Ahmedabad (India) to Bhuj (India)

Distance: 415Km
Departure: 10/06/09
Arrival: 11/06/09

After a nice dinner with Kunjan and Alex, we took a sleeper bus toward Bhuj, there we arrived the morning after at 7:30.We had to walk more than 3 hours before to find a guesthouse suitable for us, accommodation are more expensive than in the south and there are less facilities than in other parts of the State but with our big backpacks in Kunjan house to move all around was easy.

Walking in small streets in the centre of Bhuj in the early morning we had the feeling to discover another India, every 5 meter somebody was saying us with a smiles on the lips “good morning” and nobody try to sell us something. Apart for the weather, too hot in this period, our days in Bhuj were shanty and pleasant. From Bhuj we also moved to other villages around for one day trip.

In Sumerasar, 25Km far away from the capital city, we have been visiting a cooperative, Kala Raksha, working with craft workers for the preservation of art and traditions of the region and in Bhujodi another one called Shrujan with the same aims. In both places we had the chance to see worker realize different kind of craftworks in tissue and we learned so many things about the different local communities.
In Ajarakhpur we meet the famous Dr. Ismail Mohammad specialized in block printing and also there we could see people realizing marvellous sari and find out more about his family’s tradition.

For sure it was cool to meet people and get new tips about techniques and traditions, a different way to travel and discover a country.