Bhuj

Date arrived: 8th / 9th December 2023

Date Departed: 14th December 2023

Favourite sight: Prag Mahal

Average Cost: £30.57 PPPD

Bhuj was recommended to us by previous India travellers as a bit of a 'break from India'. It's also home to a thriving local textile tradition, which has picked up significantly with the help of government support, after the town was almost completely destroyed by a massive earthquake in 2001.

9th December 2023

We arrived in Bhuj by train in the early hours of the 9th, and crashed straight to sleep in the very lovely apartment that Julie had found us. We had to set an alarm for the next morning however, as breakfast was between 8 and 9. Yuck! We managed to wake up and grab a bite of breakfast, served by the Nepalese caretaker who looked after the apartments, and seemed to do pretty much everything. It was good, although it was a case of taking what you were given, with no real choice. 

We didn't do a massive amount today. The town was about 2KM away, as we'd selected the apartment on proximity to the railway station and ability to check in late, so we thought we'd brave the roads and try walkng down there. This was .. okay. The roads were quieter than they had been in Rajasthan, and we felt a bit less like oddities, with people mainly keeping themselves to themselves apart from a few well-meaning Hellos. There were lots of cattle and still a good few vehicles though, and definitely no footpaths!

We had managed to locate a local gym to try, so we went there to see if it was open and ended up chatting to the owner, who was rightfully very proud of his gym. As well as decent equipment, he had a fantastic full-wall screen array, which could be used either as a moving background for the treadmill or bike users, or to play interactive games in conjunction with various spacial sensors. It was very cool, and we agreed to come back the following morning to train.

We also had an excellent veg-thali lunch at a food hall which cost 125 rupees each including buttermilk. We explored the town a bit more, walking around the little man-made lake, and visited some very pretty cenotaphs that had been badly damaged in the earthquake. After that we walked back to the apartment via a cash machine - which turned into a bit of a trek, so we were shattered by the time we got back.

The apartment was quite spacious, with  a through-lounge and kitchen and a big L-shaped sofa, so was a great place to relax for a few hours. It also had a very comfy bed and hot, powerful shower!

We rested and planned a bit that afternoon, including reaching out to some local guides with a view to heading out to some of the craft villages in the region. After that we walked to a town-centre hotel for dinner, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake as it was down an unlit, busy and very dusty road. Fortunately the food was worth it, with excellent silver service(!) waiting and reasonable prices. Needless to say we jumped a Tuk-tuk back to the hotel before we turned in for the night.

10th December

After taking advantage of the breakfast at our accommodation, we visited te gym we'd found earlier and had  decent workout! Wewalkedback to te apartment to shower and change then headed back down to town to find some lunch. We managed to find another fabulous foodhall, and a different Thali, which was even better value at just 90 rupees each. From here we headed to the walled enclosure that contains Bhuj's three palaces. We'd read that they had all suffered significant damage in the 2001 earthquake, but when we visited the very impressive Prag Mahal, we could see that an awful lot of renovation had beeen done, and the great hall in particular was magnificent.

It was also apparent that the previous Mahoraja (and Maharani) had loved their cars, as there were pictures of them with the first Mercedes SLS imported into India, next to a older 70s Mercedes SL, both in red. There was also a picture of the Maharani with a beautiful Corvette Stingray - also in red (see below.)

We went to a local reataurant north of the railway tracks for dinner, and I braved the chicken - which seemed well cooked and tasted good. That said, I did start feeling a bit queasy in the belly as the evening wore on, and ended up having a poor nights sleep, punctuated by D&V!

11th December

Today we had planned to spend the day visiting craft villages with a private guide - an extravagance by our usual standards, but a great way to learn more about the rich craft culture of the Kutch (the area that Bhuj is situated in.) I woke up feling awful and unable to go along, however, so Julie went alone and had an excellent day, visiting several villages and trying her hand at a few crafts, as well as picking up some beautiful fabrics.

I planned to get some light lunch and maybe work on this website a bit - but in the end I literally slept all day, waking up shortly after 5PM and just before Julie got home.

In light of this we decided to just eat in the apartment, and ordered some food from our hosts, which was actually very nice - and very good value.

12th December

I was feeling a bit better this morning, after something like 30 hours sleep in the last 36, and we decided to visit the very new and well reviewed Smritivan earthquake museum in Bhuj. We took a tuk-tuk to get there, and whilst the museum was quite expensive for foreigners, it did have some well put together and engaging multimedia exhibits.

The great shame, for me, was that whilst the museum had clearly been well invested and designed, many of the exhibits were not working properly anymore, and in some cases the staff did not appear to know how they should work. It seemed a shame that such a big investment in the region didn't seem to consider maintenance of the complicated AV exhibits- or education for the staff. As we've travelled more in India it's become apparent that this kind of thing happens a lot.

We made our way back to the apartment through the beautiful 400 acre Miyawaki forest that surrounds the museum. The forest contains over 40 small Check Wells, which between them are engraved with names of each of the 13,000 victims of the earthquake. This garden was truly beautiful and tranquil - although there did seem to be a security guard trying quite hard to stop us going in! There were whistles blown and all sorts, but he gave up eventually when we just ignored him.

13th December

Today we went back into Bhuj and explored the other palace in the city, the Ania Mahal. This one was in much worse condition than the newer Prag Mahal, and has been restored less. There was a really good exhibition of some of the history of the region through the assets of the Mahorajahs, including a huge 45' long scroll showing every member of a procession from the early 18th century.

We found a really nice restaurant to have some lunch, but all I could manage was chips, so that was really it for our last day in Bhuj! For the third day in a row we ate dinner in the apartment, and had an early night ready for our 06:50 train to Mumbai the next day!

14th December

Early o'clock! We packed up and made a quick cup of instant coffee before trekking the 400 metres to the train station, making sure we were there in plenty of time for the 06:50 train to Ahmedabad. Today would be our longest travel day yet, with a 6 1/2 hour trip to Ahmedabad, a 90 minute layover to change stations, and just over 6 more hours from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. This covered not far off 850KM though, starting us in earnest on a long journey down the entire west coast of India over the next two weeks.

We caught the train okay, and had an empty seat next to us in the Chair Class accommodation - a bonus. The first stop on the way was for about 30 minutes at a busy station where I was able to get us some breakfast in the form of Poha (a kind of flattened yellow rice) and Chai, as well as some emergency biscuits. Always handy!

We arrived into Ahmedabad just over 30 minutes late, which still left us with an hour to get across town to the main Ahmedabad Junction station, from which we would be heading south into Maharashtra. This was easily handled with a Tuk-tuk ride; we werent't messing about with the missing Sabermati metro station after the previous shenanigans!

The second part of our trip was a little more comfortable as we had managed to book the super-luxury Vistadome carriage for our route into Mumbai. These new carriages have large windows and spacious seats, as well as food service, which sorted us for a snack and a pretty decent dinner. In the interim we got some pastry style eats from the platform for lunch.