Connecting the dots...

Dholavira - The site of the ruins of Indus Valley Civilization’s city. There is a detailed read & references about this http://asi.nic.in/asi_exca_2007_dholavira.asp and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dholavira . 

View Larger Map

The drive was overall an uninteresting from a scenery point of view. The Bhuj-Bhachau highway was a 4 lane highway under construction. Maybe it was going through an upgrade from a 2 lane highway. The drive on Kharodi road was like the olden days state highway with practically just one lane road sharing the two way traffic. Added to this, the road was under construction and whenever a tractor or a bus came in the opposite direction we were pushed off the road creating a cloud of dust !!!

If you see the map above, Dholavira is in an island in the Rann. So we cross a section of the Rann which is called “The little Rann of Kutch”. We stopped by and took some pictures before we proceeded towards Dholavira.

When we were 30kms away from Dholavira, we realised that we were low on fuel. When trying to locate the nearest petrol bunk, the google maps located it at Rapar !  From the time we took the left from Bhuj-Bhachau highway onto Kharodi road we did not pass by a single petrol bunk !! The entire route was lined up with small villages and was busy with lots of two wheeler traffic. We began to wonder where were all these villagers getting the fuel for their vehicles !!  

We knew that we had just enough fuel to reach Dholavira !! We decided to stop and enquire with the locals to locate a petrol pump. We were in for a shock, when they kept directing us back to Rapar.  One of the villagers replied, saying that we could try a shop a few kilometers away... did we hear it correctly ?... did he really mean a shop…yes he drove along with us for about 1/2km to a village shop.

It was 1 O’clock in the afternoon and in villages normally people retire for lunch followed by an afternoon nap :-) keeping our fingers crossed, we approached this shop run by a lady. We don’t know the local dialect and we just uttered the word “petrol”. When we told her we need 15L in hindi, she quickly picked up her cell phone and talked to someone, only to get back to us that she didn’t have any in stock !! By then the good samirtan who helped us had also left. So we started driving again looking for another shop.

After driving a kilometer, we saw this cluster of shops and we stopped to enquire. Here was this grocery cum medicine cum petrol shop !!

He had a 50L barrel stocked with Petrol. He brought out a funnel and a tube. He skillfully siphoned the petrol into a smaller can. After this again he siphoned the petrol from the can into the car’s petrol tank ! He charged Rs15 extra per litre but I guess we would have not had a choice even if he charged us Rs.100 extra per litre !! 

So now we had enough petrol to drive to Dholavira and back to Rapar. 

Dholavira is isolated in location and since we visited on a weekday, the tourist traffic was bare minimal. A Government run guest house and Toran Resort are the two options for accommodation. Since we didn’t stay in either of these places,  i cannot write about them.  Both of them looked deserted though, probably because of it being a weekday. We reached around 2 pm at the Archeological site. 

We were tired and hungry. The only option for food is either at Rapar or at the Toran Resort in Dholavira.  Being aware of this, the Toran Resort is generally prepared to serve meals for the tourists. We were served hot freshly made rotis along with dhal, rice and a potato curry.  The resort is less than 1/2 a kilometer from the archeological site. 

The archeological site also has a museum. There are only 2 english speaking guides. Our guide was Mr. Jameel. It took us almost three hours to tour the entire site with the guide’s help. 

It was a well planned city compared to even today’s standards ! The city was encompassed by two rivers which supplied water. The entire city was surrounded by reservoirs to store the water.

There were marked areas of quarters for different class of people in the city. There were good roads laid for the people and goods to move between different parts of the town. One can still see the skeleton of the neat line of houses.

The city even had an underground drainage system

There was a huge stadium encompassed within the city.

The ASI (Archeological survey of India) has taken samples of the earth from different parts of the ruins. There are 6 cities layered one on top of the other. Periodically the old city was erased and a new one was built on top. One can visualize the city from what is left in the ruins. Without Mr.Jamal our guide, we could have easily got lost in the vastness of the ruins !

A few things to keep in mind when you visit Dholavira :

1) take a good hat since there is no shade but a lot of distance to cover.

2) carry water for the tour. It took us 3hrs to see the entire site.

3)there are toilets and water cooler outside the museum at the entrance.

4) there is no fee for hiring the guides. But they do an exceptional job of explaining and so a tip is expected from the tourist. We paid him Rs.200 as a tip.

5) There is no entrance fee for the museum.

6) There are other sites of ruins in the surrounding areas which we didn’t visit. One can hire the guide for the entire day at a nominal cost, which was what a tourist accompanying us in the tour did.

7) The most important : "Rapar is the last chance for a petrol pump”.

When we started driving it was almost 5:30 pm. Our first priority was to fill up fuel at Rapar.  The Google maps pointed us to a Reliance pump at Rapar. Upon reaching we were shocked to see it closed. Now we could rely on the local people’s information.  The locals directed to us another petrol pump in the city. Oh how much were we releived by the sight of this petrol pump...

View Larger Map

With a filled up tank, we had to decide as to where we going to stay for the night. It was around 7 pm by the time we were out of Rapar. With about 7hrs drive to Udaipur, we knew we had to decide on a place to stay enroute. We called up a few hotels at Mt. Abu to ensure there was availability of rooms. We hit the road and decided to re-evaluate based on our position at 9pm. Until you join the NH 15, the road from Rapar is a regular state highway without any median.By 9 pm we were tired and exhausted. After talking to a couple of hotels at Mt Abu, we were told that Palanpur city could be a better alternative for us stay. We were recommended to stay at Hotel WayWait, off the highway NH 14 at Palanpur.

View Larger Map

There is a cluster of hotels in this area. At 10 pm there was a lot of hustle bustle. The hotel has a regular restaraunt and an exclusive thali restaurant in the ground floor. By the time we checked-in, only the Deluxe suit was available. At a cost of Rs.3000, the suite had a separate living room, a huge bedroom including an attached Bathroom with a bathtub and TV in both the rooms. We ordered in-room service and after a hot bath had a good night’s rest.