The Villages

Visitors Guide — If You Want to Come Home

Many of our community members — especially those born in Surat, the UK, or beyond — have never seen the villages their families came from. This page is for you.

Getting There

From Surat, take the road toward Olpad. It is about thirty kilometres. After Olpad town, follow the signs toward the coast — Mor is another twelve kilometres, along roads that run past salt flats and fields. When you pass the Khariya Mahadev temple on your right, you have arrived.

What You Will Find

The temples. The fadias. The sea visible from most lanes. The smell of salt in the air. Old houses with naliya tile roofs still standing in the quieter corners of the village.

Look at the entrance platforms — the otlas — of the old houses in Bhagwa: many were built five to six feet above road level, because seawater once flooded these lanes regularly. Those raised platforms are silent witnesses to the village's history.

Some elders still live here. If you meet one, ask which fadia they are from. The conversation will go in directions you do not expect.

A Suggested Route

Delasa

  • Ride through two or three fadias
  • Sena Creek and the small dam
  • Yogeshwar Mahadev Temple and the Jinga Lakes

Bhagwa

  • Take the direct road from Delasa to Bhagwa — the Jinga Talav is visible on both sides
  • Old Parsi houses on the beachside, with the Gulf view — Dandi is visible from here
  • Jaganath Mahadev Temple — the oldest temple in all three villages
  • The old Bhagwa school and the remains of the customs house
  • The criss-cross lanes of the Bhagwa fadias

Mor Beach and the Salt Lakes — best at sunset

  • From Bhagwa, return to Mor and head toward the Salt Lakes — white water on both sides, salt mountains visible
  • Mor Beach, about one kilometre from the Salt Lakes, along a scenic road full of birds
  • Khodiyar Mata Temple on the beach — surrounded by water at high tide
The salt pans near Mor

Before You Visit

  • Find out which fadia your family came from. Ask an older relative before you go. When you stand in your own fadia, something settles — you are not just from this community in general. You are from a particular lane, a particular cluster of homes.
  • Best times to visit: the monsoon, when the fields are rain-washed and the sky is dramatic, and winter evenings for the beach. Avoid summer midday.
  • Community festivals and Kuldevi celebrations are when the villages fill again.

Nearby

  • Olpad town — the taluka headquarters, 12 km inland
  • Bharuch — the ancient port of Barygaza, about 30 km, part of the same coastal world our villages belonged to for centuries