Ahmedabad

 Another travel day today. ...... to Ahmedabad. Distances are long and also slow as a simple trip usually means dealing with a lot of obstacles like potholes, speed humps, cows, goats, trucks, ox carts, motor bikes, tuktuks, people and the unexpected. The good part of course is that you never get bored. After yesterday's episode with the car Taurun resolved not to take any more goat tracks and stick to better roads.... we'll see!!!!! 

We left at about 8.45 am.... Not a great time to leave at it was chaotic.... In Tarun's words 'crazier than Delhi.' Guess who found a quiet back road out of the city?  :-)

Lots of hotels in this city because it's a commercial centre, but the names are a bit off putting.....Hotels Happiness, Joy, Relax, Decent, Bliss were some that I noticed.

There were also quite a few residential complexes with many under construction. I love the bamboo scaffolding.

Indians are very fond of little circles in the road with statues. I still haven't quite worked out what a statue of a kangaroo is doing in Surat but then you see strange things in India.... like..... Mum sitting behind Dad on the motorbike with baby sleeping between them, and then a different couple with Mum feeding the baby between them from a bottle.... both riding on a main highway without helmets.

The highways in this state are pretty good but nevertheless we saw the aftermath of four truck accidents on the road today. Toll roads most of the way too..... because  Tarun is keeping off the ox cart tracks.

Trucks for miles out of our back window.

We arrived in Ahmedabad about lunchtime and checked into the hotel. It's is one of the newer parts of Ahmedabad so the view out of the window is not overly exciting. I went for a walk but all I could find were car accessories shops.

We have stayed in quite a variety of hotels during this trip. The best ones are definately in the more touristy areas and often it's hard to find good hotels elsewhere. The bigger commercial cities are OK but smaller places often have nowhere you'd want to stay at all. We stayed in some really nice ones in Bhuj, Jodhpur and Pushka, possibly so nice because they had quiet gardens and pools around them. 

Bit of a rest and cool down then we got in a tuktuk to see a bit of the city.

Over the bridge and a race round the roundabout and we were at a huge market. 

Sometimes when I venture out in the streets where white faces aren't often seen I feel a bit like a politician who goes round kissing all the babies who are thrust in front of him. People bring their babies and young children up to me to say hello. Usually they just look at me with their big brown eyes and touch me, probably to see if I'm real, but I remember one who was frightened out of his wits and cried. I think I might feel like a real nobody when I get home and no one looks twice at me.

Dinner tonight was outside on a street lined with restaurants. 

The other day we bought a kilo bag of cashew nuts and have been eating them quite a lot, so, what did we order for dinner tonight...... cashew nut curry!! Just for a change :-)

Tomorrow it's goodbye to Gujarat and hello to Udiapur. Gujarat has had numerous cases of swine flu lately but despite the dire predictions of many, we have survived . I guess it's unlikely that I'll ever see Gujarat again but Tarun is already talking of bringing people here in the future. For anyone who may be interested I can assure you that it's an interesting place.  Tarun is also dreaming of a motorbike trip to Ladakh in June and  would love to have someone to take. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you if you're interested.

Surat

Another early start this morning. We left before breakfast was offered but I had a bag of bananas that would have kept us going for a while... But for the monkey!

I had the black plastic bag of bananas in my hand as I was loading the car and the next moment a monkey had them. I wasn't prepared to argue with him so just watched as he took them out one by one, peeled them and enjoyed them, keeping one eye on me all of the time.

So no bananas for us! There are lots of little fruit stalls long the road so we stopped and bought what for me was an enormous papaya, but by Indian standards was actually quite small. We also got a couple of mangoes but obviously I didn't learn enough from my mango eating lesson because I think I've ruined a t-shirt.

The road to Surat took us back over the Western Ghats... That was the road that terrified me with the double line of big trucks going uphill on the way to Ellora. I must admit that going down wasn't quite so bad because there was so much less traffic on the road today... Still quite a few trucks though.

Once again it was an interesting drive. I've realised that there's another good reason for an early start and that's because we travel through the villages at a time when there's lots of activity. Today was naked kid day I think!

The view varied from beautiful bougainvillea to tent villages and lots in between.

Tarun is very kind to me and often gives me little treats... Today's treat was another shortcut or off road adventure.

These treats take me to places where probably no white woman has ever been before... or probably doesn't want to go!!!

But I did tell him I wanted to see the 'real India ' and he's doing his very best to oblige as usual. Actually I think that as well as white women never venturing into these roads, I don't think cars have either. We do pass the odd ox cart and motorbike but never another car! The village people and farmers look at us with bewildered looks as we drive through and I'm not sure if it's because of me or the car or both. I can't imagine what they are thinking... At least it'll give them something to talk about at their next dinner party!

