On Sunday, Philip had his 32nd birthday, or he is now 33 years running as we say here in India. Suddenly, time seems to be moving rather quickly. It's 10 years since I left school and spent the summer holidaying and bell ringing in Australia, 5 years since we bought our house in Cambridge and almost 3 years since we got married. Time marches on...
Anyway, we celebrated with a weekend away in Gujarat, the state directly north of Maharashtra, with an itinerary some way from the main tourist trail. Gujarat is famous for several things; Mahatma Gandhi, the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi ("NaMo"), the best roads in India (thanks to NaMo), a prosperous business culture, salt flats (Gandhi again) and being a "dry" state. To get a beer in Gujarat, one needs to register for an alcohol licence and this beer can then only be drunk in private. Phil's birthday was going to be a sober one.
We started our journey on Friday evening on an overnight train from Bandra station, a mile or two from home, up to Mahesana, one stop north of Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat. The journey didn't start well as every taxi and autorickshaw we approached refused to take us the two miles to the station, probably on account of the traffic and difficulty getting back into Bandra again, so we were left to march through the crazy Friday night traffic to our destination. Thankfully we'd left lots of time and were soon on our upper bunks in AC 2-tier, a comparative luxury relative to our more recent sleeper class train experiences, and enjoyed a decent seven hour sleep before our arrival in Gujarat at 7am the next morning.
Shortly before our stop, when we were waiting by the doors, the cleaning boys came round to sweep up the carriages and empty the bins. I was a little horrified, though not surprised, when everything was swept into a pile and I was politely asked to stand aside so he could open the train door (whilst in motion) to sweep the whole lot outside. Sigh. It seems that my efforts to put things in the bin rather than on the floor were in vain; it doesn't make any difference. I do feel sorry for those living by the train tracks. Life is hard enough as it is without train loads of litter being swept on you each day.
We were picked up by our driver at the station, a young chap who didn't know any English and didn't know where he was going, but appeared to be able to drive a car safely so all was well. Google maps is our friend in India; getting around would be a lot more difficult without it. We had arranged the car in advance and Phil had a planned our route, started with the Rani ki Vav, an ancient stepwell in Patan, an hour's drive from Mahesana.
Now a day driving round rural Gujarat to visit stepwells doesn't sound particularly thrilling, but stepwells are a little known gem of northern India. Where rain is sparse, it is very important to conserve what you can when the rains come, therefore many deep wells were built by wealthy rulers. These are not, though, my kind of well consisting of a hole in the ground and a bucket; these are serious pieces of architecture. From what I've seen, it seems that building a flashy stepwell was the 10th century rich Indian equivalent of driving a sparkling new BMW as quickly as possible in the streets near our apartment in Mumbai. It was something to show off about.
The Rani ki Vav is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is magnificent. It was buried until the 1960s so is now beautifully preserved with incredibly ornate stone carvings. The highlight of my trip was when we reached the top of the stepwell and looked down on a colourful mass of schoolgirls who behaved like they have never seen a white person before (which was probably the case). They came running towards us, desperate for photographs and to shake our hands, with no embarrassment or inhibition. The only slight difficulty we had was paying for our tickets to get in as our driver was incredulous that we were being charged 100 rupees (£1) for a ticket and couldn't understand why we weren't being given the 5 rupee rate. I have long ago learnt that there is no point even trying to get the lower rate, resident or not.
From the stepwell, we moved on to Modhera, the site of a Sun Temple, the twin to the temple that we saw in Konark in February this year. We hired a very enthusiastic guide who talked us through the carvings and structure of the temple. The lessons that will stay with me are "never enter from the south" (not a good idea, apparently) and that 108 and 1008 are both lucky numbers. There is a huge stepwell (a theme emerges...) with 108 mini-temples along with the main Sun Temple and entrance hall. The temple itself used to contain an idol with a diamond embedded such that the sun would shine through the diamond at the Equinox and light up the whole temple. Unfortunately, the statue and diamond are long gone, to be replaced with lots of smelly bats, but it's a good story.
We had a sneaky roadside breakfast of deep fried spice lentil dumplings (veg, deep fried, very hot, never going to kill you) which our driver tried to supplement by offering us grubby fruits. The intention was good, but I politely declined.
Our journey into Ahmedabad was quick owing to the excellent roads (tarmaced, no potholes, infrequent wildlife) though with the added excitement of deep flooding in places, though this didn't seem to bother our driver. We made it through unscathed to our next stepwell stop; the Adalaj stepwell outside Ahmedabad. This was fairly busy and, after a quick scamper down and up the steps, we were ready for our lunch.
Our driver took us to a Gujarati thali restaurant; a gut busting experience and possibly my favourite type of Indian cuisine. Gujarati food is lighter and sweeter than north Indian food (close to the UK curry house style) and, to me, is simply delicious. The flavours are intense without being dominated by chilli and the range of dishes is incredible. It's all pure veg (no meat or eggs) but lacks nothing as a truly satisfying meal. At some point, I will do a separate blog post dedicated to the Gujarati thali - it deserves it.
