Prakash came this morning to the hotel at 6 and Jyo and I headed off to Somnath in a rather comfortable Swift Desire. Except for constantly chewing gutkha which made his speech unintelligible for long periods of time, Prakash was an excellent driver and guide. I caught up on my sleep in the drive and woke up at 830, just in time for breakfast at Nandanvan Hotel. The menu was simple - paratha, thepla, idli and dosa. We chose to try both paratha and thepla which came piping hot and were excellent to taste. A nice cup pf tea and off we were to Somnath,
Somnath is a temple town with the Shiva temple (the holiest of the 12 jyothirlings and one of the four dhams established by Adi Sankaracharya) standing right on the edge of the Arabian sea. It's beautiful, the site, the temple, the airiness, the openness, which is normally not found in other temples which are rather dark and cavernous. The temple by itself is small. You enter the premises through one gate, drop off your phones and large purses and bags in a locker, drop off your shoes next in another area, walk into the temple complex after a couple of pat downs by security people, breeze through the darshan and are out in a jiffy. The shiva linga is clearly visible, lots of light and we stepped out feeling pleasantly happy at the efficiency of it all.
We stared at the sea for a bit, stood in line for prasad which did not show the same efficiency, gave up and returned. On the way back, we collected the photo some photographer took, collected our mobiles and stuff, and saw the Somnath beach next to the temple complex. There is some reclamation work going on there and a small road has been created for people to walk, a marble temple for Goddess Parvathi is under construction and one can see a lot of activity being planned. The beach had horse and camel rides. We walked out, had a drink of coconut water and headed out to the car.
Prakash then took us to the Triveni sangam which looked nice, with a fine expanse of water. From there we went to the Gita mandir which was constructed by the Birlas - a temple with Krishna which has eighteen pillars which have gita slokas carved into them. Its a very beautiful place and right next to the river that joins the sea at the sangam. One can spend hours just sitting in the peaceful place, under the trees. Its very well maintained as well.
From there Prakash took us to the Bhalka Teerth where Lord Krishna was shot at accidentally by an arrow that killed him. Its a large complex with a temple, a smaller one, a pond, lots of cows, lovely trees.
Somnath and Veraval are sister towns - Somnath being the religious city and Veraval being the normal town with all other activity. On our way out we saw a huge area where hundreds of fishing boats were anchored, a fishy smell enveloping the entire area.
We headed back to Somnath by about 1, stopped at Krishna Restaurant near Junagadh on some Prakash's recommendation. Turns out that Sachin Tendulkar visited this place in 2014 and there are several pictures of him. We tried tawa roti and undeo, bhajra ka rotla and baingan ka bhartha and some buttermilk.
Back in the hotel by 4. Chai with Chattu.
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