saris, scarves and a palace

So this afternoon was all about exploring Bhuj and shopping.

First we visited a lovely designer who 3 yrs ago left double bay and moved to Bhuj - she is rocking some serious face jewellery! Her stuff was amazing but surprisingly pricey but she sells it online very well. Now where she lives presented me with my first reality check - the incredible chasm between the rich and the poor. At the end of her street a family (including a child of 5 or so) were collecting pods off tree branches - all around there were shacks barely standing with people living in them. Yet 300m away there were absolute mansions - probably seeming all the more opulent given the difference to the norm.

We stopped at a brand new temple which was amazing - the work that must have gone into this is mind blowing.

We then headed to check out a palace which was filled with historical artefacts but which had been  baldy  damaged in the 2001 earthquake. It is being restored like most of the city. The museum told yhr story of bhuj and how a king decided to build the city and knew he had to build it on the head of a snake so that it would  be stable. He was confident he knew where the head was so he struck a nail into the ground - but people around him asked him how he could be sure he hit the head of the snake . The king became unsure of himself and so he pulled  the nail out and the ground began to bleed so ge then knew  he had hit the head and so he struck it back in all the way. But the king did not know the  snake had moved after he pulled the nail out and when he struck it back in it was into the tail - and that is why the ground below  Bhuj is so unstable as the snake moves around - causing earth quakes.

We then went to see the master of the ancient skill  of block painting on fabric - a tiny room filled with hundreds of saris and scarves and shawls with the workshop out the back. Some of the works take weeks to complete. So brilliant and beautiful - he supplies Tiger Lilly in Australia. Could not resist a few purchases.

Finished a long day with a wonderful dinner in our lodge of home cooked veg curries and assorted accompaniments ...