Off the beaten track

'Off the beaten track' would almost be an understatement for some of the places I happened to chance upon in recent weeks. And in 'back of beyond'-land, traveling without a guidebook has its own magic. For one, no Bill Bryson set foot here to pen travelogues which are 'annoyingly free of mistakes'. Lonely Planet barely ever sent its various independent correspondents here. Even if they did, the charm is in discovering random places yourself, something I very fruitfully discovered.

Anyways, 3 picks of the lot.

1. Marine national park. Some 450 odd square kilometers of coral reefs, isolated beaches and breathtaking maritime scenery, the likes of which I haven't ever seen before. The few visitors who do make their way to Marine national park troop down on a day trip from Jamnagar to Pirotan and back. But the more adventurous (meaning me) try something different.

I heard of this place Momai only because an environmentalist I met in Mithapur told me about this place. It is so out of the way that even most local people had never heard of it, leave alone been there. Once the onerous task of finding a driver who knew how to get us there was out of the way, getting there was the next part. The road to Momai isn't even motorable entirely. At some point, after earnestly trying, the car gives up on the road, and vice versa. A short trek across a mud path, copiously dotted with cacti, and I descended a hilly path to one the most serenely beautiful beaches I have ever seen. The complete lack of nearby civilization ensures that there never are too many people around.

Furthermore, since hills block off access to the beach from both sides, it's impossible to walk down to this place from a nearby beach as well. And most of the nearby islands in the Gulf of Kutchh are off bounds to casual tourists without permits (from the forest department, and they aren't very easy to secure). What that effectively means is that marine life is impeccably preserved around here. You can practically walk off the beach into some pristine coral reefs, and oysters (of the pearl variety) frequently get washed up on to the beach.

How long I wonder, before the 5 star chains "discover" this part of the world and "make" it the next Goa.

2. Various bird migration routes.

The time of the year I visited coincided exactly with post-winter migration time. Also, the abundance of salt pans (which I used to visit or pass through regularly) makes this place so conducive to seabird nesting. Apart from flamingos, bustards, storks, cranes and seagulls, I am not even sure what else I might have chanced upon. I was never too much into bird watching (not the flying kind for sure), but having a family of storks randomly nest on your balcony sure is a welcome change from your usual cityscape.

3. Vasai (not to be confused with the Mumbai suburb of the same name): Actually, it was work which took me to this village. Amongst the thatched huts and cacti, a Jain temple, over 1000 years old, is quietly nestled. In fact I wouldn't even have noticed its presence if not for the familiar blue and red board of the archaeological survey of India. Needless to say, there wasn't even a whiff of any touristic presence; even the door to enter the place was locked. Some random villager did happen to have a key, and some enthusuastic and resourceful scouting on the part of a couple of villagers managed to get us entry to the place.

Now being well off the touristic track, and this part of Saurashtra never having come under any foreign invasions (in fact, not even under British rule), meant that for a change here was a pre-historic temple well preserved. In fact, even Ellora is nowhere near this well preserved (of course, Ellora is several dozen times bigger).

This whole place has a very Indiana Jones feel about it. In fact, the local legend claims that solving the frieze pattern in the temple leads to uncovering some hidden treasure. Very Treasure Island esque, if it is to be believed.