Last Sunday I went off for a little excursion as planned to the island of Bet Dwarka, which is near Dwarka in Gujarat, India. My driver came around at 8am to pick me up and then me and my mate Nirav (a local guy who I know from London) set off to Dwarka. Dwarka is one of the 4 most holy Hindu sites in India and its a place where lots of Hindus come to make a pilgrimage to its massive temple.
Boats lined up at the docks at Okha
First off we went past Dwarka another 30 odd km's to a place called Okha. From there we got a boat for 5 rupees each (about 6 pence or maybe 15 cents Aussie) to the Island of Bet Dwarka. The main attraction is a temple which is over 5,000 years old and was the place where Krishna lived. (you know, like the hare Krishna's - but there was an actual bloke not just a group of people singing in the streets handing out pamphlets). We had to take off our shoes and hand in our camera and mobile phones so that we didn't take any photos.
Loading the boat full of pilgrims
Adam on the boat
They keep the door shut on the little room where the 5,000 year old gold idol is and then open it up for a little bit at a time. When they opened it up, everyone got really excited and was cheering! It was a pretty good vibe actually, everyone seemed really happy to be there and I think its something many people only do once in their life.
Nirav outside the temple on Bet Dwarka
Boat load leaving Bet Dwarka
We hopped back on the boat and met with a couple of work friends who hadn't managed to drag themselves out of bed that early on the 1 day off a week. I went in search of a beach which I had found on Google earth which looked nice. We did find it but the seas were storming due to the monsoon winds and also probably a bit due to cyclone Gonu which recently smashed Oman (on the other side of the Arabian sea).
So then we went in to Dwarka for lunch and a look around. Walking through the streets we were like rock stars, everyone was staring at us (not in a bad way) and I reckon we were the only westerners in town that day. We ended up down at the river mouth were the sea was surging in and out. Its only because of this that I decided to go for a swim, as I normally wouldn't entertain the idea of swimming in most of the waters I have seen around here!
A temple at the river mouth in Dwarka
As the shirt came off and the locals realised this big white bloke (who is about 8 inches taller than everyone else) was going swimming, the people already swimming got a bit excited! So naturally I entertained them with some stylish grabs while jumping in the water. The current swept us down pretty fast so you could jump in and then hop out about 20 seconds and 80m later. "One more! One more!!" was the call until I decided I better get out.
A stylish grab from the biggest kid in Dwarka...
When i got out I was looking around for my work friends (who are 2 girls) and couldn't see them. I could however see a crowd of Indian men taking photos with someone.... There was a que of blokes lining up to have a their picture taken with the girls. I thought this was pretty hilarious, although it did take the attention away from me...
