Navsari 3.0

Told everyone I was gonna mission the 8am bus from Matvad into Navsari last night and thought I’d better deliver otherwise I’d never hear the end of it. Maya and I got to the bus stop at 7.55 to find out that it had already gone. Ridiculous, you miss the 8AM BUS when getting to the bus stop at 7.55! Neways, flagged us a sacked-out rickshaw to Char-Raste (literally, four-roads), which is an intersection about ¾ of the way into Navsari. This rickshaw was the shit, equipped with hubbies and phat beats even! Opted to walk the couple of kays from here as we could explore on the way. Maya hooked herself up with a simcard for her mobile so she’s back online.

Navsari was chaotic as ever. Dust, cars, people, cows, animals, motorbikes, cycles, trucks, horns… you name it. India assaults all your senses at once. Managed to get ourselves into the section where we’d been over the last few days and got a card-reader for our camera on the way. ALMOST scored another shirt but I rookied out at the haggling stage and ended up walking away (a must do apparently if the shopowner refuses to budge on the sale price). No big loss, we’ll be back. In and out of lots of shops but they’re all largely the same. After a few days in the city I’ve realised all the stores can be put into five baskets: Sari / fabric shops, Menswear Shops, Jewellers, Fast food (indian style) and yup… dairies. There are a huge number of DAIRIES in India…no big surprise I reckon! Though they havn’t failled to diversify - try dairies selling footwear, freshly made sweets and crickets bats….

Explored the village for a bit on this 1950’s style bike and saw some locals at the village cricket grounds. May have to pop down have a hit around soon.

Few dramas with sickness in the camp. Two team members have been feeling sick and managed to puke a few times. Delhi belly? The Evil Giardia? Who knows…… Either way, Maya’s on to it and has been dispensing panadol + anti-nausea tablets as she sees fit. Sweet