12 hours in Somnath - Part 2

Feb 1 2013

By the time I finished my stroll on the beach, it was around 9AM and it was time to go to the bus stand to get the departure times for buses to Porbandar. As I walked past the temple, there were a group of photographers looking for tourists to offer their "instant" photo service. One saw me and offered to take a snap of me, and print it for a price. I smiled and said, "I have a good camera myself." He looked at mine and a few others gathered around me. Some were even interested in exchanging mine with them. I had to decline their offers.

I stopped by these two pilgrims, with whom I shared some fruits I had.

Pilgrims from the neighbouring state of Maharashtra. Having dressed in a Kurta and being dark, they thought I was a Maharashtrian. 

The bus stand was very close to the temple. The building looked like it was in desperate need of attention. Parts of concrete ceiling had broken off and the steel rods embedded in them could clearly be seen. It looked like an abandoned building of a war zone, which meant it was full of character. The next bus was to leave at 10 AM. I called my friend and asked him to get to the bus stand before then. Meanwhile, I went back to our room to check out. I was back at the bus station by 9:40 AM.

Staircase. I must say the spit stains on the walls add character.

A state government transport office.

Somnath Bus Stand - Looking up.

Somnath temple at distance.

Somnath temple.

My friend showed up at 9:45 and yet again, we ate some vadas for breakfast. I figured that even if the bus were to take 4 hours to reach Porbandar, I should be okay to catch my flight to Mumbai at 4 PM. I was going to be proven wrong...

It was 10 AM and no bus. We asked an official sitting behind the "Enquiry" counter. He said that it will arrive in a few minutes. 10:20 AM and still no bus. We went back to the counter and this time, the official attempted to call the conductor of the arriving bus - "No answer", he said. By now, I started to worry. My watch showed 10:45 and there was no no sign of any bus. The bus was not going to come. Change of plans. We walked out and started asking around for a taxi to take us to Porbandar. Having noticed our urgency, we were quoted high prices. So we decided to take a shared auto-rickshaw to go a nearby town that is bigger than Somnath and thus increase our chances of getting a taxi at a reasonable price. The ride on the shared auto-rickshaw was interesting. It frequently stopped all along the way to pick up passengers. No designated stops. People waved and hopped in. At one stop, a girl in her twenties got in and she demanded the driver to not let her sit with the other male passengers. She looked at me and looked at the driver. This meant that I had to move to another spot but where? The driver asked me to sit with him in the front. I didn't want to make a scene and demand equal rights for men and women. So without a word, I moved to the front to sit the driver. It was fine but it soon became crowded as the driver and I had to share the driver's seat with two more. So, the driver seat was now occupied by two guys on the left, the driver and myself on the right. One of my buttock cheek had some space on the seat but the other was not so lucky. The driver's face was stuck to the windshield as that was the only spot for his head. Amidst all this, the driver even answered his cellphone. I looked back and noticed that the girl was quite comfortable. I ignored and enjoyed the unhampered breeze.

We reached the nearby town. We got a taxi to take us to Porbandar. It was now close to noon but a car ride to Porbandar only takes 2:30 hours. So I felt safe and let go of my worry. Alas, the adventure was not yet over.

About three fourth of the way and just past the beautiful view of the Arabian sea to the left, the driver pulled over and got out. He opened the hood and put his hands on his head. It turned out the radiator liquid had started leaking.

Pretty neat drive along the Arabian sea coast.

Disaster on the way to Porbandar - radiator liquid leaking

The driver did not want to start his car again (understandably) but he started doing things which I was taught never to do in Canada such as opening the cap of the radiator while it is extremely hot and pouring down water! I stepped back but nothing happened. Now the only way for us to get to Porbandar would be to hitchhike as there were no big enough villages or towns nearby where we could get help. I paid the driver his money. He stopped an old Fiat for us and we asked the driver whether he could drop us at the Porbandar airport. He agreed.

There were no more surprises and we reached Porbandar. I thanked our new saint of the day profusely and got out. I made it to the airport on time to catch my flight. Phew. Despite the uncertainties throughout the journey, I enjoyed every bit of it.

