Diu -> Somnath -> Gir – You just can have coffee with milk

10. December 2024

 

 

Diu is a small island right on the landmass of Gujarat. You don’t really realise that you are on one. Together with other small tracts of land in western India, it forms a speciality, a so-called Union Territory. These 4 areas belonged to Portugal for a long time, i.e. until the late 50s/early 60s. Then they reluctantly handed them over together with Goa. The fact that these territories (i.e. without Goa), which are spatially separated from each other, were now combined into a union territory only happened in 2020. Since then, they have had 2 seats in the Indian parliament.

 

When you’re there, you don’t notice anything directly, except that Gujarat is a dry state, i.e. there is no alcohol, but there is in Diu. Of course, this makes for a bit of tourism, although I would have expected a lot of alcohol shops, but there weren’t any. Perhaps you can only have a drink in restaurants and not buy and stockpile supplies.

 

Even though I knew that there was a beach, but that it wouldn’t be so picturesque, I imagined a sea swim. But that didn’t happen. We arrived too late and left early and it was too cold during that time. But I walked to the beach in the morning with my camera:

 

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So no lying on the beach or swimming in the sea, but we did visit the fort. That was quite interesting because it almost felt like I was in Goa or something. There was nothing going on. In front of the fort is another part of a building island, which was probably also a lookout. Apart from that, everything was there to drive away the enemies from the sea and to feel Christian inside.

 

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We soon moved on. It would have been nice to have a look at the fishing boats and stroll through the town and so on. But we still had a lot to do.

 

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Afterwards there were more stories than pictures, there was an absolute ban on mobile phones, you had to hand them over. When we arrived, I was very tired and wanted a coffee. Black and without sugar. Not really a problem, but in this huge establishment it was.

 

Sheetal

 

There was absolutely nothing going on. One man was at the sales counter and one in the kitchen.

“2 coffee, please, black”

“We don’t have”

“Why not? What then?”

“There is just coffee with milk”

“But why, can’t you just leave out the milk?”

“No”

I was about to give up and made arrangements for a milk coffee, but not so Raghu. That was total madness. And then he got into a full-blown argument with the salesman. Which he lost. But then we spotted the coffee maker and were able to speak to him directly. Yes, of course he could make us a black coffee, even without sugar. And he did just that. Yes, why wasn’t that possible with the seller? We would have asked for it so unsympathetically….. Which of course wasn’t true. With all the excitement, I didn’t need any more caffeine, but I was happy to drink it anyway.

 

black coffee

 

coffeecook

 

We were at the Somnath Temple. It is very, very important for Hindus, many make a pilgrimage here. And because it’s not that far from the Pakistani coast and the temple is so important, there is a particular fear of a terrorist attack here. The temple has been destroyed several times in the past. There is a legend about the temple – as usual in India with several variations. Here is the one from my guide:

 

Chandra, the moon god, had fallen in love with a woman whom he wanted to marry. As was customary at the time, the future father-in-law demanded that he marry off all 27 of his daughters. Chandra did so, but very grudgingly. And made the other 26 realise that he only liked one of them. They complained to their father, who then cursed Chandra and sent him tuberculosis! What a misery! Now what? There might be a way out. Chandra went on a pilgrimage to a place where 3 rivers met and prayed to Shiva there. And – oh wonder – it worked! TB gone again! He had been all shrivelled up by then, but that too could be remedied. And what do you do when a miracle like that happens? Build a temple! And maybe love 27 sisters the same way.

 

So we handed in all our electronics, mobile phones and everything else, looked at the deity in the temple, went back outside and watched as a new flag was hoisted. It had been donated by a family. They had come with a drummer and danced joyfully with others in a circle. I also joined in a bit, but you can’t see it because there were no mobile phones or cameras.

 

Incidentally, Hindu and Jain temples sometimes look a bit similar from the outside. On a Hindu temple, however, the waving flag is always triangular while the Jains have a rectangular one. And when I went out, I could only take this picture. But there’s enough to see on the internet anyway.

 

Somnath Temple

 

And then we drove on to add another experience to the previous ones. This one was completely different again! In Gir, the only lions in Asia can be stalked! Well, stalking is probably somehow wrong, there are prescribed routes and you drive along them in a vehicle. Raghu is an absolute fan and expert etc. – and I’m a sceptical nut. Because I found the safari in Chitwan in Nepal so boring, I wasn’t expecting anything more here. But things turned out differently.

 

Safariranger

 

Toilettbreak for all

 

After this toilet break, a lioness actually trotted alongside the track.

 

Lion 1

 

Lion 2

 

Many of the cars came together and almost piled up from left to right and everyone was trying to take a nice photo. Me too, or rather, at the same time I felt a total aversion. The whole event just seemed wrong, wrong, wrong. Tens of cars driving around a national park to look at an animal that is considered dangerous and wild. And then it’s so used to cars and trots around unperturbed. This is somehow not how I imagined the coexistence of looking-at-wild-animals and wild animals.

 

cars

 

And in contrast to Chitwan with the rhinos, which I found boring, this time I was even more emotionally angry – comparable perhaps with my experiences trekking in the Everest region, which was also very unpleasant for me. It was simply no longer what nature and experiencing nature means to me. When nature, which is actually ‘dangerous’, is made so manageable. It was very unpleasant for me to be there and I wanted nothing to do with it.

 

A little time has passed since then and I’ve thought again about what I found so unpleasant about it. Apart from Chitwan, I have sometimes seen other forms of animal sightings such as the snow leopard in Ladakh (I didn’t like that either, but it wasn’t so emotional). I think it had to do with the fact that the lions were so close to the cars. And so – for me – it no longer felt ‘authentic’. But maybe I have strange ideas about authenticity?

 

Later, we saw a mother lion with 2 children trotting along the road in front of us. There were only 3 cars around, but it was strange to me, too.

 

Lions on track

 

Then there was some pretty nature to see and a crocodile and a nilgai.

 

crocodile

 

Nilgai

 

Landscape

 

Of course, it was also uncomfortable that I was sitting here ‘for Diamir’ and Raghu is their partner and this is absolutely his world and his enthusiasm. I will be able to abstract it and if people are enthusiastic about it, then that’s the way it is and I certainly won’t block it from my side. But now, in direct contact, it wasn’t all that easy. I also find it difficult to control spontaneous negative emotions. We’ve somehow managed to get along again, but he hasn’t quite given up in showing me his great pictures and films of tigers and so on. But there’s just no spark of enthusiasm from me.

 

I think I’ll leave the subject alone for now. Fortunately, there were other things to experience over the next few days.