Bhuj

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13/2/10

The earthquake in 1819 maybe a bit far to remembered, but it did changed the course of the Indus River, and left behind this salt desert in Kutch. And again another earthquake in 2001 collapsed many of the buildings, killed more than 10 thousands people in its capital city - Bhuj(@120m). Love this place as soon as I arrived. Row of food stands lined the busy street, not the standard samosa deal though, here they made burger with mashed potato, coated with sweet sauce and crispy peanuts, and sprinkled shred coconut on top, different stand offered slightly different version, some top up with grapes, some with jelly candy. Most of other foods seem the same like everywhere else but presented in a new look! Stuffed into a ice-cream cone, rolled inside mashed potato then deep fried, here the favoured mostly were sweet and not too spicy which I like better! While wandering around I find the samosa fried in Asian way with crispy shell, marked my favourite snacks each day right away! And at night the small red trolley had a printed "Chinatown" on by the road side attracted me each night, I was sure the cook worked in a Chinese restaurant before, as his style and motion while worked with the wok was very chinese, and he presented me the best fried rice I ever had in India. There were many ice-cream and juice stands, fruits were plenty and reasonable cheap, yes...the young coconut...drink then eat! What a great treated! And here they even mixed sugar cane juice with ginger and lemon, I was in heaven!
Left Rajasthan through the back door and I was falling into a long and difficult journey, bus connection wasn't ideal and time wasn't reliable. But once crossed into Gujarat, the Gandhi homeland, everything back to normal, here...they drink tea in different way, and also more expensive...Rs6 and some even asked for Rs7! again...with the Indian sense! Cup of tea served with a saucer, but instead of drank from the cup, they poured the tea into the saucer and drink! Of course I tried it, to be better understood the WHY? Ok...my investigation told me...beside the tea was cooler than drink directly from the cup, so one could drink faster! I didn't see any point of this, you really need to be an Indian to be able to understand the India! But today I find another advantage by drinking this way after spit out a fly(dead by drown) from my cup of tea, so...actually you could see clear what inside the saucer before you put into your mouth!!
Bhuj is a friendly little town without troubled to find accommodation, seem like tourists were accepted in any hotel, and I find myself a good cheap bed in town! The main attraction was the Aina Mahal and the Hamirsar Kund, a palace building and some museums. The town was small enough to navigated on foot, many small lanes around the Bazar offered great lost-into-time meandering. Individual city wall still stood on the hill top east of town, although said was off limited by the military, but you could hiked up to one of the temple there for the city view and enjoyed the sunset. Bhuj was famous for its tribal handicrafts, and in the region lived many different tribal provided endless products for the market, and with the help of different organizations some got into upmarket and exported to other countries, many souvenirs in the tourist area in India actually came from Kutch area. Different villages in this area setup community base workshops which help created income for the women. Embroidered fabrics and textiles were the main trade, and you could see live sample dressed on women from different tribes. The main ethics are the Jats, Harijans, Ahir, Rabari and Patel. I know, you supposed could see their identity from their costumes, but for me...they all seem so similar to tell the different, but only one word...colourful! As some said because of the desert they inhabitated were colourless, so they put the colours on themselves! By chance I caught up with a local Shiva festival in the nearby village Dhrang, a Hindu community lived mostly Ahir people. To be honest...festival nowadays mostly became commercial activity, that was why I stopped looking for festivals long ago! Although the Dhrang festival wasn't that type but it was as I'd predicted...a fun-fair with vendors marked the desert floor. it was a 2 days event with the first day mainly for pilgrimages paid respected in the temple, and there would be dance and music all through the night. And the second day would be games and fun, wrestling and camel run, and of course...shopping and eating! I saw some of the tribal dresses here, but as I had mentioned before, couldn't really made much different in some ways, only could confirmed by they identified themselves to me. Although the hello hello was far more timid here, but the heat and the dust, and there was too many people, I never like crowded surrounding especially when I was mostly the target, so I only made a brief stop there especially on the second days.

14/2/10

Another newyear outside of China. The Year of Tiger, and I spotted a piece of news on the paper. Something like...according to reported some tigers was found dead(natural dead) in the national park since last month, the big cat in India was in danger! And since this year is the year of tiger in China, think there should be more need and consumed of the organs of the tiger, as chinese believed in its special medical function....so the concussion was the tiger in India was in great danger. What a laugh! But this is not the only anti or hated China articles I had noticed so far, another with a title "china kite killed a kid" and the contents was a kid seat on the back of a scooter and caught by the thread of a flying kite, it was happened to be made in China, but not the thread that wound the neck of the kid, anyways...it said the bike was out of control and the kid was dead. That was all...it dead might not even by the cut of the thread??? But the heading was really something! The most extremely so far was an artists in a local magazine, written by a so and so Doctor, he compared the time Nehru in India and Mao in China. How India progressed in peaceful and democracy way, so Indian is peace loving people and non-aggressive, while China in war between KMT and the communist, later the even invaded Tibet and attacked India. More the Doctor mention the famous book from Zuanzi, the Art of War, he said the Chinese worshipped this book, and the main idea of war is deception, so the conclusion reached that the Chinese is aggressive and warlike, and not a good neighbourhood and trusted partner...!!! If using his comparative method, he could just picked any period in any country, and found there wasn't any non-aggressive nation. I didn't read much news or magazines but still I caught articles like this, luckily I hadn't encountered any chinese-hate incidence in common ground.

15/2/10

60km south of Bhuj by the Gulf of Kutch is Mandvi, a busy little port town, passenger boat services was provided before the independent of India. It was an ancient port with more than 400 years of history, said their seamen reached many places in Asia and as far as to Africa. nowaday still got some cargo boats called in. there is a huge shipbuilding yard in town, hundred of workers attending those wooden skeletons like artworks. I wondered where all those woods coming from? There were couple of beaches nearby, no wondered I saw quite a few westerners lived here, took advantage of these quiet tropical seaside. I went to the nearest beach in walking distant, nice sand but full of garbage, yes...it was sunday and attracted many Indian's families and holiday makers. But...sorry again...the Indian sense...beach is not the usual beach we went for, same like the beach scene in moslem community, full dressed on the beach, but the moslems at least went for a swim even in full dressed! The Indian would only dipped their feet in the water like it was the Ganga. Instead they all seem to enjoyed more the camel and horse ride on the beach. Water had a special attraction to the Indian, today I even seen one family came to cremated a dead body in front of the ocean, once it started, here might become another burning ghat later I guessed. I heard inflation was climbing higher and faster each day in India, no wondered only 60 minutes away in Mandvi, a cup of tea went up to Rs8!
The temptation was too much when I heard about weekly market in Anjar, no way I wouldn't wait until monday to see a market, especially in this tribal land. Took the 40km bus journey to Anjar, but it turned out to be just a market(of course...you are looking for market, and you got a market! What's wrong with you?), no particular different from any daily market. Sure disappointed and worse was there wasn't much to go in Anjar, it was an old trading town, but was suffered by many earthquakes(6 times from 1819 till 1965) which not many old buildings existed.

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Comments

[Ann Trenton]

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