Gujarat

Gujarat Oct '94

So I was waiting at the bus stop in Jaisalmer waiting for the bus to Barmer bathed in sweat. It was a fairly short hop of 2 hours. But once in Barmer, I noted that after the relatively clean streets of Jaisalmer I was back to the stench and pollution of a big Indian city and reflected that it wasn't so much of a surprise that there was currently an outbreak of bubonic plague. From Barmer I took an overnight bus to Bhuj arriving at 6am. I got a taxi to The City Guest House. The singles were pretty grotty windowless, airless rooms so I took a double at 100Rs which wasn't much better but it was clean and had the luxury of a window. After a tough night in the bus I got a few hours sleep before exploring the town. I'm not sure why I went to Bhuj as it's way off the beaten path but I seemed to enjoy my time there, with colourful people, narrow winding streets full of hustle and bustle and plenty of traditional (crumbling) architecture. The old palace was interesting but I think a lot of this part of town was destroyed in an earthquake in 2001. It was curious that I was now in Gujarat and only here had I seen men wearing Jodhpurs - I never seen any in Jodhpur the city (which is in Rajasthan).

After a couple of days in Bhuj, I had quite a tough trip to Junagadh. I had to go via Rajkot and my diary says the bus seats were extremely hard and I had trouble getting the right bus as no one spoke English and of course I couldn't read any of the signs. I can imagine that 9 hours in a boiling hot, packed bus was not a pleasant experience. I also noted that there were lots of crashed trucks by the side of the road. My mood wasn't improved by the fact that I was a bit of a novelty, being a foreigner, with plenty of people approaching me with the same greeting, "What is your name, what is your country?" as if that is all they taught in English classes at school. I don't know if it has changed over the intervening years but I think English is much widely spoken in India now. Despite my dark mood, Junaghad was another interesting town with many sights, although the only one I mention visiting was the fort. It also seemed to be the case that I prefered to photograph people rather than places, although to be fair the people here were very photogenic. While in Junagah I stayed in the Relief Hotel (100Rs with with bath) and this is still the pick of the town's budget accommodation according to the lonely planet. I haven't mentioned much about food so far, but in common with much of India, especially down south, Gujarat is mainly vegetarian and my meals were almost exclusively thalis. For this you get a large steal plate which has a number of depressions. Into each depression you get something different, a dhal, curry, pickles, rice and raita. I seem to remember having the odd beer but now Gujarat is officially a dry state although foreigners can get an alcohol permit.