Fwd: Bhuj Transport by Foot & Hoof - with mention of Camels

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Robyn Williams <williamsrobyn1@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 5:43 AM
Subject: Bhuj Transport by Foot & Hoof - with mention of Camels
To: williamsrobyn1.vegemite@blogger.com


A few more pictures - apologies for the quality - especially the ones taken from the bus.  Although we have seen plenty of camels, I havn't seen one used for transport - but the carts I saw were more often pulled by a donkey or a human than a pony.  

Thought I'd share the camel story of the day while I think about it.  

This morning on our way back from a visit to the Chari Dhand wetland and a bit of bird watching our team got word that there was a friendly group of Jat herders camped nearby (a lot are not friendly) - our Purple People Eater rolled in for a visit.  Initially there were only women and children there - along with a few camels, lambs and kids, so we assumed, correctly, that the men were elsewhere with the main herds.  The Jats were living in absolute simplicity - no tents, cut grass on the ground to form mats, simple open fires for cooking - kids and lambs strung together along a line, quilted mats for sleeping on. The women wear traditional dress with large veils and intricately embroidered bodices - the men wear turbans.  When we arrived one teenage girl was sitting on a tarpaulin sized strewn grass groundcover working on a beadwork hanging - another was embroidering black on black as the beginning of an elaborate piece of embroidery.  

Soon after we arrived, a very large herd of camels arrived back with some of the men.  Milking commence and we were invited to share a cup of camel milk chai in the hospital tradition of this region - and it was delicious!  While none of the camels were harnessed for transport while were there, I believe they are used to transport the group from grazing site to the next.  They are not full nomads and do have a home village to go to as needed. It was a wonderful experience.  A simple life, undoubtedly hard, but the general opinion seems to be that they have it easy, without all the material pressures of modern life.  I may be able to post photos later.  We agreed only to take photos if approval was given, and then the tour leader would take them and share them with us.

One more travelling blog to come for the vehicle buffs ..

Robyn 

Proud drivers

Indian drivers are proud of their vehicles and they are often wonderfully decroated.  I already have better photos from fufrthber along on our travels, but this will give an idea.

Robyn.  

Bhuj Transport

When you have a look at the vehicles in this and the next blog or so, it will give some idea why the purple-people-eater stands out so much.  

There are indeed new sedans and four wheel drives in Bhuj, but by far the most common form of transport, even for whole families is the motor bike - as the Navaratri Festival parking lot shows!!  I have no idea how anyone found their bike that night!!  Then there are the 3 wheelers - the ubiquitous "tuk tuks" - 3 wheeled cabs, trucks ... and people transports.  There are good reasons for this. Not only are the cheaper to buy and run, but roads outside Bhuj, and even within, are often narrow, winding and rough.  Moreover - few people would have room to park anything else.  I havn't managed the picture of a bike as family transport, but it is common enough.  Between the two, they honk constantly in many different keys.

Pictures

1. Navaratri Festival parking lot ... I believe some did have to come back next day to find their bike!!

2. I'm not sure exactly what this one is - but could well be family transport/cum delivery van.

3.Tuk tuks .... these may be out for repairs because I suspect they mostly run 24hrs.

4. I thought this was an interesting variation ...

I have to send this in two blogs to fit in the pics,

Happy travelling to all,

Robyn

Kachchhiadventure starts in Bhuj

Well -- our five days in Bhuj have come and gone, as have another three nights in the far north of Kachchh on the Banni grasslands.  Our programme has been very full and while I mastered the internet system at the Hotel Prince in Bhuj, we left the next day and there was no interenet connect at the romantic but isolated tent camp up north, Shaam e Sahad. 

Even for a Kachchhi winter, the weather has been unseasonably warm - up into the 40s, and probably more humid than usual, following a late finishing monsoon season.  This means that we are seeing Kachchh at its very greenest with wetlands really wet - but it is also energy sapping and we are struggling to keep up with our programme.

Bhuj is the largest population in the Kachchh region - I can't tell you the population off hand, but imagine something which has the size feel, say - of Goulburn or Wagga - a large rural centre.  I have chosen my pictures carefully.  Bhuj was very substantially damaged by a severe earthquake in 2001.  Much of the old city was destroyed and there has been a lot of new building - and yet at times you blink and feel that you have strayed into a mediaevel or bibilical centre.  Where donkey carts vie with motor bikes and 3 wheeled taxis, where necklace wearintg cattle sleep comfortably on the median strip in the midst of peak hour traffic - or where a line of veiled traditional women appear round a corner with their water pots on their heads.

We were met at the airport by the "purple people eater" - the purple themed 19 seater bus, which is our home away from home for our three week trip.  By now it is looking very fine as we have begun to add our own gaudy decorations, bought at street stalls, to the interior.    It is airconditioned and extremely comfortable and spacious - but edging our way down narrow lanes in surrounding villages, with the people eater's own distinctive horn blaring to move aside stray cattle, goats and water carriers, peering over people's back fences ... it feels a bit like a space ship landing.  Faces appear over the fences, children begin to crowd around - and we seven Australian women must look like creatures from outer space.  While mobile phones are everywhere, outside the city, there is little sign of television.  

We are fortunate to be looked after by the knowledgeable and charming Kuldip Gadavi.  Kuldip lives with his family in Bhuj but has studied in England.  He is our translator, cultural facilitator and all round protector.  To date he has always managed to ease our path although we sometimes stray into areas which are culturally difficult for him ...  We also have Carol Douglas, the tour organiser, with us at all times with her extraordinary knowledge of Kachchhi handcrafts and handcraft people.

