Our adventure continues up North :-)

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After a few days in Mumbai we decide to head up North to Bhuj. Brecht, the Belgium guy we met at the Bollywood studios comes with us. He's so laid back, will stop and talk to anyone and get's a lot of attention being 6ft 9 and looking like Peter Croutch!! The three of us catch a taxi to Bandra train station. The roads are packed and we still can't get over how people drive here. The taxi weaves in and out of the traffic hooting his horn at any bike, rickshaw or cow that gets in his way. Brad's in the back nearly hyperventilating with every second word beginning with 'F'!!!
As we approach the train station we pass the smell of the slums which takes your breath away, even the taxi driver covers his nose and mouth!! We arrive and get Brad a coke to chill as they don't have Kingfisher (the local beer).
We find our train and walk through the carriages and find our seats. The station and the train are exactly what you see in the films, open doors and windows that you can hang out of when the trains moving, FAB! We booked sleeper tickets as the journey's 16hrs. The sleeper carriage is like bunkbeds that fold down if you want to sleep or sit. All the time there are guys walking through selling Chai and food.
Eventually we arrive the next morning and get off the train to chaos. Touts and rickshaw drivers everywhere trying to get business. We squeze into a rickshaw (a 3 wheeled motorbike with a trailor on the back) and 10mins later we're in Kutch, a little village that lost 10% of its 150k population to an earthquake in 2001. You can see the affect as you walk through the village, 2 buildings next to eachother, one destroyed yet the other completely unharmed!! Now to find somewhere to sleep, we checked out a couple which weren't up to much then we get to The City Guesthouse. Just off the main bazaar, nice and clean and only 300rs (just over 4gbp) between the 3 of us, bargain!!! After realising this is a dry area and we cannot have a drink we dump our bags and go for a wander. The place is beautiful, a lot more relaxed compared to Mumbai. Nice little weaving streets, colourful buildings and temples everywhere. Fewer dogs but a LOT more cows wandering around. None begging either. The people are so friendly and stop to chat without trying to sell you something.
Next day we go and visit an old palace, Aina Mahal built 1752 which lost its top storey to the earthquake. The original decoration on the other floors is still gorgeous, mirrors everywhere, tiled floors, so much colour, stunning. We head to the Green Hotel and have a nice hot curry for pennies and then walk around the city some more. Everything closes at around 9pm so we head back to the hotel.
Day three we catch a rickshaw to Bhujia Dunger, a trek up to (what seems like a mountain in the heat) a kind of watch tower with lots of stairs and temples as you go up. All the time Brad is telling us how there would be huge snakes here!!! Ok Austin Stevens!! the view is amazing. The clouds are looking black so we make our way back down quite quickly, just in time we jump in a rickshaw as the heavens open.
All that afternoon the rain pored down, Brad and Brecht did a raindance and washed on the roof of our hotel. The rain continued the next day, time to move on......... x

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