12 hours in Somnath - Part 1

Jan 31 2013

There were two main reasons for my trip to India this time around; attend my friend's wedding and a surprise visit to my folks. The wedding was in the city of Porbandar (birthplace of MK Gandhi). After the wedding, I had one extra day to explore in and around Porbandar. Debating between a visit to  Gandhi's house and a 120km trip to Somnath, a friend of mine and I finally decided to head to Somnath. Somnath is one of the twelve important religious sites dedicated to Hindu God Shiva. We were told that it would be around 3 hours to go to Somnath if we were to take a local bus. I had a flight to catch from Porbandar to Mumbai the next day. So it was going to be a short trip.

We took a Gujarat State Transport bus at around 7 PM. I picked a seat next to the window to enjoy the breeze. The ride was quite enjoyable that costed approximately 80 rupees (CAD 1.50). My friend and I started discussing about metaphysical concepts about reality and this made time to fly faster than the bus. The bus stopped at a small town en route to allow passengers to attend to their nature calls and refill their bellies. Having not eaten any dinner, I allowed myself to push down few vadas (fried stuff) and off we went. By the time we reached Somnath at around 10:20 PM, we were the only passengers left.

A cool old man. 

We got down at the Somnath bus stand and I realized that we were going to find it hard to find a place to stay. The bus stand was empty and dark. Suddenly, two young guys in two separate motorbikes dashed towards us and were offering rooms to lodge. While my bargaining skills were rustic, my friend was in form and he got us a room for INR 200 (CAD 4) from one of the bikers. As soon as all three of us sat on the same bike, I knew this was going to be an adventure to remember. We rode for about 5 minutes and we reached some narrow streets. We got off and our friend took us to show the room. The room was clean, had two beds and an attached bathroom. It had a big window and those the narrow streets filled its view. The bathroom was small but doable for two guys. The tiredness of the wedding that day and the travel made me ignore the sensitivities to any discomfort. We set the alarm to wake us up at 5 AM.

Feb 1 2013

We woke up on time, attended to the usual morning things, had a cold shower, and off we went to the temple. The temple was a mere 2 minutes walk and only then I realized that we were staying in a lodge that belonged to Muslims. In fact, there were many Muslims living harmoniously right next to one of the most important Hindu sites in all of India. It was a pleasant surprise. There are two main temples referred to as Somnath temple; old and new. The old one looked more like the ones of the South, while the new one was built in the last century to restore the glory that it once had. The temple itself sits right next to the Arabian sea and notedly, it was plundered heavily by invaders.

The new Somnath temple.

Early birds. The wall to the right is the temple boundary.

After the darshan (view of the deity), my friend and I decided to split as we had different ideas on how to explore Somnath. He decided to do a tour of other nearby temples while I decided to just walk around and explore. From the rear of the temple, I saw that beach was very clean (not common if you are in India) and this meant, I could walk along the beach.

As the sun had not yet fully risen, street cleaners had not yet come by for the street vendors to set up their stalls. I stopped at a coconut seller for breakfast snack. A coconut was INR 10 (20 cents). As I was drinking my coconut water, I had a chat with the seller:

"How long you have been doing this business?"

"This actually belongs to my older brother who will be here any time soon. He has been running selling coconuts for many years."

"How is the business going?"

"Good, thanks to the Lord of Somnath."

I paid him INR 20 and asked him to keep the change. He did not like that and said to me:

"No, I cannot take this extra money. I sold you only one coconut. This not what our dharma (law of nature) says."

He was so firm that I took some pride in having met such an honest man in our times. As I was leaving, he asked me if I was still hungry. I nodded. He then went to a section of his pile of coconuts and took one. He gave it to me and said "A special one." I took it and said "Now you have to accept that extra 10 rupees". He smiled and took my 10 rupees. I thought to myself good people do exist.

A good man and a coconut seller.

As I walked east along the beach, the early sun warmed my face and my ears tuned to the music of the waves:

Arabian sea - looking south. 

Strange patterns on the sand.

I came across a group of girls and boys on an excursion and did not miss the opportunity to take some shots:

It is no fun to wake up early.

Curious boys.

Got to look funny.

A shy girl.