Three days two nights – Gorakh-Mohenjodaro-Manchar-Sehwan on Car

[OvaisAlam]

You are quite a story teller
Looking forward to the 2nd and 3rd day.

[SAV123]

@OvaisAlam Thank you so much for your complements, Sir!

Rest will follow soon!

[SAV123]

Day 2

The next morning we woke up early, offered Fajar prayer and headed towards the Zero Point (Benazir View Point) to witness the sunrise. My Car accommodated all but two people (my friend and my elder son [13] who managed through jogging). At the Zero Point, stationed on the watch tower, we had to wait for about 15-20 minutes to witness the sunrise which took place at around 7: 00 am.

It was a majestic experience!

The sun rose in front of our eyes and the complete sun was visible and shining brightly just within a minute. The horizon was filled with rainbow colours all around us. The Sun was shining in the East and the full Moon was standing upright in the West. The experience is un-explainable in words and I feel one must have that experience at least once in a life time.

We observed that at least two huts sort of structures were built at the Zero Point and there was chalking on the walls that they were available for rent. We, however, did not ask for their rent or the contact person's number, which I guess we should have. As told by a Pakwheels brother in his thread, these could be another option for staying there if you don't get rooms from Mr Jamali.

Following are a few photos that, although might not do justice with the beauty due to my being amateur in photography, would give you some idea of what we are talking. I’ve never seen such scene anywhere even in the north so far.

[SAV123]

We spent a good amount of time there, did some photography and site-seeing and then headed back towards our rooms for breakfast. We decided to go to the resort and do the breakfast at the restaurant rather than calling for it to the room as we did the other night.

As expected, the breakfast was greatly cooked and served and the tea was delicious as well. We came to know that quite a good number of tents were set at the resort as well, there was music and dance party at the resort at the night and a big group of travelers was there with us on that night.

This time we observed that opposite to our building at some distance, there were 3-4 huts sort of constructed. of similar design. This tells that some sort of investment (may be private) is being made there and we might have more and better accommodation facilities available there in future.

The total number of tourist there on that night might be in hundreds, I guess.

[SAV123]

After the breakfast, we packed our baggage and started our cars for onwards journey to Mohenjodaro. The descending part did not prove to be as hard as the ascending one. At one place, however, while over taking a jeep, despite being in low gear, I had to push the breaks quite hard that it started giving smell. When we reached at base point to pick my friend’s car, I witnessed that some smoke was coming from my car’s break-pads. We gave it a 15-20 minutes break to cool down and started our travel back to Wahi Pandi.

This time, as I was not in a hurry, there was hardly any stone that hit my car from underneath. We managed to reach Wahi Pandi with relatively much ease as compared to our other day’s experience.

[SAV123]

After Wahi Pandi, Google maps again accompanied us and took us through the small villages and crowded roads, rather streets, towards our destination. Although it was taking some time due to rush on those roads, the condition of the roads was not bad enough to cause any uneasy feeling. A word of advice to friends travelling in their cars to a new location: Please try and keep access of Google maps (or any other map) in order to fall back on it in case of an issue in tracking the right way. However, in case of doubt, the best thing is to ask a local person as google imagery is not very current (about 10-12 months old) and might not lead correctly on some small roads.

We reached Mohenjodaro at around 3:00 pm. As we had already offered Namaz on our way, we decided to go to museum straightway before settling into the rooms which were again pre-booked (booked by calling Irshad Ali Solangi of Archaeological Rest House at 0343 384 7735). The museum here closes at 4:00 pm.

Some photos of the museum:

My elder two sons posing in front of the photo trying to portray the condition of the city that might have been in that time in the history.

Looks like these people used to play chess (shatranj)

A good number of people, including the kids, were there to visit the museum. It was like Jungle may Mangle.

[HanifBhatti]

Excellent write up, very detailed

[SAV123]

@HanifBhatti Thank you, Sir!

[SAV123]

After visiting and having photography at the museum we went for site-seeing at the archaeological site in company of our guide who was arranged by Irshad bhai (we gave Rs. 300/ to the guide on Irshad bhai’s recommendation). Taking the guide happened to be the best decision that we took and the guided tour proved to be a rich experience with respect to knowing what, how, when and why.

The administration has built quite a reasonable park beside the museum which has the amenities that kids usually look for on an outing i.e. swings and slides. This makes the place equally adorable for kids. There are Dhabas there which sell sculptures made of sand. Although these are not really expensive, still we got quite healthy discounts on the reference of Irshad bhai. The sculptures of Priest King and the Dancing Girl are usually in demand.

Few photos of the archaeological site:

[SAV123]

After visiting the archaeological site we settled in our rooms. They charged us Rs. 4,000/- per room which had two single beds (big size, I guess 4X6 each), additional mattress was available on demand which was demanded by my friend. The room had attached bath with hot and cold water and we all were able to take a bath in hot water. The bath refreshed us all.

The rest house is nicely built we got two of four rooms available on the ground floor that are equipped with two single beds and they are rented for Rs. 4000/-. There are three rooms on first floor with double bed, they are bigger rooms and are rented for Rs. 5,000/-. Mr Irshad Solangi is the contractor who runs this rest house and manages tours and trips for local and foreign delegates. He, along with his brother, also manages the kitchen and the cooking. A group of about 8-10 tourist from Thailand was present there for visiting Mohenjodaro for whom Irshad bhai had made arrangements for stay at a hotel in Larkana which is about 28km (about 25-30-minute drive) away from Mohenjodaro. He has contract with Sambara Inn hotel Larkana. Therefore accommodation should not be an issue for one who reaches Irshad Ali Solangi. He told us that few foreign delegates visit this site almost every month which was a good news for us.

