I left Darjeeling with a small touch of sadness, not only because of the nice way of living up in the mountains, but mostly because I was about to start a very, very long journey: 4 hours jeep to the train station, 7 hours waiting time at the station and 42 hours (yes, 1day and 18 hours) on the same train, all the way to Mumbai.
Living for almost 2 days on the same train is kind of a challenge! I had to fight the temptation of sleeping during day time by reading, listening to music and watching India passing by.
In the end I was really happy to reach Mumbai, also because of the much milder temperatures!
Main reason of that long journey, without any intermediate stop, was that I had to welcome my sister, who is joining me for a few weeks in India!
She landed on time (11pm), but her baggage was reported missing, so she had to fill all kind of forms for more than 1 hour before she could leave the terminal. Certainly a good and representative first impression of India!

We made it to southern Mumbai by taxi and went to bed even if we were only able to sleep around 5 am.. we had not seen each other since 4 month and had a lot to talk about!
We spent two days walking around the city and trying different Indian dishes, even if I must say I was more desirous to try the few Italian restaurants we crossed during our daily walk.

After my sister's initial acclimatization to crowd, smells and tastes, it was time for her to try the mighty Indian trains! Unfortunately we booked our tickets at the very last minute, so we had to share the same bed for the first 12 hours overnight ride to Ahmedabad. We changed train there for another 12 hours all the way to Bhuji, on the northernmost part of Gujarat.

Connecting in Ahmedabad was a big shock, not only for my sister actually: it was 5am, cold, foggy, station was terribly dirty and smelly, and worst: crowded like a bazaar on Saturday morning.
Fortunately not many people travel to Bhuji, so the journey was really smooth as we were almost by ourselves in the coach.
We reached by 6pm, managed to find a cute guesthouse in the most quiet part of town, and...went to sleep without a word!

On our first Gujarati day we explored Bhuji, which is very colorful, full of pretty streets and vegetables markets. In Gujarat people are vegetarian, and alcohol is illegal. One might think: what an healthy place to be! Well, I spent first part of the afternoon in the bathroom and the other in bed. Guilty? Lunch... Considering that the first part of the week was pretty hard for Sophie's digestion we enjoyed a delicious pot of steamed rice and 1kg bananas for dinner.

Next day we rented a motorbike and headed north to the famous white desert: a desert made of salt. After an 85km drive, we reached a military checkpoint, where we had to show our passports and pay entrance fee. Security and control were pretty tough, most likely because white desert connects India with Pakistan.

Another 2km in the sand brought us to the edge of the salty desert. What an unbelievable landscape! It felt to be on a glacier because of the color and nature of soil and on the moon because of the endless and totally flat landscapes, hard to express, but amazing to experience.
We walked for a good hour in the desert, slowly losing the sense of orientation and time. Somehow we made it back to the motorbike, not without collecting some salt to bring back home.

In the following days we kept exploring the northern part of Gujarat by motorbike. We went to the picturesque village of Budjodi, known worldwide for its handicraft, specially its fabric which are produced in the village itself by its inhabitants and exported all around the world. Despite this huge business people remained very simple, and it's still possible to buy some wonderful pieces directly from the manufacturer...and of course we didn't miss the opportunity. It was only terribly hard to choose between thousands of patterns, colors, materials and sizes. Budjodi is the perfect place to separate from some extra rupees.

On our last two days on the peninsula, we headed towards Mandvi, a pretty seaside village, with a funny beach full of Indian tourists and camels.
As we were almost the only two people swimming in the Arabian sea (additionally we were the only two non Indians in town) we were approached by a fishermen offering us to cook some fish on the beach for us. He took a few tiny fishes and crabs out of its nets, lit a fire and simply laid the catch on the fire without any preparation such as removing innards. That's the easiest and fasted way of doing barbecue I've ever seen. To enjoy the fish, we simply had to remove the burned skin to find the meat cooked to perfection! Best moment: when he offered us the kidneys, which are the finest part...at least according to them! After this sandy appetizer he invited us to join his family for dinner. He was not really speaking any English, no need to mention our Hindi, but we managed to setup a meeting for the same evening at his house. We bought some cookies and cakes and drove to his house...which took us at least 45 minutes despite the place was less than 3 km from our hotel. Fortunately everybody in town seemed to know our guy, and we finally discovered that what we first thought to be a poor fishermen was in fact a rich gold and jeweler manufacturer and seller!

In India a guest is considered as a God, I knew that but never really experienced it.

We were welcomed in a small but cozy house, were sited on the two biggest armchairs, and the parade began: every family member, neighbor, friend, business associate and so on came to see us, greet us and ask us where we were coming from, how we like India and telling us that Switzerland was their dream country. We could even understand (or guess) the ones saying it in Hindi or Gujarati!


Dinner was delicious, although a bit spicy for Sophie. I finished her dish and realized only a few hours later that it was probably a bit too spicy for me as well.
We also understood that one should never leave his plate empty when he's no longer hungry, there was simply no way to refuse refill of food.

We were literally treated like kings, the whole family was lovely, everybody was watching at us while eating, we took pictures together, invited them to Switzerland and finally and sadly had to leave.
We were particularly touched by the behavior of family's boss, which must certainly be an authoritarian man with his family and business, but suddenly became like a teddy bear with us!
I also noticed the barrier between man and woman, virtually no lady talked to me and no man talked to my sister.
Anyway, it was an unforgettable experience, and we met a beautiful family, as there must be millions in India. Simply happy.


We took a train to Gujarat's main city, Ahmedabad, to meet my sister's friend from Switzerland: Silvio, and one of Sophie's study mate from India: Mrunal.
We reached Ahmedabad by 10pm, and Mrunal drove us to a good hotel. The good hotel turned to be a 5 stars hotel...with a 5 stars price. After 4 month on the road I decided I deserved one night in a big bed with fat duvet, to have shower with unlimited hot water and clean towels, so we went for it! Nevermind the budget. Let's mind the comfort.


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