Blog 019 - Destination Palitana

Destination: Palitana
(pronounced Pauli-tana)

Day 33 – Friday, April 4

Day 34 – Saturday, April 5

No Friday meeting today. Instead some of the volunteers went on the Heritage Walk in old city. Like a guided walking tour back in New Orleans. The guide gave a brief slide show, then guided us through the back alleys and turns, pointing out the hidden passages between the “pols” - distinct districts that would belong to each caste. We visited several temples and mosques along the way. A lot of the places, Jose and I had already discovered, but now I have a better understanding of how everything works together.

So tired today, it's hot all the time now. The fans generate a warm heat, which is relaxing to the point of lulling you to sleep. I wish we were still going to the ashramshala instead of going crazy sitting around until the volunteer trip on May 1.

Jose, Romy and I just decided we are going to Palitana tonight. I went and got bus tickets after we were trying to determine the best cost. One way to Palitina, leaving tonight at 11, getting there around 4:45. Hopefully we get there before sunrise so we can start our hike up early. Right now we have no hotel reservations – just going to wing it. If we can't get anything there, we will take another bus later in then evening to Bhanagar (pronounced Bog-nah-gar) about an hour away which we would have to go anyway to get back to Ahmedabad on Sunday. Backpack is packed and ready to go. Camera batteries charged, IPAD charged – can't wait for 10:30. Hope I can get comfortable on a sleeper bus; can't imagine an Indian bus with a sleeper that I can fit in. All part of the adventure.

It's around 8 and Jose brought Romy over. We eat a little and get ready. About 10:30, we head out. Grab a rickshaw right outside and head to the Raj bus office on the other side of town in the Paldi district. It's about 11 and our bus is scheduled to depart at 11:30. So we hang around outside and grab a chai. As something the Indians are proud of, their modes of transportation are on time. Inside the bus is quite roomy, with upper and lower berthings, two people to a section. The sexes are separate, unless they are a couple. Romy and Jose have the bunk above me, I take the lower one. An Indian guy is already settled in from a previous stop. He speaks a little English and is doing something on his smart phone. We talk a little. As I expected, I can't lay out straight, but I find I can stretch my legs up on the compartment wall which works out find – at least I won't get kinked up for the next five and a half hours. The bus pulls out on time, weaving its way along the city streets. You can't see anything, but you can hear the horns. You will know you are out of town when the frequency of horns comes down. I play a few games on my Ipad, then stretch out as best I can. In all honesty, I am a lot more comfortable than I expected to be. I am tired so I doze off rather quickly. A few hours later, the bus stops and it's like a rest stop. I woke up to see Jose coming back on the bus, so I move quick to go use the toilet; last thing I need is to be stranded at a bus rest top at 2am in the morning in who knows where. All turns out good. The bathrooms are more primitive than usual. A line of urinals with holes in the bottoms (that's not unusual), but then it just runs out onto the floor; something you don't realize until it is splashing on your feet over your sandals. Oh well, this is India.

A short while later, our bus pulls off and I fall back asleep. A few more hours and we should get to Palitana. The bus rocks side to side; you can feel when you are on a good road, you don't even have to see it. The occasional horn blast lets you know when there are other vehicles around. This isn't a regular city bus, this is a private bus, so the conditions are a bit better at a little higher cost – but well worth it.

Anyway, we arrive at Palitana about a half hour earlier than scheduled. It's 4:15 in the morning. We are just a stop on the driver's trip. They make sure to let us know. Much like any trip, we are the only westerners around. Most westerners don't come to Gujarat for some reason (not really sure why), so we do stand out and get treated rather well.

Like I said, it's 4:15am and we don't have to stand around long before a ricksha driver asks us if we want to go to the temple, which is our intent. He tries to get a high set rate – high for him. We decline and start walking over to another ricksha, he starts to descend his prices, 150 rupees, 140, 130. We stand to our price of 100 for the 3 of us. 100 would still be high, but it's 4:15am, its dark, we have no idea where we are or even where we have to go and we are haggling price. That's when you know you have been in India a while. We settle on 100 rupees to go to the temple. Our driver starts off into what becomes a rather long ride through the dark, deserted streets of Palitana. Only a few people are up and about. Even the dogs must be sleeping. If we were paying by the meter, we probably would have paid more, but he didn't even have meter. Eventually we arrive at the base of the temple complex around 4:30. Some old men, and even younger boys come to greet us . . . “temple, temple” . . . they want to carry us up on a chair supported by two sticks on their shoulders – kind of like ancient Egyptian style. “no, no” we say, “we want to walk. So they point us in the direction to go. And off we go, with several of the “people bearers” stay a little ways behind us, just in case we would change our mind.

