(pics to be added)
Near Wankaner, by some miracle, which are pretty common in India, we spotted our friend Chota and driver-guide Jonny, standing near Jonny's Toyota Innova amidst a few hundred people and a few dozen other vehicles waiting for us by the side of the busy road. Jonny had driven from Ahmedabad and picked up Chota along his way to this place by the road. We had our mobile phones and numbers, so we would have, eventually, found each other, but this was easy. Jim paid the driver from Bhuj and we then went onward in the Innova. When we lived in Bangalore we had an Innova with A/C and found it to be a very comfortable vehicle. Since then Many people in the tourist industry have gotten these spacious and comfortable cars and many tourist companies use them- as we had on the earlier part of this trip in many places.
A couple of phone calls were made about getting in to see Wankaner Palace and we had not gotten a certain reply so Jonny suggested that we go to an Art Deco Hotel that he knew about in the interim.
He took us there and the caretaker said it was closed as there were no guests booked- the last had left that morning. Jonny and Chota made some calls and persuaded the caretaker to let us look around. Chota is from one of several royal families in Gujarat and these families generally know eachother or are distantly related and are one friendly terms, so his connections allowed us to visit several places that we would not have seen easily otherwise. Wankaner Palace and this Art Deco Hotel were two such places.
In the 1920 and 30's the Maharajas had a lot of money and power and influence and often spent some of that on modern buildings, furniture, autos, air planes, etc. This hotel was built as a guest house- long ago, but apparently, was updated around 1930 with Art Deco furniture and decorations inside. It is really very nice to see so many rooms with consistent styles of decor in such a faraway place from Europe or the USA. We later saw a number of old buildings with Art Deco style exterior decoration in Palitana and Bhavnagar and wondered what they look like inside. At this hotel the swimming pool is enclosed and has a strong Art Deco feel to it as well.
We got the word that they were expecting us at the Palace so we drove there. It stands high up on the hill with great views over the area. It suffered some damage in the 2001 earthquake- especially to one tower. Were taken inside and allowed to walk around several huge rooms on the main floor that have their original decor with lots of stuffed animal trophies all around from times up into the 1960's.
The Maharaja from here was a minister in the government of Nehru. It was in the early 1970's when Indira Gandhi, essentially, revoked the agreements that had been made with the many royal families across India and they lost much of their income and property. There is still much animosity about that. Our visit to this beautiful mansion ended with them serving us tea on a porch. On the drive away from the home we saw a mongoose looking for food.
We drove to Rajkot and had lunch at a well known eatery. The entry way had around 50 people waiting to be seated and served. Indian lunchs tend to be fairly quick, so it took only around 20 minutes or so for these many people, and us, to be seated. The lunch was a thali where servers came around and gave small quantities of various foods- it was really quite good, but felt hectic with the many people talking , eating, coming and going... a typical Indian scene for middle class Indians.
After lunch we went to the Rajkot Museum which also goes by the name of the British Colonel who collected items and set them up here long ago. Chota had been there long ago and expected it would only take 15 minutes to tour, but he was very surprised to find that it had been compeletely
reorganized and now has a flow and sense to it rather than just being a collection of odd stuff. The woman museum director greeted us once she learned of Chota's royal connections and gave a bit of a tour before going back to her duties. Like in many countries, where royals have no real power, they still have some influence, and are usually treated with extra respect.
The museum was interesting to see but not a high point of this trip.
We drove on to Gondal where Jim stayed the night at the Orchard Palace. This is another former royal guest house that is now a hotel. The room was on the first floor above ground level (second floor in USA naming). The room was huge and had A/C but it was a bit dark. He had a good dinner and met a couple from the UK who were traveling a similar route- he saw them again the next day in Junagarh and the day after that in Sasangir.
The Orchard Palace has nice grounds and a nice car collection, but Jim has seen plenty of older cars and did not feel the need to see the ones here. So, we left fairly early the next day because we expected it to be a full day in Jungarh.
On the way, Jonny said there is a Buddhist cave group, so we took a detour and went there. The caves were rather minimal. Nearby there was a fairly large new complex that is unoccupied- apparently built by the government with intent to be part of a " Buddhist Trail" . It was great to walk around this site that is becoming overgrown with vegetation and pigeons. It has the "feel" of a Buddhist place and there were a small number of Buddhist images, but it is largely unfinished and unoccupied and was a good photo-op. In the distance, a large Hindu temple that looked fairly new, is visible.
We drove on to Junagarh (often written as Junagadh). Jim saw descriptions in the guide books that did not really give a good feel for this place- though it was obvious there was much to see here.
