Junagadh via Porbandar

 

Headed towards Porbandar this morning. This is the town where Gandhi was born. It is not a particularly large city but it's absolutely crazy with narrow roads under repair. It is quite old with some really interesting buildings.

Apart from the house where Gandhi was born there wasn't too much else to see but we did have a good laugh! As we were putting our shoes on a nice friendly Indian man started to talk to us. With a very straight face Tarun told him that I adopted him when he was a baby. The man then proceeded to tell me what a very nice person I was and how he honoured me. It was all I could do to hold back the laughter until we got outside the gate. Tarun enjoyed his story and thinks he might elaborate next time and tell the next gullible person that I've brought him back to India to find him an Indian wife.

Just as we were about to leave Porbandar the car started to develop a problem. The nearest mechanic was at a Suzuki dealership so we popped in there. Nice for me as there was a nice comfortable air conditioned lounge to wait in..... with television showing the NZ / West Indies cricket match. Loved the sign on the wall... 'labour charge 290 rupees per hour' ....that's about $6.30 NZ!  Not too many westerners round this area so I think I may have been more of an attraction than the cricket game. I had  offers of chai or water from about 5 different people all wanting to take a look at me and try out their English, then four women all came in together to clean one wall about 4 metres long and 1 metre high.

The problem was a coolant hose, so 500 rupees later (less than $10NZ) we were on our way again towards another adventure thanks to Mr TomTom! This guy really seems to know all the shortcuts but isn't quite so up on the conditions of the roads. Take a look at Tarun evaluating the 'road' to see if we can get through.

Despite some local villagers saying it was impossible we made it!!!! Tarun isn't just a city boy!!!

It wasn't too far to a better road and I saw lots of rural India on the way, including  several cotton fields. I sent Tarun off to pick me some as I've never seen it growing before.

We made it to our hotel in Junagadh about 3.30pm. It's not great but it is the best in town and clean!