Charming Dwarka by the Sea

Dwarka is a surprisingly lovely town on the Arabian Sea. It’s one of the 4 holiest pilgrimage sites in India, with many many temples, including the Dwarkadhish Temple with its 78 foot spire. The temple is believed to be 2500 years old. 

Along the sea wall there are plaques quoting from the Bhagavad Gita and holy men lounging with dogs and cows. The town is packed with holy men and pilgrims. The bulk of the shops sell only prasad and religious items. Boys walk along the sea selling flutes so you can play like Krishna. People are leaving offerings at all the tiny temples and photographing the stairs up to the main temple. There’s a lot of joyous religious sentiment going down all around you.

Along the bay people are selling grains so pilgrims can attract some of the thousands of seagulls present to land on them. Different groups lead chanting and singing parades throughout town. The ISKCON group (Hare Krishnas) lead the largest parade by a landslide with their catchy song. One parade was carrying a shrouded body aloft and chanting. We later saw the cremation fire along the sea walk.

Children are riding camels and adults are bathing and it all feels quite chill and happy. I really like the positive holy energy of this place, minus the older ladies who follow you, poking you hard in the arm and trying to forcibly drag you to buy them food. It’s another thing that is likely a scam. You buy the food in that shop and she returns it, possibly to give the money to the scam leader. At least that’s how the other groups work. 

One odd trait is that people will come up and start talking to you in Hindi or Gujarati and, when you indicate you don’t understand, will just carry on talking at you as if it just didn’t matter. That doesn’t happen in other cities. 

Very few people had any English at all - mainly younger Indian tourists. That seems to be true of Gujarat in general.

Our arrival didn’t feel so auspicious. We had a difficult time finding places to book online, but a homestay bungalow kept coming up so I booked that even though reviews were mixed. We arrived after an 8 hour drive to find Modi in town, traffic everywhere and we had to locate the bungalow property keeper by phone. He spoke not a single word of English and we speak no Gujarati, so we had to reach the guesthouse owner. He sent the fellow over to the guest house to meet us. He seemed nice but we had clearly pulled him away from something more interesting so he wanted to settle us in and go. The first question was wifi. Another guy sitting around told us “No wifi. Cut.” Uh. Then we saw the room. It was clean as far as that goes but it was sparse. There were 2 beds jammed together with only bottom sheets, no bedside tables or chairs or anything. Nothing on the walls. The bathroom was rustic and efficient. You could shower without leaving the toilet. No toiletries or anything and K got nowhere asking him for more toilet paper than the few sheets he handed her. He showed us the attached shared kitchen and left. We stood there stunned. K opened the cupboard where he indicated we would find bedding. There was a large quantity but none of it looked particularly clean. In fact, it looked like it had seen better days and grimy bodies. No top sheets, either.

K looked around, and noped the suggestion of staying there. She was coming down with my illness and this was not a comfortable feeling place to convalesce. We were committed to paying the two nights but she offered to cover a better place. We called the owner, told him we were leaving and that the property manager should return so we could pay him. The owner was not pleased but K was resolved. The fellow eventually returned, confused, took the payment and helped us find a rickshaw for our luggage. Then indicated he needed a tip. It felt a bit rich after paying so much money for a place we wouldn’t even stay but that wasn’t his fault. We tipped him and left.

We told the driver we wanted a good hotel and he took us to a few prospects that were all booked up before we landed on Hotel the Manek right by the sea. K convinced them to split two beds that had been a double bed to make twin beds for us and we had a little home for the next 2 nights. The manager was thrilled to the gills to have foreigners in his hotel and attended to us like a very watchful hawk. He even required us to do a scripted video for his hotel. It was comfortable, if not fancy or especially clean, and I liked how the elevator greeted us with “you are most welcome.” The only big downside was the critter that kept coming into the bathroom window and stealing our soaps.