As we drove into town we came to a beautiful mausoleum - it was quite amazing, but in fairly poor
state of repair- it is clear that it is not beeing maintained. It has been suggested that upkeep of many muslim related sites is not being supported by the present government of India. This could be true, but it is also still a country - like all others where choices on where to spend have to be made. The feeling seemed to be that the chouce not to spend on Muslim related sites is worse than in the past.
We then went on to visit a place that Jonny had seen when staying in Junagarh in the past. It is a set of mausoleums apparently built in the 1700's for members of the local ruling families. It is
surrounded by buildings and walls and not easily found but very interesting to walk through. It is overgrown with weeds and shrubs and in a state of decay, but some of the sarcophagi had newer textile covers over them- probably from newer generations of the families interned here. There was one woman in one of the structures- she might have been living there- with no other home, or she might have been a caretaker. In any case, it was fun to see such a relatively un-visited place.
We went on to see the "Ashoka edicts". Ashoka was a ruler who embraced Buddhism more than 2000 years ago. He had certain inscriptions put in stones in several places across his empire and one of these is at Junagarh. Today the stone is inside a large building... and it was CLOSED for some sort of maintenance ! However, the attendant said that there is a copy down the road that was made by an englishman. So we drove down the road a short way to find there is a large bould with a lot of inscriptions that were difficult to discern as well as some writing in English that is also difficult to discern, so we took some photos and left.
The guide books mention buddhist caves in Junagarh and Jonny knew of 3 groups - maybe 4. It was a bit hot in the sun but we made our was to three groups and walked around them. One is quite extensive with many chambers and wells while the others were smaller.
We then went on top of the hill in the city to see the old fort and remnants there. This was quite interesting, but we were tired too, so it was less thrilling than it might have been. Jim met the UK couple from the Gondal hotel while viewing a step well on top of the mountain.
We had some lime soda and rested and then drove back down to the city center. There are some wonderful colonial era buildings- mostly in a poor state of repair but great to see. This was an important city long ago and during the British rule too.
Jonny pointed out a group of boys riding in the back of a truck who looked African. He said that long long ago (1300's?) the local king had a princess from Ethiopia (or thereabouts) as a wife and she brought something like 50 families of servants with her. Their descendants are these people who look more African than Indian.
We drove on the Sasangir where Jim Stayed at the Taj hotel for 3 nights.
Near Wankaner, by some miracle, which are pretty common in India, we spotted our friend Chota and driver-guide Jonny, standing near Jonny's Toyota Innova amidst a few hundred people and a few dozen other vehicles waiting for us by the side of the busy road. Jonny had driven from Ahmedabad and picked up Chota along his way to this place by the road. We had our mobile phones and numbers, so we would have, eventually, found each other, but this was easy. Jim paid the driver from Bhuj and we then went onward in the Innova. When we lived in Bangalore we had an Innova with A/C and found it to be a very comfortable vehicle. Since then Many people in the tourist industry have gotten these spacious and comfortable cars and many tourist companies use them- as we had on the earlier part of this trip in many places.
A couple of phone calls were made about getting in to see Wankaner Palace and we had not gotten a certain reply so Jonny suggested that we go to an Art Deco Hotel that he knew about in the interim.
He took us there and the caretaker said it was closed as there were no guests booked- the last had left that morning. Jonny and Chota made some calls and persuaded the caretaker to let us look around. Chota is from one of several royal families in Gujarat and these families generally know eachother or are distantly related and are one friendly terms, so his connections allowed us to visit several places that we would not have seen easily otherwise. Wankaner Palace and this Art Deco Hotel were two such places.
In the 1920 and 30's the Maharajas had a lot of money and power and influence and often spent some of that on modern buildings, furniture, autos, air planes, etc. This hotel was built as a guest house- long ago, but apparently, was updated around 1930 with Art Deco furniture and decorations inside. It is really very nice to see so many rooms with consistent styles of decor in such a faraway place from Europe or the USA. We later saw a number of old buildings with Art Deco style exterior decoration in Palitana and Bhavnagar and wondered what they look like inside. At this hotel the swimming pool is enclosed and has a strong Art Deco feel to it as well.
We got the word that they were expecting us at the Palace so we drove there. It stands high up on the hill with great views over the area. It suffered some damage in the 2001 earthquake- especially to one tower. Were taken inside and allowed to walk around several huge rooms on the main floor that have their original decor with lots of stuffed animal trophies all around from times up into the 1960's.
The Maharaja from here was a minister in the government of Nehru. It was in the early 1970's when Indira Gandhi, essentially, revoked the agreements that had been made with the many royal families across India and they lost much of their income and property. There is still much animosity about that. Our visit to this beautiful mansion ended with them serving us tea on a porch. On the drive away from the home we saw a mongoose looking for food.
