November 15, 2008 to Dasada, Gujarat
Interesting day today despite a bad start – a 7 hour bus ride through the state of Gujarat. Yesterday I had a cold and was just as happy to take it easy for a day and relax. In the morning though, we were not completely without shopping opportunities. We stopped at a lovely Muslim man’s home who does block printing which I adore.
Then more hours on the road with the iPod catching up on Meet the Press and George Stephanopoulos. Around noon we arrived at our “evening camp”. Well CAMP doesn’t quite describe the place; it’s more like a Gugarati resort with little bungalows that have air conditioning. Hardly the roughing it I'd expected.
After gathering our bags, we had two options for getting into “town” – a camel drawn cart or jeep. Having ridden a camel in Egypt I thought that my card has been punched for camel riding forever, so I opted for the jeep. We stopped to see millet being husked outside of town and then made our way to a small “gypsy” village where women had the most interesting nose- and ear- rings. I found it charming the way the women pulled their colorful sarees down over their eyes when they spoke. They made beaded bracelets with glass inserts (we all bought many) and afterward we learned that they sell to the Victoria & Albert Museum gift shop in London! What a hoot. If you only knew how far from anything we are. Those museum shop buyers must be intrepid. Maybe that's my next job...
On we drove into a small Muslim town called Dasada. This is an extremely poor town absolutely fascinating. Every single child and almost every adult went out of their way to come out of their homes to greet us. Only some of the very elderly people stayed inside, but all were generous in allowing us to take photographs.
We drove deep into the town on narrow winding street passing small shops, barber shops (an entire photographic study could be done of barber shops in India), store-front doctors’ offices, and finally ended up at a lady’s house who sells local embroidery. She was also a superb model for her wares!
Our "camp"/hotel was charming. Little bungalows like the kind of huts you’d stay in on safari in Africa. This is a terrific area to come to because it seems as though very few tourists come here and the local people, largely Muslim, are kind and friendly. But off the beaten path and you must have a guide to navigate the endless bureaucracy and language barriers.
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