Full to the brim, we had some mid-afternoon mosque tourism at Sarkhej Roza, a complex of buildings on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. This was rather cheery and I spoke with (smiled, said hello, how are you, ran out of conversation) several locals who were all friendly and welcoming. I have found some mosques a little forbidding as a woman, but not here.
Our accommodation was in the heart of the old city of Ahmedbad, in a beautifully renovated old bungalow run by the Neemrana hotel group. This was really lovely; the aim of Neemrana is to keep as many original features of the old buildings as possible and the hotel achieved this goal. We enjoyed a peaceful meal in the hotel that evening and were more than ready for sleep after a busy day. We left the hotel with a copy of the Neemrana catalogue and lots of ideas for future trips in India!
On Sunday, Phil started his day with a long run along a track next to the river in Ahmedabad (crazy) and received his gifts (mainly running book and travel guide themes) before breakfast. Fueled up, our day of exploring began with us walking round the old city to visit several old mosques and havelis (beautiful houses in a decrepit state) and soaking up the atmosphere. Soaking up the atmosphere in an Indian city in the monsoon can be a more sensory experience than is ideal, but we got a feel for this industrious city (the old "Manchester of the East") and enjoyed its vibrancy and energy.
By one o'clock we were muddy, hungry and ready to sit down for Phil's birthday lunch (more thali!) at a recommend restaurant on the rooftop of a restored haveli (House of MG) in the heart of the city. The food was excellent, although the rose and coconut icecream for dessert appeared to contain lumps of ghee which was a bit offputting, and we retained our equilibrium.
We hired an autorickshaw for the afternoon with a very cheerful driver to see another stepwell, a textiles museum in an impressive palace (no photos allowed sadly), a lake where the locals enjoy a Sunday afternoon walk, and Phil's birthday icecream at a nearby cafe (in lieu of cake).
Ahmedabad is full of treasures but you have to look through a lot of dirt and dilapidation to appreciate much of what it has to offer. I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would love to see many of the old houses returned to their former glory. Our hotel demonstrated what can be achieved through conservation, but this requires money, which is needed for so much in India. There aren't, however, many places in the world where would can walk out of you hotel to see a real life working elephant, and that's special.
We started our journey on Friday evening on an overnight train from Bandra station, a mile or two from home, up to Mahesana, one stop north of Ahmedabad, the capital of Gujarat. The journey didn't start well as every taxi and autorickshaw we approached refused to take us the two miles to the station, probably on account of the traffic and difficulty getting back into Bandra again, so we were left to march through the crazy Friday night traffic to our destination. Thankfully we'd left lots of time and were soon on our upper bunks in AC 2-tier, a comparative luxury relative to our more recent sleeper class train experiences, and enjoyed a decent seven hour sleep before our arrival in Gujarat at 7am the next morning.
Shortly before our stop, when we were waiting by the doors, the cleaning boys came round to sweep up the carriages and empty the bins. I was a little horrified, though not surprised, when everything was swept into a pile and I was politely asked to stand aside so he could open the train door (whilst in motion) to sweep the whole lot outside. Sigh. It seems that my efforts to put things in the bin rather than on the floor were in vain; it doesn't make any difference. I do feel sorry for those living by the train tracks. Life is hard enough as it is without train loads of litter being swept on you each day.
Sweeping up
We were picked up by our driver at the station, a young chap who didn't know any English and didn't know where he was going, but appeared to be able to drive a car safely so all was well. Google maps is our friend in India; getting around would be a lot more difficult without it. We had arranged the car in advance and Phil had a planned our route, started with the Rani ki Vav, an ancient stepwell in Patan, an hour's drive from Mahesana.
Now a day driving round rural Gujarat to visit stepwells doesn't sound particularly thrilling, but stepwells are a little known gem of northern India. Where rain is sparse, it is very important to conserve what you can when the rains come, therefore many deep wells were built by wealthy rulers. These are not, though, my kind of well consisting of a hole in the ground and a bucket; these are serious pieces of architecture. From what I've seen, it seems that building a flashy stepwell was the 10th century rich Indian equivalent of driving a sparkling new BMW as quickly as possible in the streets near our apartment in Mumbai. It was something to show off about.
The Rani ki Vav is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is magnificent. It was buried until the 1960s so is now beautifully preserved with incredibly ornate stone carvings. The highlight of my trip was when we reached the top of the stepwell and looked down on a colourful mass of schoolgirls who behaved like they have never seen a white person before (which was probably the case). They came running towards us, desperate for photographs and to shake our hands, with no embarrassment or inhibition. The only slight difficulty we had was paying for our tickets to get in as our driver was incredulous that we were being charged 100 rupees (£1) for a ticket and couldn't understand why we weren't being given the 5 rupee rate. I have long ago learnt that there is no point even trying to get the lower rate, resident or not.
