From Aurangabad I took a 14 hour sleeper bus to Ahmedabad in the state Gujarat. My main purpose for that visit was to see the Akhshardham temple. I found it not as stunning as the one in Delhi, which I had seen last year. Still, it was impressive. The exhibition there gave me a good introduction to Swaminarian religion. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed, so I don't have any of the Akhshardham temple.
After that, I followed Vikram's advice to go to the Adalaj stepwell. Not expecting anything I found it pretty spectacular. It was a huge well decorated with nice carvings. This was of course a very popular selfie location for Indians. I think India must be the number one consumer of selfie sticks.
I had met Vikram through Couchsurfing and he let me stay at his place. It was the first time for me that I used that website, but a great experience. In the evening Vikram, a friend of his and another couchsurfer ended up talking till late in the night.
The following morning I already left for my next destination, Rajkot. Again I would be trying Couchsurfing. This time I met Tushar. He immediately introduced me to his friends. His friend Ravi took us in his car so they could give me a quick overview of Rajkot.
I left my bag at Tushar's and took a local bus in the night to Dwarka. This turned out to be an awfully inconvenient trip with a two hour wait at a cold bus stop. In the morning I got to Dwarka where Lord Krishna is said to have resided. I went to the famous Dwarkadhish temple dedicated to Krishna. It is believed that Krishna's grandson himself built this temple and therefore is a common destination for pilgrims. The city itself was also very pretty being located at the Arabian sea. Further, it was nice seeing religious purga being done in the morning. Though there were more important temples in places around, I decided fairly early to go back to Rajkot.
Buses don't connect those towns that frequently which is why I took a shared cab. This means a car is stuffed with up to 13 people. At every city some people get off and then we wait for about 30 minutes until the car is full enough again. More stops are added to have tea or crisps. Until now, only in Gujarat have I seen people drink tea from a plate. That way it cools faster and is drinkable earlier.
Tired I reach back to Rajkot and have a nice evening with Tushar and his friends.
The next day I went on to Bhuj. Tushar had put me in touch with Pratik who could take care of me there. Pratik sent his friend Kalpesh to welcome me. I met some more of his friends that made me try many of the great street foods.
They found a good tour for me to do the next day. A bus took us to several places in the Rann of Kuch. The absolute highlight and the purpose of my trip to Bhuj was the white desert. The astonishing dried salt lake was only made a tourist spot a few years ago. Before, even people living in Bhuj didn't know about that place.
We watched the sun set and then the Bus took us back. In Bhuj again, I had about one hour to hang out with my new friends. Then I got on a sleeper bus leaving Gujarat.