We drove to Rajkot and had lunch at a well known eatery. The entry way had around 50 people waiting to be seated and served. Indian lunchs tend to be fairly quick, so it took only around 20 minutes or so for these many people, and us, to be seated. The lunch was a thali where servers came around and gave small quantities of various foods- it was really quite good, but felt hectic with the many people talking , eating, coming and going... a typical Indian scene for middle class Indians.
After lunch we went to the Rajkot Museum which also goes by the name of the British Colonel who collected items and set them up here long ago. Chota had been there long ago and expected it would only take 15 minutes to tour, but he was very surprised to find that it had been compeletely
reorganized and now has a flow and sense to it rather than just being a collection of odd stuff. The woman museum director greeted us once she learned of Chota's royal connections and gave a bit of a tour before going back to her duties. Like in many countries, where royals have no real power, they still have some influence, and are usually treated with extra respect.
The museum was interesting to see but not a high point of this trip.
We drove on to Gondal where Jim stayed the night at the Orchard Palace. This is another former royal guest house that is now a hotel. The room was on the first floor above ground level (second floor in USA naming). The room was huge and had A/C but it was a bit dark. He had a good dinner and met a couple from the UK who were traveling a similar route- he saw them again the next day in Junagarh and the day after that in Sasangir.
The Orchard Palace has nice grounds and a nice car collection, but Jim has seen plenty of older cars and did not feel the need to see the ones here. So, we left fairly early the next day because we expected it to be a full day in Jungarh.
On the way, Jonny said there is a Buddhist cave group, so we took a detour and went there. The caves were rather minimal. Nearby there was a fairly large new complex that is unoccupied- apparently built by the government with intent to be part of a " Buddhist Trail" . It was great to walk around this site that is becoming overgrown with vegetation and pigeons. It has the "feel" of a Buddhist place and there were a small number of Buddhist images, but it is largely unfinished and unoccupied and was a good photo-op. In the distance, a large Hindu temple that looked fairly new, is visible.
We drove on to Junagarh (often written as Junagadh). Jim saw descriptions in the guide books that did not really give a good feel for this place- though it was obvious there was much to see here.
As we drove into town we came to a beautiful mausoleum - it was quite amazing, but in fairly poor
state of repair- it is clear that it is not beeing maintained. It has been suggested that upkeep of many muslim related sites is not being supported by the present government of India. This could be true, but it is also still a country - like all others where choices on where to spend have to be made. The feeling seemed to be that the chouce not to spend on Muslim related sites is worse than in the past.
We then went on to visit a place that Jonny had seen when staying in Junagarh in the past. It is a set of mausoleums apparently built in the 1700's for members of the local ruling families. It is
surrounded by buildings and walls and not easily found but very interesting to walk through. It is overgrown with weeds and shrubs and in a state of decay, but some of the sarcophagi had newer textile covers over them- probably from newer generations of the families interned here. There was one woman in one of the structures- she might have been living there- with no other home, or she might have been a caretaker. In any case, it was fun to see such a relatively un-visited place.
We went on to see the "Ashoka edicts". Ashoka was a ruler who embraced Buddhism more than 2000 years ago. He had certain inscriptions put in stones in several places across his empire and one of these is at Junagarh. Today the stone is inside a large building... and it was CLOSED for some sort of maintenance ! However, the attendant said that there is a copy down the road that was made by an englishman. So we drove down the road a short way to find there is a large bould with a lot of inscriptions that were difficult to discern as well as some writing in English that is also difficult to discern, so we took some photos and left.
The guide books mention buddhist caves in Junagarh and Jonny knew of 3 groups - maybe 4. It was a bit hot in the sun but we made our was to three groups and walked around them. One is quite extensive with many chambers and wells while the others were smaller.
We then went on top of the hill in the city to see the old fort and remnants there. This was quite interesting, but we were tired too, so it was less thrilling than it might have been. Jim met the UK couple from the Gondal hotel while viewing a step well on top of the mountain.
We had some lime soda and rested and then drove back down to the city center. There are some wonderful colonial era buildings- mostly in a poor state of repair but great to see. This was an important city long ago and during the British rule too.
Jonny pointed out a group of boys riding in the back of a truck who looked African. He said that long long ago (1300's?) the local king had a princess from Ethiopia (or thereabouts) as a wife and she brought something like 50 families of servants with her. Their descendants are these people who look more African than Indian.
We drove on the Sasangir where Jim Stayed at the Taj hotel for 3 nights.
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