Blogs from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India, Asia

We’re heading south now towards Diu, a coastal resort. It’s too far to drive in a day so we’ll stay one night in Bhavnagar, 4 ½ hours away, with a stop at Lothal Harappan. Lothal was a major port, trading and bead making centre under the Harappan or Indus Valley civilisation from around 2400BC to 1500BC, so before the arrival of the Aryans in India. The Harappans were trading along the Silk Road long before the concept existed, buying copper from Oman and Afghanistan and selling beads and other goods as far west as Turkey and Egypt. They used standardised weights and measures, and installed mains drainage and sewage thousands of years before the Romans. The towns were built on a grid pattern with all dimensions of roads etc standardised. The town of Lothal is thought ... read more

January 18th2014 “Somewhere deep inside, something's got a hold on you And it's pushing me aside, see it stretch on forever” Better be home soon – Crowded House When thinking about unexplored (by me) Gujarat over many years, I always imagined visiting famous Jain temples, not the least one place I had heard about from travelers involving climbing many steps. Palitana was that place and so as we approached I was full of expectation. The omens were good – straight into town we hit a lassi stall (the daily lassi has become a bit of a habit in Gujarat). Then the fruit walla next to it tells us about where to find a hotel. We go there. But...... it is still being built! Something wrong with the local intelligence here. After several rides up and down ... read more