Our lively friends at the stepwell
The astonishing Rani ki Vav
The stepwell is covered with these carvings, immaculately preserved
From the stepwell, we moved on to Modhera, the site of a Sun Temple, the twin to the temple that we saw in Konark in February this year. We hired a very enthusiastic guide who talked us through the carvings and structure of the temple. The lessons that will stay with me are "never enter from the south" (not a good idea, apparently) and that 108 and 1008 are both lucky numbers. There is a huge stepwell (a theme emerges...) with 108 mini-temples along with the main Sun Temple and entrance hall. The temple itself used to contain an idol with a diamond embedded such that the sun would shine through the diamond at the Equinox and light up the whole temple. Unfortunately, the statue and diamond are long gone, to be replaced with lots of smelly bats, but it's a good story.
A herd of camels on the road
The 108 temple stepwell in front of the Sun Temple
Note the woman giving birth in these carvings on the temple
Carvings on the temple - used for sex education lessons
Bats in the temple. Bats are very smelly. I am not a fan.
The south exit from the temple - not to be used for entry
We had a sneaky roadside breakfast of deep fried spice lentil dumplings (veg, deep fried, very hot, never going to kill you) which our driver tried to supplement by offering us grubby fruits. The intention was good, but I politely declined.
Our journey into Ahmedabad was quick owing to the excellent roads (tarmaced, no potholes, infrequent wildlife) though with the added excitement of deep flooding in places, though this didn't seem to bother our driver. We made it through unscathed to our next stepwell stop; the Adalaj stepwell outside Ahmedabad. This was fairly busy and, after a quick scamper down and up the steps, we were ready for our lunch.
Water-logged road. The plastic barriers provided some guidance as to where the road ended and the river started.
The Adalaj stepwell
Our driver took us to a Gujarati thali restaurant; a gut busting experience and possibly my favourite type of Indian cuisine. Gujarati food is lighter and sweeter than north Indian food (close to the UK curry house style) and, to me, is simply delicious. The flavours are intense without being dominated by chilli and the range of dishes is incredible. It's all pure veg (no meat or eggs) but lacks nothing as a truly satisfying meal. At some point, I will do a separate blog post dedicated to the Gujarati thali - it deserves it.
Full to the brim, we had some mid-afternoon mosque tourism at Sarkhej Roza, a complex of buildings on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. This was rather cheery and I spoke with (smiled, said hello, how are you, ran out of conversation) several locals who were all friendly and welcoming. I have found some mosques a little forbidding as a woman, but not here.
The mosque complex
A boy with a mouth powered horn on his bicycle
Our accommodation was in the heart of the old city of Ahmedbad, in a beautifully renovated old bungalow run by the Neemrana hotel group. This was really lovely; the aim of Neemrana is to keep as many original features of the old buildings as possible and the hotel achieved this goal. We enjoyed a peaceful meal in the hotel that evening and were more than ready for sleep after a busy day. We left the hotel with a copy of the Neemrana catalogue and lots of ideas for future trips in India!
Divan's Bungalow
On Sunday, Phil started his day with a long run along a track next to the river in Ahmedabad (crazy) and received his gifts (mainly running book and travel guide themes) before breakfast. Fueled up, our day of exploring began with us walking round the old city to visit several old mosques and havelis (beautiful houses in a decrepit state) and soaking up the atmosphere. Soaking up the atmosphere in an Indian city in the monsoon can be a more sensory experience than is ideal, but we got a feel for this industrious city (the old "Manchester of the East") and enjoyed its vibrancy and energy.
The cow and the milk
An example of the buildings in the old city
The Jama Masjid
Inside the Jama Masjid
By one o'clock we were muddy, hungry and ready to sit down for Phil's birthday lunch (more thali!) at a recommend restaurant on the rooftop of a restored haveli (House of MG) in the heart of the city. The food was excellent, although the rose and coconut icecream for dessert appeared to contain lumps of ghee which was a bit offputting, and we retained our equilibrium.
Birthday lunch
We hired an autorickshaw for the afternoon with a very cheerful driver to see another stepwell, a textiles museum in an impressive palace (no photos allowed sadly), a lake where the locals enjoy a Sunday afternoon walk, and Phil's birthday icecream at a nearby cafe (in lieu of cake).
The lake
Phil's guide around one of mosques. He was a friendly chap.
Stepwell from a new angle
Another hidden mosque that we stumbled across
Ahmedabad is full of treasures but you have to look through a lot of dirt and dilapidation to appreciate much of what it has to offer. I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and would love to see many of the old houses returned to their former glory. Our hotel demonstrated what can be achieved through conservation, but this requires money, which is needed for so much in India. There aren't, however, many places in the world where would can walk out of you hotel to see a real life working elephant, and that's special.
Outside our hotel
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