Another day, another city. We tried our luck with another holy city, this time Palitana. Jain pilgrims come here to worship. Jains are a special sect that try to live their lives as pure souls and seek to do no harm to other living things. They are strict vegetarians who even carefully sift flour for little critters to spare their lives. On the pilgrimage, they usually wear white. Some, especially pure pilgrims make the climb up thousands of steps in their birthday suit. If you can't make the climb, these guys will carry you up. Some little kids wanted to carry our things up, Lisa agreed after knocking an outrageous price down to size. After all, it was just a little bag offered to give the kid a few coins. Well, her mother or boss or somebody didn't agree and a lengthy confusion erupted.
At the top of the mountain are hundreds, thousands of small temples. Temple-building brings merit to Jains that do it, so the number of temples grows each year. Some of these are new, some are hundreds of years old. This truly seemed like a holy place. Pilgrims were happy to tell us about the place and their practice. Aside from the challenging hike up and down the mountain, and the labor discord, it was a relaxing day.
After a short time in Ahmedabad that included a crazy matinée in the local dialect, sickness, foul streets and the crummiest place I've ever stayed, we moved on to the former Portuguese colony of Diu. Blue seas bursting with yummy fish awaited us.
This sad little clown made me laugh every day in Diu.
The island was a wonderful place to relax and recover from all our travels over India. One day, we discovered the shipbuilding quarter of Diu.
At our final stop before leaving India, we saw this building, whatever it is.
So long India. I hardly knew ya.
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3 comments:
Yes, I hardly knew her either, but she left me emaciated and 10 pounds lighter after only 2 weeks. We should compare notes on Pushkar. I had confrontations with several of the same flower-givers as you. It must be our empathic faces and our Catholic upbringings that say "SUCKER" to all Indian on-lookers.
I believe I visited the same temple at the top of the hillside (small mountain) where you took the picture of the city. When we were there, there was a man who resided in the temple with his dog. Each time we stopped in there, he was smoking some form of hashish and herb/flower mix. My traveling companion joined him once, but I was too reluctant to try.
Yes, I hardly knew her either, but she left me emaciated and 10 pounds lighter after only 2 weeks. We should compare notes on Pushkar. I had confrontations with several of the same flower-givers as you. It must be our empathic faces and our Catholic upbringings that say "SUCKER" to all Indian on-lookers.
I believe I visited the same temple at the top of the hillside (small mountain) where you took the picture of the city. When we were there, there was a man who resided in the temple with his dog. Each time we stopped in there, he was smoking some form of hashish and herb/flower mix. My traveling companion joined him once, but I was too reluctant to try.
Seems I am somewhat of a techno-misfit. Haved tried to post a comment twice now to no avail.
Believe me! Both efforts were witty and interesting. Now my creative juices are all tapped out. Thank you bloggspot for making me feel inept and inadequate. Now I can go and wallow in lugubrious self-pity for another day.
Rock on Pushkar, I will have to visit you again soon!
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