Here we had ordered for Moong ki Daal and Chicken Karhai for dinner. Again, the food was delicious and nicely cooked. The food and hospitality of Irshad bhai and his team made us feel like we were at a relative’s house and were properly being taken care of.

The trip to Moenjodaro, against our expectation, proved to be equally interesting and enjoying, hence, the second day ended there with a feeling of great satisfaction!

[SAV123]

Day 3

Next morning, again, Irshad’s team arranged for us nicely cooked omelet, Allu ki bhujjia , parathay and tea. As the food was delicious we put plenty of them in our tummies so that we didn’t need to worry much about lunch.

We started our return journey from Mohenjodaro at around 8:00 in the morning. The plan now was to head towards the Manachar Lake. Google maps was again very helpful and my friend was leading the journey so I was relaxed and just following him matching with his speed.

The return journey was quite fast from between the small towns where shops and markets were quite open but not rushed up as yet. The weather was really pleasant with witty air and relatively negligible foggy surrounding. The heater in the car was serving us well and the journey continued with pleasant feelings.

When we reached at Manchar Lake, it was again a good feeling that we were at last at the shore of one of Asia’s largest fresh-water lakes - and a bad feeling that the state of its water was not as refreshing and rewarding as it should have been. The lake water has gotten contaminated for several years and recent case in Supreme Court made this known to us that there were virtually no or negligible efforts from past governments to preserve the actual state of the lake.

The lake, however, still has plenty of water in it:

The Baba jee, who took us for a ride in his boat, told us that due to contamination big fishes had all died and there were only small fishes, which had survived, available. The fishing was going on but it was really negligible and the financial condition of the local residents, who overwhelmingly relied on fishing, was miserable.

In below image you can see the nets set up for fishing, which, as per Baba jee, can fetch only small fishes.

The question that comes to mind is when the big fishes cannot survive in this contaminated water how come small fishes do, therefore reason for elimination of big fishes might really be lesser water rather than contamination. Allah knows best! Nevertheless, I am telling you what baba jee told us.

A few more images:

We took a ride in Baba’s boat for an amount of Rs. 800/- for about 15-20 minutes. He told us that once the level of water there was around 20 feet but now it has remained only about 5 feet.

[SAV123]

After boat ride we again settled in our cars. Now, our journey was towards Sehwan, darbar of Shahbaz Qalandar while my friend aimed to head straight to Hyderabad for his onward journey to interior Sindh. Hazri at darbar was as we had expected.

There were a lot of people engaged in a lot of un-understandable activities based on their own believes. We offered fatiha at Qalandar’s tomb and at two other tombs which have been built inside the boundary of Qalandar’s tomb.

[SAV123]

[SAV123]

Visiting darbar of Shahbaz Qalandar was my wish for many years which came true this time.

After paying fatiha at darbar we moved towards Sehwan Devine hotel for lunch (recommended by a fellow at Pakwheels, thanks to him!). The hotel is at main highway and has a good ambiance. The serving and taste of food is also good. However, at that time there was gas shortage, therefore they took more than committed time to serve us food, also they provided a different dish of chicken than the one we had chosen as our chosen one would have taken a long time in cooking. Nevertheless, the food and service was good and is recommended.

After lunch we resumed our return journey and caught M9 to our home sweet home.

We found that the Indus Highway is being made double road and the construction is in full swing right from Jamshoro and continues for many kilometers, I don't exactly remember how many but about 100 KM may be. After that the road is double and we traveled on double road for many kilometers as well.

Once on M9 we were pretty relaxed and driving at around 100-110 km. Although it is motorway but has not yet been able to reach the benchmark set by the Lahore-Islamabad-Peshawar Motorway.

We reached home at around 8:00 pm and the three day tour ended with great satisfaction!

Thank you to all my readers:slight_smile:

Thanks God!

[Fayaz02]

I went there two weeks ago. The jeep charged me Rs. 4,000/- for one day trip. Just 2-3 hours stay at Gorakh

[Fayaz02]

How much hotel charged you at Gorakh for one night stay and how about the food there

[Fayaz02]

Please try and keep access of Google maps (or any other map) in order to fall back on it in case of an issue in tracking the right way

Few months back we visited Thatta. On our way to Keenjhar lake, I sololy relied on google maps. The map took me to a wrong direction some where near Jhimpir. I sensed that the map is not leading me towards the destination so I asked a local and returned to Thatta. That took my at least two and half hours.

[SAV123]

@Fayaz02 The charges of jeep vary, I mentioned about Suzuki Potohar that charged 3,000 (round trip with stay at hill on night and return on the next morning). Bigger jeep would have different charges. Also, perhaps better negotiation would have made a difference in your case.

Food at Gorakh was excellent, though a little expensive, but that's understandable that they need to bring the stuff to that hill so naturally they would charge you more. The room rent was Rs. 3,000/- per night.

On google maps, if you read further, I have written the same thing, that if in doubt it is better to ask a local person. The reason google fails sometimes is, in my opinion, because google imagery is 10-12 months old and they might not have updated the current changes on small roads. For highways, I guess, google is very reliable.

[feika]

Very well written thread, thank you very much for sharing your experience. About the non-existence of big fish, it is the doing of the humans and nothing else. You see, the responsible fishermen use nets with bigger holes so that a certain size or bigger fish can be caught and the smaller fish can swim through in order to have a sustainable ecosystem. Now what they do is to use smaller nets and catch the fish while they are small, never allowing them to grow big.

[SAV123]

@feika Thank you for your complements, Sir!

Your reasoning on fish makes lot of sense! However, lesser water input (or probably negligible or none) from Indus to the lake might also have played its part. Nevertheless, the miserable condition of local residents was quite visible and difficult to digest.

Whatever the case is, in my opinion, government has a social responsibility to respond to the needs of the people, especially poor people.