Kutch – Rann Utsav 2023

“KUTCH NAHI DEKHA TO KUCH NAHI DEKHA”

Rann Utsav is a four month long desert festival between the months of November and February. The festival is held every year in the region of Kutch near White Rann and can be best viewed by staying in Tent City Dhordo.

This blog post is about our 2N/3D stay in Dhordo and witnessing the Rann Utsav in the month of January 2023.

Day 1: Reaching Tent City

For uninitiated, it might look like reaching tent city is not straightforward. However, this place is well connected with Bhuj, which is another major tourist attraction, and Bhuj is connected well to Mumbai and Ahmedabad by railways. Bhuj also has an operating airport.

We took a flight from Bangalore to Mumbai and then an overnight train to reach Bhuj. We had booked our Rann Utsav package from official tourism website for 2N stay in Dhordo, which covered pickup from Bhuj and drop back, including everything in between.

Dhordo is a tent city which is conjured out of a magician’s hat around this festive time. It is situated at a distance of approx. 80 kms from Bhuj taking anywhere between 1.5-2 hrs to reach by road.

The weather condition in Kutch makes it near impossible for tourists to visit this region in any other time of the year except winter when this festival happens. Around this time, weather is mostly pleasant during the day with temperature dropping in mornings and evenings.

The entire experience starting from pickup and drop back to Bhuj was very well organised and orchestrated by the tent city management. The tents were clean (with attached bathroom, a luxurious bedroom and a separate sitting lounge to get views of tent city), staffs were polite, food was scrumptious, all basic amenities sorted such as running hot water and activities interspersed in such a way to keep one occupied throughout.

After checking into our tents, we had few hours left before we were taken to the white salty and marshy lands of Rann to witness the sunset. There are plenty of solo and group adventure activities in Dhordo in which one can participate. We had a good time post lunch where we engaged into some of those, including a zipline cruising over the entire cluster of tents!

We were taken to White Rann in tourist buses, an area which is less than 30 mins drive from tent city. We got ride in a camel cart to cover the last mile before one can witness the vast expanses of nothingness.

Kutch marks as the last territory India has towards west before Arabian Sea begins. This area is heavily patrolled by BSF and is quite close to the Indian Border. Owing to the nothingness the area has to offer, entire white salt land starts glittering as the Sun starts to set. There is nothing but pristine white sand below your feet till your eyes can see.

My daughter was super excited to see the salt and carried some way back home as well to show her friends. We clicked lots of photos with backdrop of Sun setting in and wanted to spend more time but the temperature was falling suddenly and with two kids getting cranky on our side, we returned back to our stay in tent city.

At tent city, there are cultural events planned every day where one can witness the local folk dances. Despite it being kind of freezing in open theatre during night, we spend some time attending Rann Ke Rang. We ogled at the dance troops with awed eyes as they sang melodies in the local dialects.

It will be a huge injustice if I don’t talk about our experience of food in the tent city. The place serves vegetarian food only with dedicated menu for Jain food. It has a big dining room serving delicacies from Gujrati, Rajasthani and Maharashtrian cuisines. Though we had all our meals in the same place, we hardly found them repeating.

Special mention to some of the delicacies – Muthia, Patra, Undhiyu, Kathiawari Khichdi, Dhokli nu Shaak, Bajre ka Rotla, which we could savour the flavour as it was less spicy and mildly sweet.

Day 2 & 3: Kala Dungar & Return

The highlight of the day was the highest point of the region – Kala Dungar, another view point to witness Sunset. It offers bird’s eye view of the Kutch region as well as some remote army posts from both India and Pakistan can be seen with binoculars. On the way to Kala Dungar, there is a Magnetic Hill, where our bus driver showed how the vehicle was moving on natural magnetic attraction in the neutral gear.

Tent city has a lot of live artisan activities where one could witness and engage in creating leather work, pottery, bead necklace etc.

Last day of our stay was mostly checking out from Dhordo post a sumptuous breakfast and head straight to Bhuj. Enroute we made two stops – one for Swaminarayana Temple and another for Gandhi nu Gam, place for Kutchi handicrafts.

We were dropped in front of Bhuj Railway Station where one can get a decent veg lunch, although we were expecting more food and snacks options near the station area. We reached Mumbai the next day from where we took flight back to Bangalore.

GB Hacks

• Full Moon Nights are usually booked well in advance. These dates are well published on the official Tent City website.
• Though weather is generally pleasant around the Rann Utsav, daytime is hot with cold mornings and evenings. Carrying woollens accordingly will help.
• Premium Tents are usually the first ones in the clusters and nearby to Dining rooms etc.