I hope to send further blogs about some detailed areas of our Bhuj stay - some of the interesting vehicles, old city, handcraft places and rural villages visited - along with Leslie's birthday on the last night of Navrati, when we joined a huge crowd dancing the night way in the centre ring.  I feel extraordinarily privileged to have the opportunity to visit a place where so many old traditions remain and hope to share them with you.

Dinner awaits and I don't have time to reread or proof this - so apologies for mistakes which grate!!

Robyn 

Fwd: Mumbai Calling Again

Greetings again ... well, that worked - 

So, to continue the story ... as I mentioned, Mumbai highrise seemed to stretch out into the haze from either end of the beach ... and we discovered that it is indeed a very big place ...

We set off in a hire care for centre city for the museum visit, the shalwar kameez fit & the Gujarati thali lunch.  We drove and we drove and we drove ... I don't know how long ... maybe two hours, maybe more.  The drive itself became the main event of the day.  To be sure the traffic was slow in places, but there just is a lot of Mumbai to get through.  For those of you who have visited India once or more before, bear with me ... this was my first view.  Everywhere there were street signs advertising the most expensive products - jewellery, cars, clothing, banks, technology - cheek by jowl with people hanging out their washing on the median strip.  We passed a skyscraper we were told was the residence of just one family, that Mumbai has the most expensive real estate in the world now - all of this mixed in with shanty with shanty towns, rubbish and a fair swag of pretty undermaintained buildings.  Somehow, it seemed however, on the impressions of a single day, not so much a contradiction as symbiotic ... that maybe the wealth both feeds off the poor and the poor are attracted and feed off it .. and probably that every poor street person has a vision that they could one day live in the skyscraper mansion - and maybe they can ... there is so much change in the air.

When finally arrived at "Kasaba", our fabric mecca for the day, the premises were small and the feeding frenzy was great ... so many wonderful natural fabrics, so many textile fanciers in our group, so little time, so little space .... it was almost ugly, but Leslie and I came way with reasonable booty and a package of ordered costumes still to arrive in the mail.   That will be interesting since no measurements were taken, at least from me!!

Carole Douglas, tour organiser, introduced me to staff at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum (a name to conjour with!! - formerly Prince of Wales Museum) and we had interesting chat about shared issues with humidity, and a tour looking at recent innovations.  They had some great ideas for children's activities I will bring back with me.  

Lunch was our first introduction to the Gujarati thali, along with Dr Judy Frater, well known for her work in promoting Kachchhi textiles and textile workers.  The thali has some structural resemblance to Yum Cha in that it is made up of a platter of small vegetarian dishes, which seem to keep coming until the eater puts up the "Full" signs.  What was in it??  It was all delicious ... there was half a tomato encased in batter, deep fried with some savoury flavourings, small fritters, dal, little puffy breads, buttermilk, yoghurt, a light cumin flavoured soup, small dishes of other vegetable curries ... something like polenta, rice of course, flat breads.  You will see in the picture ... I couldn't just use the picture of Leslie because her platter seemed to have reduced very quickly!!

I also include a photo of our group at the airport, en route to Bhuj, where we are now - but that is another story.  And one of those cunning looking crows who seem to have replaced seagulls.  We also saw kites (of the avian kind) soaring above Mumbai while we were enjoying a roof top drink at the end of the day in city centre - to steel us for another brief costume frenzy, bazaar experiment (a bit daunting) and the long drive home ...  

Hopfully tomorrow, more from Bhuj, which is a whole other story.  Brash modern cheek by jowl with mediaevil ... biblical even.  Would love to post more pictures of fascinating people and fascinating costumes - but I've been doing a lot of internet skimming in preparation for this trip and have become very conscious of privacy issues  ... so I have to leave out one of the most interesting aspects, at least for me. I will stick to general shots unless people have specifically given me permission to post their picture.

More about Bhuj tomorrow and since I've got it past the teething stage, there should be some words from Leslie and maybe some of our other  companions.

Robyn 

Mumbai Calling

Hi All,

Well, it isn't actually Mumbai calling now - it is Bhuj, but there were one or two technical hitches (like getting the laptop charged up again once the charge had run out - and accessing the blog from my hotel here, which doesn't seem to work the same way as it does from home.

The flight over was great - Singapore Airlines service was great.  Had a lovely time at Changi airport accessing a few of their "Welcome to Changi" services ... I am still wearing the henna decorations on my left hand and sure I gave hayfever to half the plane with the heavily scented jasmine bracelet.  We met up with tour leader and some of our fellow travellers there.

We had a couple of nights in Mumbai ... with a long day in between.  I think both preconceptions confirmed and preconceptions vanquished.  Our motel was literally on Juhu beach ... with a bit of a Gold Coast feeling going on, a kind of palm fringed oasis.  Through the haze, skyscrapers appeared to stretch out from both ends of the beach as far as the eye could see.  I took an early morning walk along the beach .... 2 groups of kids playing cricket (not difficult to see why India is doing so well), one group of fishermen hauling in their net along the beach, to the interested attention of - not seagulls, but cunning looking crows with light grey heads.  There were a few joggers, a tractor/trailor doing the morning cleanup, and a little girl in pink tutu who appeared to beg from almost out of nowhere on a fairly empty beach.

Mumbai story to be continued in a second installment ... a bit experimental.  I am sending via the optional email link to the blog because I don't seem to be able to access directly.

Robyn

 

More forms

This is really a test to see if I have the hang of doing this almost as well as Robyn can - no photos this time.

Today, Carole our tour leader extraodinaire sent us two more forms to fill out. The first one is a permit to ensure we get to the places we want to visit. The second was so that she can report to our next of kin how well behaved we are.

Loved what I saw of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. Did not last the distance last night, but today just had to sing along with Jai Ho. And oh, the contortions of those doing yoga!