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Published: January 20th 2008
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary
Sunrise over Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary
One of the longest hotel corridors must be located in Jamnagar at the Ashiana hotel and our room was at the end of this mile long hallway... But you can say it was worth the walk, it was a big spacious room and with a view of what could have been a nice park, were it not for the usual piles of garbage... Instead it was a haven for mosquitos!
Jamnagar was where Tori was going to leave us to go back to Calcutta and fly home... Knowing her love for birds, we decided to go to Khijadiya bird sanctuary the last day before she left. Tori was in her element, sneaking around, blending in with the birds... We on the other hand were like elephants compared to her... We wisely decided to retreat into one of the bird towers and eat an orange as Tori was doing her stuff... Than in the evening we had our farewell meal at a nice restaurant at a lake in the center of Jamnagar... We had a wonderful sunset view over the lake and it's palace... The next day it was time for Tori to leave. It was a tearful goodbye! Luckily it
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary
Not a bird, but it is flying over the water!
was short, as I hate long goodbye's... And not for too long as we shall meet again in London in a week or two! With her also all the good photos of birds and other animals will disappear that have been posted on my website since I started traveling with her... If it hadn't been for her skills and her 12x zoom on her camera, you would have been deprived of those wonderful photos... From now on you will have to make due with the old drab and boring photographs of landscapes and architecture as I am not a very good people photographer either...
After leaving Tori, my parents and I took a bus to Dwarka, one of India's 4 holy cities... But than again all Indian cities seem to be one of the holiest in the country! The road to Dwarka was somewhat of a revelation, it was the best road so far and it was lined with industry... Mostly oil refineries, with model townships built around them to accommodate the workers... I even saw my first supermarket in India in one of those townships! And last but not least, there were wind parks out here! Not something
I had expected on the outskirts of Gujarat... Finally we arrived in Dwarka which looks a bit like a Mediterranean town, except for the Hindu temples! It's a peaceful and quiet place, filled with friendly locals! It has a windswept lighthouse and of course many temples...
At the biggest and most important one, my father had his first encounter with greedy priests... Anybody who has been to an important pilgrimage sight, knows there are always a few of those corrupt priests around, whose only purpose seems to be to get as much cash as possible out of those who visit... After a while you know how to pick them out from the good ones, so I deftly avoided them as my father was duped into paying money to one of them and having to run away from another! I on the other hand had a nice conversation with one of the many nice priests around, who told me that the flag at the top of the temple was changed 3 times a day and at that occasion a coconut was cast down among the crowd who would scramble for the scattered pieces... It happened when I was around and
a nice young man gave me a piece! I gave it to one of the guards at the temple who seemed very happy with it! After looking at all this and my father managing to pry himself away from the greedy priests loitering around, we went to have lunch... Free amusement was provided with preparations of what seemed to be a fakir show... It took 4 people to move around the various items that would be used for the show... Knives, nail beds, shards of glass and some cups... Of the four people, two were just there to coordinate the moving around, it had to be perfect of course! After half an hour of moving the items up and down, a centimeter to the left, two to the right they were content... I thought that the knives were clearly half a centimeter to close to the nail bed!
Next on our agenda was a tour of the sights... I had foresworn tours since Puri, but again it was a good deal... As it turned out it was much more pleasant than the Puri one, with only 4 sights and plenty of time to get there and walk around! Also
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary
Come under my wings my love! A pair of Spoonbills the crowds were less... The best part was possibly the short boat ride to Bet Dwarka an Island just of the coast... On the way back we were treated on a beautiful sunset over Orcha!
After this it was on the bus again to Rajkot, which was just a stop over on our way to Bhuj... Rajkot, wasn't impressive in my view and I got into a fight with one of the nastiest rickshaw drivers I have met yet! Or perhaps I just wasn't expecting it out here in Gujarat... Of course there are bad apples everywhere... Perhaps without that experience I would have found Rajkot nicer... I was happy to leave the next day to Bhuj on another rather good road and again lined with industry and wind parks! It seems all the pothole free roads in India are located on the far edges of Gujarat!
Bhuj is a fairly modern city after being leveled by an earthquake back in 2001, this means a lot of new buildings and what is left of the old has been severely damaged... We got a hotel opposite the former Maharaja's palaces, with a view on the crumbling buildings... With the
hotel came some very friendly staff who you could here whistling as they went around there business of cleaning or bringing you food or tea! Always a smile on their faces!
From Bhuj we took an old Ambassador taxi to visit Than monastery and the surrounding area... But the surrounding villages are all specialized in handicrafts and we are not really interested in that sort of thing... So after the first village we decided to tell the driver not to bother to bring us to any of the other handicraft villages... Of course he wanted to know what we wanted to do than, besides Than, as we had him for a whole day... Alas, we had not done our research so at that question there was silence... After some thinking all we could come up with was a restaurant!
Than monastery was an interesting place, or at least the story behind it, was interesting... At one time, long ago, a holy man decided to stand on his head... After 20 years or so of doing this, the gods pleaded with him to stop... He agreed but only on the condition that the first place he look at would turn
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary
An Advocet, which looked to me like a Spoonbill... But thanks to Victoria I stand corrected barren... He looked towards what is now the Great Rann of Kutch a salt dessert... Why the gods would care if a man stands on his head is beyond me! But even more confounding to me is why he asked of all things that the landscape become barren... I mean I can think of many better things to ask for if the gods pleaded with me to stop doing something and would grant me a wish! Perhaps it was all that blood in his head from 20 year upside down clouded his thoughts? It was a good thing for the wild ass though, whose last refuge is this barren landscape... Kind of fitting if you think about it... A bad thing for all those other animals though whose perhaps former lush landscape turned barren in the blink of an eye!
So there you have it, Than monastery and a restaurant is what we did with all the freedom provided with when you have got a car!
The next day we took a public bus to Mandvi on the coast... A colorful town with a very interesting wooden boat yard, where boats are built by hand with Malaysian wood for
Khijadiya Bird Sanctuary
A White Crane taking off the faraway dreams of Arab merchants! Globalization at it's best! It provides loads of work for the local populace... As Mandvi wasn't hit that hard by the earthquake, there are many colorful crumbling colonial buildings left which gives the town an extra flair! After wandering around for a few hours we took the rattletrap that they call a bus, back to Bhuj... Our last night in Bhuj was spend eating at our favorite restaurant under the watchful gaze of 4 uniformed waiters, who as always forgot the Maaza that my father ordered!
And now we are in Ahmedabad, a cosmopolitan city, with a very modern part full of neon signs and big buildings and an older part which still retains some of the old city walls, a handful of beautiful mosques and lots of traffic! Just outside the city is Adalaj Wav a very elaborately decorated well, full of intricate carvings that go 5 stories deep!
As a last going away present there is a Muslim festival going on today, with drumming and processions passing through the streets... The drumming is coming nearer, it's time for me to take a look!
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Jenny
non-member comment
Awwww....
this blog makes me sad for you. Are you now all alone or are your parents still with you? Hit me up on email and let's chat miss ya.....be well