A grey scratchy blanket kept us a tad warmer on the following night bus, pulling into the Gujerat town of Rajkot as dawn warmed the sky. We were the only foreigners on the bus, refreshing after India to this point, and once we rescued our bags from belly of the bus a rickshaw took us to the local bus station for the next 3 hour leg with the driver apologising for not speaking better English! 3
people then helped make sure we were on the right bus and sure enough we arrived in Junagadh without a hitch. We hoped everybody was going to be so friendly in Gujerat! The town of Junagadh was not what I expected, a swarming mass of motorbikes and
rickshaws that choked the air but there was a good bustling atmosphere and sites worth seeing. First stop was some old Muslim buildings (I forget the name) which were different to anything we had seen in India but also were in a sorry state of repair. While there we ended up being filmed and interviewed by some local journalists who tried their hardest to get us to show our contempt for the corrupt local government who were siphoning off restoration funds. This was of course all news to us but we still
managed to attract quite a crown of curious children. Next stop was the massively overgrown and overrated fort before attempting to show interest by visiting the museum. The final excursion involved us getting up at 6am and climbing the 7000 steps to reach the top of the pilgrimage site of mount Girnar. We were joined by hundreds of others and for the whole climb our
soundtrack was "Whats your name" and "Which country"! The first exercise in a while was both refreshing and the views worth the effort, the main Jain temple was fantastic with the white clad men and technicolour women forming separate thronging queues to enter.
Next stop was the small island of Diu, a former Portugese colony that was only handed over around 40 years ago. The next 4 days were spent in true holiday mode! Hiring a scooter on the first day we coughed and spluttered our way around the island, a 12 year old boy patched a puncture for 20 Rs, we swimming in the warm waters on a deserted beach all afternoon and finally headed back to a fishing village where we had been invited on a 1 h
our trip by the boat electrician. Its a good job he wasn't the captain as we spent a couple of hours drinking tea or being shown around the port because the tide was too low to leave the harbour! As the sun set we made our excuses and headed the 20 minutes back to the
hotel while it was still light. The next 3 days were spent swimming and reading under a parasol on a lovely sandy beach shared with at most 4 other people. The occasional local group of boys had to be put up with but they were harmless enough, generally just wanting a photo. Meals were glorious fish dishes and we left feeling well and truly relaxed.
A grey scratchy blanket kept us a tad warmer on the following night bus, pulling into the Gujerat town of Rajkot as dawn warmed the sky. We were the only foreigners on the bus, refreshing after India to this point, and once we rescued our bags from belly of the bus a rickshaw took us to the local bus station for the next 3 hour leg with the driver apologising for not speaking better English! 3 
people then helped make sure we were on the right bus and sure enough we arrived in Junagadh without a hitch. We hoped everybody was going to be so friendly in Gujerat! The town of Junagadh was not what I expected, a swarming mass of motorbikes and 
rickshaws that choked the air but there was a good bustling atmosphere and sites worth seeing. First stop was some old Muslim buildings (I forget the name) which were different to anything we had seen in India but also were in a sorry state of repair. While there we ended up being filmed and interviewed by some local journalists who tried their hardest to get us to show our contempt for the corrupt local government who were siphoning off restoration funds. This was of course all news to us but we still 
managed to attract quite a crown of curious children. Next stop was the massively overgrown and overrated fort before attempting to show interest by visiting the museum. The final excursion involved us getting up at 6am and climbing the 7000 steps to reach the top of the pilgrimage site of mount Girnar. We were joined by hundreds of others and for the whole climb our 
soundtrack was "Whats your name" and "Which country"! The first exercise in a while was both refreshing and the views worth the effort, the main Jain temple was fantastic with the white clad men and technicolour women forming separate thronging queues to enter.
Next stop was the small island of Diu, a former Portugese colony that was only handed over around 40 years ago. The next 4 days were spent in true holiday mode! Hiring a scooter on the first day we coughed and spluttered our way around the island, a 12 year old boy patched a puncture for 20 Rs, we swimming in the warm waters on a deserted beach all afternoon and finally headed back to a fishing village where we had been invited on a 1 h
our trip by the boat electrician. Its a good job he wasn't the captain as we spent a couple of hours drinking tea or being shown around the port because the tide was too low to leave the harbour! As the sun set we made our excuses and headed the 20 minutes back to the 
hotel while it was still light. The next 3 days were spent swimming and reading under a parasol on a lovely sandy beach shared with at most 4 other people. The occasional local group of boys had to be put up with but they were harmless enough, generally just wanting a photo. Meals were glorious fish dishes and we left feeling well and truly relaxed.
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