QUIT Day 11

Today’s original plan was to check out of tent city, visit the handicrafts village at Bhujodi and then take a break at Bhuj and start our return journey tomorrow.

The two night package at tent city includes a visit to see the sunrise over the Rann. But we had booked only for one night, so had to be satisfied with clicking photos in the tent city itself. The city is full of bright colors – right from the entrance to the dining hall to the golf carts used for transport. And everyone is extremely courteous and helpful.

In Gujarati gear

Breakfast was again a Vegetarian or Jain affair. With a live Thepla counter. Gujarati breakfast must be very sumptuous for those who like it. Not for me though. After a bite of Dhokla I settled with Upma and Vadai.

We checked out of the tent city at 9.30 AM and went straight to Bhujodi, the handicrafts village, 8 kms beyond Bhuj. The drive from tent city to Bhuj by NH 341 was regularly interrupted by groups of buffaloes. NH 341 must be one of the desolate roads to drive on, with acres of dry arid land on both sides of the road with not a hint of greenery. The temperature hit 35 degrees by 10.00 AM. If this is the condition in winter, wonder how it must be in Summer.

Bhujodi is a major textile center of Kutch, famous for its textile handicrafts. The entire village is dotted with shops selling hand embroidered textiles and other craft items. We first visited Hiralaxmi memorial Craft Park set up by Ashapura group of companies. It had shops displaying handicrafts from different areas of Gujarat. The items on display included leather goods, cloth bags, knives and lots of textiles. After buying a few items she decided that the variety on offer was not that great.

Note about the craft park

Pigeon house

Shopping bags

A model of Indian Parliament

Colorful bags

Then we went to a shop in the village which had huge stock of textiles, behind its non-descript entrance. She felt happy. And so did I, since they were one of the few shops that accepted cards. After shopping to her heart’s content we left the shop. As her friend said, she single handedly increased the GDP of Gujarat in the last few days.

Since we had finished earlier than expected, decided to press on to Ahmedabad instead of staying back at Bhuj. We took the NH 42 – NH 41 – NH 27 – NH 947 route to Ahmedabad. This route was shorter than the Morbi- Rajkot route and was easy to drive since all the trucks were headed towards Morbi. We reached Ahmedabad at 7.00 PM navigating through peak hour traffic which is a bane of every Indian city.

Total distance traveled so far : 3967 kilometers.