10 Year Itch

Hotel Prince

Rating: 7 out of 10
Hotel Prince is said to be the 1st 3-star hotel in Kutchch. LP had recommended it so we knew it would be one of the best places to stay. And it was! We were given a Deluxe double-room, which was beautifully decorated. It was a spacious room with wooden floors and decorative Kutchchi mud-work on the walls and ceilings. The bed was one of the best we’ve had in all our Gujarat stay. It was supremely comfortable with a soft, thick comforter on top. The only negative in the room, was that the bathroom wasn’t great. Of course, it was a functioning one with no problems of any sort, but it just wasn’t 3-star.

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The plan for today was to see the handicrafts in the villages and then head out to the Little Rann Sanctuary in the evening – we had bookings with Desert Coursers, an outfit that provides accommodation and safaris in the sanctuary. So we checked out of our hotel in the morning, left our luggage with the concierge and took an auto to Aina Mahal; we were there exactly at 9am. The auto that would take us to the villages arrived promptly as well. Mr. Jethi, who was outside the museum (it’s closed on Saturdays), working on something in the yard, talked to the auto-driver, Bharat, in Kutchchi and described the route we were to take. He then explained to us that we would be taken to 3 villages – Bhujodi for hand-weaving, Ajrakhpuram for block-printing and Dhaneti for embroidery. At 9:15am, we set off for the villages.

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Bhujodi is a traditional crafts village inhabited by around 1200 people of the Vankar community of weavers, situated about 12 kms from Bhuj.

Weaver at work

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The art of Ajrakh block printing uses colors derived from nature, such as indigo, henna, turmeric, pomegranate, iron and mud. In some cases, the fabrics are washed up to 20 times.

Ajrakh fabrics

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Dhaneti is a village on the outskirts of Bhuj. It’s famous for its exquisite embroidery work. Shrujan has a few home factories in Dhaneti.

At a Shrujan Home Factory

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It’s probably because of the way it’s shaped, but getting around in Gujarat is no easy task. Since Bhuj is a huge tourist attraction in the Kutchch area, we were quite confident that buses/trains to there would be easy to find … err, not so much! We would have to take 3 trains to get to Bhuj from Junagad. As for buses, there were no direct ones, so yesterday morning, we took an a/c bus to Rajkot (2 hours ride), one of the biggest cities in Saurashtra. There we found that only ONE travel agency ran buses to Bhuj! Thankfully, we found seats in their air-conditioned bus that leaves Rajkot at noon and gets to Bhuj in 5 hours.

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The Kutch Museum was established in the year 1877 by the British Governor of Mumbai, Sir James Fergusson.

Kutch Local

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The Aina Mahal is a large two storey stone mansion, which was built in 1752. Sadly, the 2001 earthquake caused extensive damage to the Mahal. The management is still restoring parts of it.

Tiger Head

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