Bhuj - Textile heaven
Trip Start
Sep 30, 2009
1
18
37
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
hotel Gangaram
Gangaram hotel
Bhuj, Gujarat, India
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
So I had to make a trade off with Mike....more time in sleepy little coastal Diu for some action packed full on textile adventure. Wow! I got even more than I had planned for. Luckily we met an older couple Camille and Denis who were talking about this textile capital in Northern Gujurat called Bhuj. Soon Mike and I were tagging along too.
We rented a car with a driver the day after we arrived in Bhuj and headed up towards the Pakistan border, stopping at all kinds of smaller traditional villages where we saw embroidery, silver work, pit loom weaving and some fabric block printing. A side trip to the Great Rann of Kuch, a huge salt desert, was Mike's favourite part but he was pretty patient and was enjoying the dry desert air..at least so he says.
The homes and dress of local people were fabulous. Ribari, Jat and Harijan people amongst others still live very traditional lives here and are now beginning to sell some of their handicrafts and were quite welcoming and allowed us in their homes. An American woman has also started a woman's cooperative so woman could more easily sell their work.
Of course I had to buy some stuff which meant finding the post office. Three and a half hours after finding the post office Mike and I were still there trying to send off 12.5 kilos of stuff. A new system of flat rate boxes had just been introduced and Mike and I were the guinea pigs. We had about 8 people helping us stuff, stitch and rope up three boxes one 2.5 kilos and two 5 kilos boxes. That took about an hour and a half. Then they had to weigh the boxes. Our smallest box weighted 34 ounces over 2.5 kilos and we were charged the 5 kilo size. When Mike and I refused to pay for the larger size there were papers being thrown about , some shouting and they found they couldn't change the booking on the computer. Eventually we ended up in the postmasters office being mollified with chai and tea and told the post office would absorb the cost for us. That was all we managed to do that day.
I spent another day with Denis and Camille on a tuk tuk and was able to see natural fabric dyeing and a whole sequence of block printed fabrics being created. Loved Bhuj!
Comments
Missed you at the meeting, but I think everyone there would of happily traded places with you.
I'm enjoying your trip !
have a great 2010