Remember now, we have 3300 steps to climb; we can't see very far in front of us because its extremely dark. The steps are rather wide, so it's not like one bad step and you go tumbling down the mountain. But you can't see anything in the dark. I had brought along a little flashlight, but Jose had thought the same thing and brought his small, high powered light too. Probably a good thing because not far after we started, I happened to see something move. Turns out it was about a foot and half long, rather thin snake. Perhaps that's why people had told us not to go up the steps at night. Anyway, that light stayed on rest of the time we went up, scanning for anything else that might be along the path in front of us.

Perhaps it was about half way, who knows, I began slowing down. Jose and Romy could easily have kept going at a better pace; however, they were patient with me and every time I had to take a break, they would wait with me. I was determined to make it . . . I knew what was at the top. I would not miss this. I kept pushing myself, taking a break whenever I needed it. The weather was very nice, almost cold. The wind was blowing the whole time, the air was cool. If there wasn't the chance of a snake crawling over you, I could have just laid on my back and looked at the clear sky. It seemed you could see every star in the universe. You could clearly see the clouded Milky Way. It was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. But we kept going, step by step by step. We thought we heard an animal off to the side, nothing. We continued to hear sound, then realizing it was person; a monk was making his early morning walk to the temple, maintaining a steady pace, clothed in white robes, their walking stick keeping a steady rhythm. That must have been around 5:30; it was still very dark. From then on, we would be approached, then passed, by one then another monk or sister making the upward trek to the temple.

Higher up, there would be little temples or short-stops where you could sit and take a break. Otherwise, we just sat on the steps. As we got higher I had to stop more often, but I kept going. I was not going to miss this. Still no signs of sunrise yet. The higher we went, you could look back down to the town and see the lights. It was bigger than we thought it was, but it was still rather small overall.

Eventually, two hours into our trek, itwas starting to get a bit brighter, but still dark. Sunrise was maybe around 20 minutes away. We came to an area with more open walks than steps; good sign, then more steps. You would never know unless you had walked this before. Some other people were around, but not many. We got to an area where you look up, see the top of the mountain and some spires of the temple. We were getting close. Finally the sun was breaking, the early morning view of the sun when you can look at it directly, the yellows and reds. It was simply beautiful, the town far, far below. You could see the winding river, which none of us even knew was there just hours before. And the trek continued.

Every time you think you were done with steps, there were more. I was continually pushing, but I was determined. The goal was stronger than ever now; and it finally paid off. One last curve around the mountain and there it was. The temple complex. Just a few people were there when we were, aside from the monks and nuns. It was still, very quiet, just birds chirping and nuns praying. There were stupas everywhere you looked, prayer flags blowing hard in the wind. The occasional sound of a bell; the scent of incense wafting in the air. This is a huge Jain temple complex. There is bamboo scaffolding where repairs are underway; but overall, most of the complex is just as it was when it was first constructed. We find a place and just sit. The sun hasn't quite rise yet. We sit in front of a ancient stupa complex; you move around till find just the right position. You don't want the sun directly in your eyes, so you move to get the sun behind one of the stupas as it rises, the glow spreading out around it. It's mystical. It's spiritual. It's everything I expected and more. It's a moment you won't forget. All the pain in your legs from walking those steps is gone. None of us say a word for quite a while, each of us in our own world. This is a personal moment, it's what you want it to be.

For the next hour, there is no crowd of people here. It remains more or less quiet for a while. There is one temple where the women are praying to Shiva. Incense and candles. This is an active temple and yet we are allowed to wander at will. The only restriction is no shoes, and no (absolutely no) photography. My camera weeps silently in my backpack. I completely respect this. Some things are meant to be a part of your mind. I couldn't have taken a photo of what I was feeling there anyway.

We walk through the entire complex, slowly. Sometimes, we walk together, others we just break off and see things on our own. You see the gods in their individual shines in one temple, in another they sit side by side. There are writings in Hindi that people can read, but this is way off the casual tourist route. Nothing is provided in English; so you just absorb everything into your mind. We cross over to a different area and ascend more steep steps. There are “security personnel” everywhere, but they are just there to direct people when they seem lost. Very friendly. We find the perfect spot for taking photos of the first complex we had been at. No one else is there. Signs are all over the entire complex “Absolutely No Photography”. I see a security guard walking near by; I open my backpack and show him my camera and make motions to see if I can just take picture. He motions with his finger swaying side to side, “no, no” OK, at least I tried.

