Gujarat, 30.09.03

Hello Everybody

At the moment I stay for some days in Morbi, a small town on the Saurashthra Peninsula of Gujarat, it is not a great place for sightseeing, but there are some other reasons for me which force me to stay, I have blown my engine on the way, so it needs some days for mending and repairing. Basicly, it was the oil pump which didnt work anymore, and so the piston was running without oil, which lead to the damage of the connecting rod of the piston and the piston rings... cause I recocnised the faulty engine function not unless I heard a rattling noise coming out of the engine, so I drove slowly to the next mechanic, but he told me, that he wouldnt repair Enfields, and that I would have to go to the next town (Morbi), so I asked a Rikhsha Walla to put my Bike on his Rikhsha and drive me to Morbi (it was one of those Enfield Rikhshas which look like a motorbike with 3 wheels and are powered by a diesel engine, there are also motorbikes of the same kind, with a diesel engine, they make 70 km with one litre of diesel!!!!)

Well, but before this little incident I went to the Island of Kutch, the part of Gujarat which was hardly stroken by the 2001 earthquake, and whichs capital Bhuj was reduced to rubble in 2001. Never the less I went to visit Bhuj, and the damage of 2001 can still be seen everywhere. The government was obviously not able to use the raised money to rebuilt the city, probably more than the half of the money (also some 100 millions from europe) went into the pockets of corrupt functionaries and politicians... The curator of the local museum told me, that they would have received as much money as 100 crore Rupees per person (1 crore = 100 Millions), which is about 3.3 Mio SFr. But no one have seen the money ever since....

But the amazing thing is, that in the middle of the old town, the "new Palace" is still standing, it was built around 1930 by the Maharani of the Region, and even its 30 meters high clock tower survived the earthquake, cause it is build out of solid red sandstone. The most of the houses which where destroyed where build of bricks, also the steel inforced concrete houses mostly survived. But you can feel the resignation of the people living there, they are sitting in their rebuilt shops with no customers and staring holes into the air, not like in other parts of india, where thy try to drag you into their shops to sell you something. But everybody is friendly and likes to talk to you.

Than I went around the villages on Kutch, which is mostly restricted area, cause it is the boarder region to pakistan, so you need a permit to go there. Furthermore there was a big Hindu Pilgrimage taking place on the Island of Kutch, so all the streets leading to this village with the temple of the celebrated godess were lined with pilgrims and full of trucks and traktors carriing pilgrims. So I went with my Motorbike (much more comfortable than walking in the burning heat of Gujarat) to this village about 80 km west of Bhuj, and on the way I met some crazy indian bikers, who where running like fools, overtaking left, overtaking right and so on... So they told me to follow them, which was almost impossible on this crowded road (walking pilgrims on one half of the road and trucks and buses and cars in both directions on the other half of the road). But fianally we arrived at the site of the temple, so I was told that I should by some offerings for the godess, what I did (some sweets, a coconut, some insent sticks and a piece of ornamented cloth, all for 30 Rs. ) Afterwards we qued for about an hour, and everybody was very excited and tried to jump the que whenever a possibility was available, and there where policemen with bamboo sticks to shout them back into their place....

Finally we where admitted to go to the temple, there was a bell which everybody rang and a bigger bell which everybody touched, so did I, and than we had to give the offerings to a holy men, and than we where ushered away, so we where waiting for one hour to get a 10 seconds glimpse of the Godess... but everybody seemed to be happy, especially those who where walking all the way from far places like Bombay (1400 km).

And than followed another two hour drive on this crowded road... I lost my indians companions somewhere on the way back, and was than circumnavigating the busy road by some calmer sideroads.

In the evening the celebrations where going on in Bhuj, there was a fare with some nice attractions, like a cylindrical shaped motodrome with about 10 m in diameter, in which there where 2 motorbikes and two cars running simultaneously, and some diesel powered "Riesenrad" and those human centrifuges also with a diesel engine, which wouldnt stop until you almost felt sick...and some magician who ate 20 razorblades and all that stuff... the good thing was, I got everything for free, cause I met the day before the organiser of this fare, and he invited me for everything, and introduced me to all his stuff, he even proposed me that I could try to run with the motorbike in his motodrome, which I refused...

Than I went south of Kutch, to Mandvi, a nice little town on the seaside, where thy built huge wooden cargo vessels. So I wandered around in the docks, to take some pictures of the construction of those ships, and I was welcomed everywhere to go inside the "belly" of those boats beeing built. Than I met Hussein, a reeder and shipbuilder who invited me to his docks, where I later went, and he showed me around. There where 2 ships, to beeing built and one beeing repaired. It was amazing, those huge Cargo Vessels constucted of only wood and than equipped with a japanese 3200 horse power engine....

And than the next day I got the problem with my engine...

So the next few days I will go by Bus to visit some other places nearby and when my Bike will be rady I will leave to the south of the peninsula to visit the Lion Sanctuary and than try to get the permission to visit Alang, the worlds biggest Ship Wreckage Yard (Hussein gave me some useful Adresses to get permission) and than to Bombay.

Ok. hope you are all fine

Martin

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