostelahmedabad.org/      ---- official YHAI gujarat website.

FOR LATEST YOUTH HOSTEL TREKKING DETAILS ABU, UTRANCHAL ETC CLICK HERE 

But there is much more information and good photos available on their unit website of bharuch and baroda.

http://yhaibharuch.blogspot.com

yhaivadodara.blogspot.com  

believe me, YHAI is the cheapest way of wondering. There are national treks available like Himalaya, leh and many more for other state units. Actually YHA is the international association on volunteer base. We do have youth hostels in key tourist places and key cities across India, where you can find stay at Rs. 60 per day or little bit higher. You need to be member this organization for the same, which is about Rs. 100 annually.

Please go to above links, there are many upcoming treks available within Gujarat and at national level also. Give chance to yourself to explore new horizons.

Now there are few websites, which have pretty good collections of tourist places experiences in Gujarati. You can visit them for reference. Some of the links are

http://aksharnaad.com/category/travel-descriptions-in-gujarati/              There are almost 23 articles

http://www.readgujarati.com/category/travelogue/

You will find intresting tourist places for any districts thorough this govt website.

http://panchayat.gujarat.gov.in/panchayatvibhag/    go to this website, select your district , for example

http://porbandardp.gujarat.gov.in/Porbander/jilavishe/jovalayak-sthalo/jovalayak-index.htm

 

So, people who can afford to visit such places, don’t wait for suitable atmosphere, don’t wait for company. Go into rainy season, it has its own joy. You can contact me for more information.Those who are intrested in non-routine places, adhyatmic places, ancient places, please refer Gujarati Book "Aghor Nagara Vage part 1&2", there is a description of so many places within Gujarat and mount abu.

Author can be reached at himanshu.acharya@gmail.com


Please don’t stop yourself to write a comment and also if possible click on Google ads, I am going to donate the earnings from adsense to mentally retired people and Panjrapol (shelter for holy cows) as mentioned at top right corner.  

One more time I got chance to saw more than 15 SARAS crane giant birds in a row (group), generally they are found in pair or max three in group.

So Those who are intrested in watching SARAS bird along with other foreigner birds, can contact me. I will guide them for the road and if possible I will come with them also. There are 2-3 fixed places where you can easily find SAras birds. 

 A humble request to you all .......

Gujarat unknown tourist places II - Hot water spring, bird sanctuary and many more

By Himanshu Acharya

Hello friends,

In my last post on the same topic, I had covered Sundhamata, zanzari, rupal, balaram, delwada, galteshwar. Link is as below;

http://hims30482.blogspot.com/2010/02/some-known-and-mosty-unknown-tourist.html

Now I am going to cover Tua & Timba, Mangadh, Untadia Mahadev, Nal Sarovar. 

 

Tua & Timba:  Here you will find  Hot water sulphuric springs, kund  believed to have a miraculous cure for arthritis and rheumatism and footprint of Bhim (one of the Pandavas). This place is on the Ahmedabad-Godhra highway, just before the godhra 15-20 km away. You have to take right turn when you see signboard of Timba village.  It is almost 80-90 km from Ahmedabad. You can easily bath here in hot water. Dense forest area is starting from here. 

Mangadh hills: One more place near to Godhra. This place is towards santrampur direction. It is on the border of Gujarat with Rajashthan. It is famous for its hills, palace and one unknown history. We all know Jaliyawala Hatyakand, but during British Rule bigger than Jalianwala tragedy happned here. There is one temple and smarak for shahids there. Annual adivasis (tribal) fair is organized there with folk dance and many more.  It’s a pious place of faith for tribals of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhyapradesh for Guru Govindsinh. The entire area is gifted with beautiful hills surrounded by scattered forests. Backwaters of Kadana dam are very near to this area. Have a look at picture and video.

Photos:

Video:

Untadia Mahadev:  This place is famous for Shiv temple called Untadia ( camel) mahadev. There is a Triveni-sangam of rivers at this place and good place to take bath in river. There is camel ride available there. There is one small temple exactly between the river. It is worth to watch it once. Surrounding are is very good.  If you are a old fort lover guy,  you will find many within 5-10 km area. One is Antasumba.

This place is on the way to dehgam to Kapadvanj. Dehgam is some 22 km from Ahmedabad and Untadia is another 20km from dehgam.

Photo:

Nalsarovar : This one is my charm and I think many of us. It is about 50-60 Km from Ahmedabad towards Sanand. Take left turn from sanand and within 25-30Km, you will be there in the mini sea.  You can consider it big lake (only 182 sq km) , a bird sanctuary, outing place (horse ride, boat ride, rural food) etc. There are about 300 species of birds. From December to the end of March tourists flock to, this 182 sq km lake with 360 islands to see the pelicans, flemingos, various species of ducks, white cranes, herons, evomets, long-beaked curlews and other birds. At mornings and evenings, it is an added pleasure to watch the birds from boats. During full-moons and starry nights, the beauty of the lake robs the onlookers of their sleep.

You can search easily about this place and photos. 

Just go there and take a horse ride, take a 1 hour boat ride in 5-6 feet water and finally eat Rotla-bhadthu with red chutney and pure butter at hats accompanying with buffalos. 

Reply back if you require more details. 

Author can be reached at himanshu.acharya@gmail.com