Vanza Society Of London Southend-on-sea Coach Day Trip

Our annual Vanza Society of London Coach trip this year was on Saturday 13th June to Swaminarayan Mandir in Chigwell and Southend-on-Sea beach. We were fortunate to do this trip in Purshottam maas and everyone looking forward to going to the seaside during this auspicious month.

Our first stop was at Swaminarayan Mandir in Chigwell where we were warmly welcomed by the committee and volunteers. We took part in the aarti and abhishek, in this beautiful mandir, followed by delicious nasto.

After the mandir we continued towards the seaside and picked up our guide, Jayshreeben Mandalia on the way, as she was able to guide us to a sandy beach. Many ladies brought puja items, and samagri and prasad. We gathered on the beach to carry out a very blissful puja where everyone of us were able to take part and shared prasad afterwards. This was an extra blessing for us as it is rare to be able to do this on a coach trip, during a holy month.

Southend on sea has one of the longest piers. You can either walk or take scenic train ride to other end. The majority of us took the train ride. We all met at the end of the pier and shared our lunch brought from home. There was a wonderful variety of food, including dhokla, ond hwo, dhebra and seaside chips.

After lunch, we took the train back to the main town centre. Everyone enjoyed their free time, to play in the arcades or just sit and enjoy a cooling ice cream or freshly made doughnuts.

On our way back home, we stopped over again for a picnic in the park for delicious food, jalebi ganthia and tea, coffee and many more snacks.

Jalebi and Ganthia was sponsored by Sarojben Davdra and family, homemade biscuits by Jaswantiben Gohil, Tea and Coffee by Vanitaben Dhamecha and water by Bhupatbhai and family. All who came thoroughly enjoyed the day trip. A big thank you to all these generous sponsors.

Vanza Society would also like to thank everyone for coming and making this trip very memorable. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the day trip. Already looking forward to the next one....

By Nalini Bhundia