Beginning on Friday Morning, we embarked on a 5 day journey to explore the depths of our home state, Gujarat.
We started off by waking up at 6:30 on Friday and loading up in the car for a 3 - 4 hour car ride. We began our trip with a visit to some small villages, and we looked at the weaving sights there. That was quite interesting. The bathrooms were remarkably clean... Even though the sit down toilet was replaced by a ceramic hole (with surprisingly helpful gravity technology to properly relieve one's self. A nice added component.). In fact, most of the villages themselves were clean. The villages seemed to be more sanitary than the cities. This surprised me.
After that, we stayed in Rajkot for the night. Nice, cheap hotel (maybe $15 a room?). Rajkot reminded me a lot of Baroda. It had a similar feel, and a similar size.
The next day, we went to a temple/holy town and explored a little bit. We toured an old fort, where apparently centuries of abandonment and siege took place. To top it off, it even had a several hundred foot drop hole, completely unprotected! We also visited an old temple site where kids were playing cricket, and there were these really tall spiral staircase towers made of marble/stone. They were gorgeous. The precision on all of the structures on the property as a whole was amazing. The craftsmanship and fine detailing on the main temples was brilliant.
The next morning, we got up at 5:45 and climbed Mount Gir Nar (approximate spelling) along with hundreds, thousands? of other Indians. It's a holy mountain, and supposedly many people climbed it for pilgrimage. Who knows. Regardless, the thing was a good 10,000 steps up. Very steep in parts. Extensive cardio. I felt my legs turn to noodles as we continued the climb. Wendy's achilles heel was hurting her. On the way down (which was MUCH more pleasent but stupendously boring), dad's good knee nearly gave out. It was bloody torture! On the flip side, though, the views that the mountain delivered were absolutely beautiful. You could see the nearby city of Junagadh with much ease. With the rising sun, you could see the tips of the mountains beginning the light up. Even the birds flying in the valleys were beautiful.
Then, we went to a temple town on the coast of the Arabian Sea, not sure the name. The hotel smelled like feces, which we later figured out to be dead fish odor. Icky. We had yet another experience with an interesting teenage fellow, though this time we're pretty convinced he was just excited. At one point I was using the restroom (with the door unlocked, stupid me) and he walked in as he had been doing countless times bringing things, and he was trying to talk in English but, as usual, was nearly indecipherable. All through the talking I could see him and he could see me through the mirror on the wall, and that was it. It was reflection communication. He didn't seem at all phased by the fact that I was urinating.
We then went to visit an active Hindu temple next the setting sun and the Arabian Sea. The place was heavily secured; we're talking no bags, pat downs, metal detectors, and then armed guards. Apparently the place was one of only ten or fifteen of this particular temple in India. A rare... place. I was scared, excited, and nervous all at the same time. It was so exciting to feel the energy in there, it was so new. And yet, gah. The armed guards and the security scares me.
After visiting the temple, while searching for a restaurant, we were walking along a board to escape a big wet, brown puddle, and a member of our party had a, ehem, WET AND WILD! interaction with the open sewer system. This individual's leg, up to the mid calf region, slid into exposed, brown, heavenly sludge. It was SICK, and I eventually got past being modest and respectful and laughed hysterically. At one point, a little black lab looking puppy came up and licked the calf area (minutes after it had been doused in water). I began laughing hysterically again.
We went to bed, and then got up at 5:15 Monday morning and went on a lion safari - a safari with lions that only exist in the Gir forest in our state, and the second and only other place in the world besides Africa where lions reside. We drove for a good two, three hours before one of the local tribesman gestured to our driver. There, it was communicated up the line that a lion pair had just been spotted. Our guide and driver hopped out and ran into the savanna. The tribesman ran to help. Soon, our driver ran back. We then began off roading onto an unused trail. After my heart started pounding, the excitement began. We ended up only seeing the backside of the courting pair. But, it was awesome! Apparently going off of the jeep road is against the law, and our driver and guide were taking extreme risk. Also, the fact that they got out of the jeep to go check was crazy. Mating pairs are especially moody and dangerous. All of those components to the ride made it one of my favorite moments on the trip thus far.
Since leaving the forest, we've driven to Diu (a known coastal drinking town that's absolutely beautiful), and then to Lothal. Lothal was particularly interesting, with its technological advances seeming to rival that of Rome (or so I hear). The harappans developed an incredible civilization that still mirrors modern India in many ways to now (their accuracy with regards to weighing particularly comes to mind). The similarities between then and now are amazing.
