A Drive from Jaisalmer to Longewala and Tanot Mata Mandir

Longewala Checkpost

There might be very few people in India who are not aware of Longewala. Longewala holds a special place in Indian history. This is where the battle of Longewala took place and was one of the first major engagement between India and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. JP Dutta's movie Border was based on this battle.

First day at Rann Utsav, The Great Rann of Kutch

The most anticipated leg of my sabbatical trip had finally arrived. We were arriving in kutch from Bhuj for a 3-day stay at Rann Utsav. Rann Utsav is a festival of celebrating the culture of Kutch. It is organised every year for 3 months, from November to February. The dates vary from year to year which can be checked from any official travel partner, like this one. The packages are diversified well enough to suit everyone. They have 1N/2D, 2N/3D and 3N/4D packages. The packages are further divided into different room types. All the rooms are tent style. The cheapest room is  "economy swiss cottage" and the most expensive is "Premium tents".

Posing near the main gate

Vibrant Gujarat: Roadtrip to Diu and Devbhoomi Dwarka. (Gujarat Travelogue Part 2)

This post continues from where I left off in the previous post here. Our next stop was Diu. Although we call Daman and Diu as a single entity, there's a distance of 650 KM between the two towns. Together they are a Union Territory. Like Goa, Diu was also a Portuguese colony, until 1961 when Indian army successfully took command of Diu from them under Operation Vijay. Diu is a small town with a handful of attractions which can be covered in a single day. We reached Diu by 3 PM. I had blocked a home stay through booking.com based on reviews.

Posing at Naida Caves, Diu

Vibrant Gujarat: The Gujarat leg of my sabbatical trip (part 1)

This post is in continuation of series of posts on my sabbatical journey. Read about my sabbatical journey planning, hotel details and cost breakup here. Our official trip started on 9th March. Ahmedabad was our starting point of the trip. The road from Mumbai to Ahmedabad was the best I’ve ever driven on. It’s a six-lane highway throughout the route. It took me 10hrs to cover 526 KM which includes 1.5 hours of breaks and halts. I could have covered it in less time but there were a lot of trucks on the highway and they seldom follow lane driving. At many points, all the three lanes were taken by slow moving trucks and it used to get hard overtaking them.

My Alto K10, wandering in Gujarat.

Summary of my sabbatical trip

I still can't believe that my sabbatical trip is over and I'm home already. 30 days went so quickly. It feels as if I was in Kutch just yesterday. My car shows that I travelled 8936 KM total, which went way past my initial calculation of 6000 KM. I travelled across 5 states and numerous cities. I came across several well-known towns and some whose name I haven't ever heard of.

My Alto K10, en route to Rann festival.