Day 39: Porbandar to Vadodara

We began the day with an early morning visit to Kirti Mandir – the home of Mahatma Gandhi. It was humbling to see how the father of our nation grew up.

We then drove from Porbandar to Vadodara, via Chorwad, Somnath, and Junagadh – all in Gujarat. We saw the Shree Hari Mandir at sunrise, and then drove along the Arabian Sea coast toward the south. We saw and took pictures of Dhirubhai Ambani’s ancestral home in Chorwad.

We also visited the Somnath Temple by the Arabian Sea on the western coast of Gujarat. This temple is the first among the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of the god Shiva, and is considered sacred due to the various legends connected to it. Somnath means “The Protector of (the) Moon god”. The Somnath Temple is known as “the Shrine Eternal”, having been destroyed many times by Islamic kings and rulers.

We finally reached Baroda (aka Vadodara) late at night, and were welcomed with a typical Gujarati dinner at the home of our friends, Kishen and Koka Patel.