Gujarat Part IV: Bhuj and Ahmedabad, The Journey Concludes

After an overnight bus, I arrived in Bhuj at 5am, and checked into a hotel for a few hours sleep in a bed. In Bhuj my primary goal was shopping!!! Bhuj is in the Kutch region, famous for textile work, so I was looking for embroidery and mirror work, Gujarati tie dye work, and jhumka, or jewelry in both silver and beadwork. This bag is an abstract design, with the Meshwar style of embroidery. I watched some artisans making silver jewelry, and had a personal exhibition of antique gold jewelry. I can safely say that I was successful in shopping. I spent more than one third of my travel budget in Bhuj, and here I stayed in one of the cheapest hotels (and nicest) all week.

I also visited the palace complex that was badly damaged in the earthquake that devastated Bhuj in 2001. Only a few of the latticework window carvings survived, and some buildings were damaged beyond repair. The ballroom of the Prag Mahal is the creepiest place I have ever been, with dusty broken chandeliers and crumbling taxidermy. I also had a sudden urge to call people "chap" and and to make toasts to Empire after coming upon a photo in the dining room, of an Indian gent wearing a pith helmet and standing with a dead lion. In the Bhuj bus stand I was also amused and delighted when an old man said to me in Hindi: "Hey Whitey."

In Ahmedabad I spent some time trying to find a hotel with a room, and even more time trying to find a bus to Pune. I was offered a non-AC bus for Rs 1000 which is a ridiculous price--that's more than the normal price for an AC sleeper bus! I managed to get the last seat on the state transit bus, which was also non-AC and non-express, but had a fixed price which was much more reasonable.

I visited one of the old city gates, and the Teen Darwaja. The triple gateway once led to the Royal Square, and is now surrounded by an immense street bazaar! I bought a little costume jewelry, including some glass and metal bangles, and some anklets. These women were sitting just outside the courtyard of a temple, opening lotus buds to sell for puja. Bhadra Fort was underwhelming.

Ahmedabad was founded as a Muslim city in the sixteenth century, and has many historical mosques, many of which were unfortunately damaged in the 2001 earthquake. I visited Rani Sipri's mosque--notice how the carving in each section is unique--and Sidi Sayeed's mosque, with a beautiful lattice of a tree. Sadly, I didn't manage to visit any of the mosques with "shaking minarets."

Jami Masjid was very striking, and I arrived just before the 5pm prayer. In Gujarat hearing the call to prayer brought good memories, of my time in Istanbul, Turkey.

After eighteen hours on the bus, a young girl sleeping on my lap, gorgeous views of the Maharashtrian hills, and some excellent practice on Hindi, I arrived in Pune. I'm pleased to say that I am nearly as fit for this crazy type of travel as I was in Europe. Since then I've gained a knee injury from running, which sometimes causes problems, but otherwise I think I could keep up with myself of 5 years ago. This week also made me realize how much I love travelling; I probably enjoy sitting on the bus and going somewhere almost as much as I enjoy seeing the sites.