DavidandSara's Guestbook

Gir
Thanks for the info. Having read your comments about the fees (1400 Rs.per camera?) and now recent TripAdvisor reviews too, I'm having second thoughts about Gir. Do I really want to see lions that badly? Do I really want to be ripped off and possibly not even see a lion? If I don't go to Gir, do I even bother with Gujarat? Decisions, decisions...

Lions
Ah, yes. I'd forgotten I was told that 23 lions out of a pride of 26 died within a fortnight sometime in October. Apparently over 180 have died in the past two years. Canine distemper (spread by infected dogs sharing lion kills) is believed to be the cause. For many years, the Gujarati government has resisted advice to move some lions to other parks. Perhaps they'll now do it - before they lose all of them.

Hooray!
Lots of super bird shots. Lions, however, are what you came to see - and see them you did, eventually. I thought they would be easier to spot. They'd better put in an appearance when I get to Gir - perhaps I'll add an extra day as a buffer in case they're shy on my first safari or two!

Fascinating...
I'm referring to the remnants of Portuguese colonisation - not the open defecation rates!

Bhavnagar sounds like one to miss!
The journey seems fascinating but, for you to mention the smell in Bhavnagar, it must have been worse than you've experienced elsewhere on your journeys around India. Oh, I've been trying to think of the name of that fruit you bought. Was it a chikoo (sapodilla) perhaps - sweet, pear-like taste, two or three black seeds in the middle? Or, less likely, a bael - lots of seeds, sticky flesh, marmalade-like aftertaste?

'Good health'...
...he says, raising a glass - for which a liquor permit isn't required in Welwyn Garden City! Alas, none of us is getting any younger, so we have to expect the hospital visits. Like you, my wife and I have had our share of those in recent times - I even wrote a blog in 2013 about one of mine ('Britain’s health service observed')! I usually try to keep my India trips to a month, although one or two have been six weeks - it's a long way to go and there's always too much to see, isn't there? My wife hasn't accompanied me for some years, so I'm a free spirit when I'm there - oops, did I mention spirit? I trust you'll enjoy the rest of your tour as much as I'm enjoying reading about it.

I don't usually enjoy museums
I've been to Baroda - but only for 20 minutes, when my train stopped there at three o'clock in the morning. Friends came specially, even in the dead of night, to meet me on the station platform! It sounds like an interesting place and, despite my dislike for even the world's finest museums, I'll make a point of visiting the Baroda Museum just to see those stuffed animals!

Vadodara
Abandoned in the 1600s and recovered from the forest in the 19th Century...what an interesting place.

I'm avidly reading...
...all your observations about Gujarat as, until recently, I was in the throes of planning my own tour there for next year. It's a state I haven't visited, but I have Gujarati friends living in Savarkundla (which seems to be known only for weighing machines and fireworks made by stuffing the walnut-like fruit of the Ingoriya tree with high explosives!) and Diu. While my trip has had to be postponed until 2020 due to my wife's ill health, your blog has already resulted in the House of MG being taken off the llst of places to stay. I might still visit it for the thali though! So, your health permitting (get well soon), where to next? My own list includes Nal Sarovar, Patan, Modhera, Rann of Kutch and villages, Bhuj, Mandvi, Jamnagar, Dwarka, Porbanda, Somnath, Diu, Sasangir, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Velvadar, Vadodara and Dakor - so far. I wonder if six weeks will be enough! :)