We keep walking around. You can start to hear people talking louder now from the other side of the main complex. The place has started to change; not the same as when we got here a few hours earlier. I would have been very disappointed to have come all this way to find that situation. But I was very happy at this point. Little did I know, but my day was going to get even better.

My little security guard started showing us around to different temples that more than likely we wouldn't have found on our own. Then new stepped out of one beautifully carved temple and into a courtyard with a beautifully carved stuppa. Then he said, “one photo”. I took two and then a few more of Jose and Romy in front of it. Then I just said I really would like just a few photos of the other temple complex from that one area where had first met him. He led us back, then disappeared into a corridor. I knew I had to act fast before another guard could find us. I was hoping for the best shots in just a few minutes. I had my telephoto on and just started clicking, knowing not all would come out good. I got maybe ten shots off. So now these few pictures are the “forbidden” photos. Now my camera was crying tears of joy. I slipped the little guy 100 rupees and he was happy too. It was 8:45 now and a lot of people were starting to stream in; it was noisy.

Our walk up was two and a half hours, we spent two hours roaming the complex in near absolute silence and now our walk down was about one and a quarter hours. The walk down was half the time getting up – this was just like my walk up and down the volcano back in Zaire in 1984. I went walk down on my own – told Romy and Jose to take their time, I'd meet them at the bottom. I took a short break about halfway down and some middle age guy walks up to me and says “tourist?” I say yes and he says something about how there are no tourists in these parts. I tell him I am visiting from Ahmedabad, that I am working for an NGO there, and he says, “so, you're not a tourist” and continues to walk off. Such an odd fellow he was. He sounded part German, part British. Felt rather good being considered a local instead of a “tourist”.

Once back down, we all needed water – and it didn't take long to find a little shop to get some cold bottle water. Withing nothing else to do in Palitana, we decided to get to Bhavnagar, but how. No one spoke English at the shop, but they pointed us to a small bank across the street. When I asked him the best way to Bhavnagar, he called a friend of his who I think works in a travel agency. He said we could go by bus for around 40 rupees each or a train for around 200. He even gave the banker the address for the bus and train stations there so we wouldn't get lost. Like I always say, everyone is really helpful around here. We decided on taking the bus; it would be about an hour; but it would be a municipal bus and not a private bus – so think old, dirty, city bus. We got to the station, basically an old dirt field with a small office and a couple of food stands. The guy said stand one for Bhavnagar. We were talking to some college age kids that said it probably stand two or three. Neither one had buses there, so one kid stayed with us and checked the drivers of each one and let us know the correct one before we got on. People continue to be nice here.

On city buses, you just tell the conductor on the bus where you are going and just pay him directly, no getting tickets before hand. Palitana to Bahvnagar, 38 rupees, around 40 km distance. It was crowded with people continuing to get on along the way. A lot of people standing, hot, long, bumpy roads. I was able to get seat in the front half, Jose and Romy were in the back somewhere. But, nevertheless, an adventure in itself. Got to Bhavnagar and grabbed a ricksha. Told him we wanted to go someplace to eat and maybe get a room for the night. He stopped along the way and asked his friend, who spoke some English. He gave a recommendation and it turned out to be a nice place to eat.

Spent lunch talking about our morning and what we wanted to do now. Jose was trying to find out other things to do in Bhavnagar and was striking out on that. So we decided on rather than just spending money on a hotel and going back tomorrow, we would just go back to Ahmedabad and use the money we would have spent on a hotel on another weekend going somewhere else. So we talked to the hotel people who found us a private bus going to Ahmedabad at 3. Got a ricksha and they said they could get us on a 4pm bus. Sounded good. We just sat around for the next hour in a covered area with chairs with warm air blowing down on us from fans; I think we all dozed off. Bus was air condition. Last nights sleeper bus wasn't air conditioned, but it was night and the windows were open – it was really nice. But traveling in the daytime, you seriously need the air conditioning. It's a four hour trip and we stopped halfway at a much better rest stop. Able to get cold bottle water and a mango drink. Got to watch a Bollywood movie. Then a little rest. Got back around 8.

All in all, all 3 of us had a pretty good adventure. We learned how to navigate riding the busses in India; when to get an air conditioned bus; sleeper buses aren't bad at all. We learned you don't really need to make plans ahead of time. And above all – Palitana was pretty awesome.