Unfortunately you never know what you are going to strike on these roads, could be mud, a very narrow part, pothole or most often, rocks. Today it was rocks!

When we got back on a better road Tarun noticed a noise coming from the car so got out to investigate. Seems there was an oil leak from the gearbox.

So off we went again looking for the next garage on our tour of 'Garages of India.'

It wasn't  too far to the Hyundai Dealership in some unknown city where they confirmed there was a hole in the gearbox. Tarun and I sat in the waiting room eating our papaya while they sorted it out. The man in the garage came in and tried to find an English speaking TV channel for me but soon gave up and left me with the kids channel!

On our way again, keeping to the main roads this time. We were pretty hungry by this time but were both feeling we'd been eating too much heavy food so lunch was cashew nuts and bananas, followed by chai at a roadside stall.

There was some interesting country on the way. We are at the northern point of the Western Ghats and there were some very weird looking mountains in the distance. The photos don't do them justice and it's hard to see the details of their strange shapes but I can assure you that they were worth a photo stop for their oddness.

Today we saw many groups making religious walks to the temple. They usually carry flags but today's were also accompanied by drummers.

I can't believe how far they walk, especially as it's so hot. The footwear is pretty basic too. I admire their devotion.

We are staying the night in Surat which is the commercial hub of Gujarat. It may be the biggest city we have been in so far. It's very modern compared to most of the places we've been in so far.

It's just an overnight stay before we head north again tomorrow.

 Becoming very aware that time is running out and I'm not feeling quite ready to go home yet. Hopefully after another week I might feel differently and then I can happily go home and plan 'Trip to India No 4.'

Ellora Caves

Today has been a 'wow' day. Our hotel is very very close  to the caves so there  was no driving needed to get there. Once there I was amazed to find the entrance fee was 250 rupees ($5) for me and 100 for Tarun, and what's more there were no queues and we could drive right up to the entrance to the caves and had no parking issues. This is a mind blowing place that not too many people seem to know about.

Our first reaction was 'wow.' They were huge and so well preserved. Words can't describe how they looked.

 It is estimated that it took at least 100 years and the chiselling out over of 3 million cubic feet of rock to create the biggest cave. The caves represent remarkable memorials of Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism and contain  amazing carvings and structures.

As often happens I had my fans wanting a photo !! Wonder if they pin it on their wall :-)

We only went into the best of the caves as there were far too many and it would have taken us all day to have seen them all.

Unfortunately the Ajanta Caves, about 100 kms away, are closed on Tuesdays so we're going to have to miss them as we need to start heading back towards Delhi so I don't miss my plane home April 9th. No matter how much time I arrange to spend here it's never enough and the time goes so very quickly.

After the caves we headed into the city of    

Aurangabad about 25 kms away. This was a pretty and interesting drive. There are lots of very brightly coloured flowers around at this time and there are the usual ruins. We saw a fort perched on top of a little hill and enjoyed watching a laden truck only just making it through one of the gates that had obviously been part of the wall surrounding the lower areas of the fort.

For several days I'd been seeing men selling sugar cane juice on the side of the road and today I finally got to try it! Yum!

It was really good and I'm so glad we don't have this at home or I'd be drinking it all the time. The man squeezes the cane through a press thingy then adds some lemon. It would have been even better with ice but as it's made with local water I gave that a miss.

As I've said before, India has a surprise around every corner but I didn't really expect to see a mini Taj Mahal here .. Or maybe it could be described as a cheap copy. Never-the-less it was still quite lovely.

This mausoleum ( Bibi-Ka-Maqbara) was built in 1679 by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in honour of his wife and obviously modelled on the Taj Mahal at Agra.

It was a very hot day so it was back to the hotel for a rest in the garden. There's a large group of indian women who spend all day sweeping up all of the leaves that are falling off the trees.

With bad wifi here we tend to move around to try and find a better spot. We did this as usual today and left a few things, including my bag, a short distance from where we were sitting. I'm very glad Tarun happened to notice the monkey who had gone over to inspect our stuff as I'm sure he could have very easily taken a liking to my bag, containing the travel essentials like my credit card and passport, and carted it off somewhere unreachable. I haven't got used to watching out for monkeys yet!

Thought we'd give the hotel restaurant a miss as the food isn't that great so went out on the street. I had believed that all Indian streets went crazy at night but not here. Every thing was dark and quiet so we retreated back to the hotel and had cheese  omelettes for the second time today... I think it's the only thing they can cook well.

Tomorrow we are going to make another early start and head to Surat... back on the Gujarat coast. Early starts are great as we get to travel when it's cooler and the roads are quieter. We also have more time to explore when we arrive at our destination.

Heading to Ellora

An early start today because there's a long drive to our next destination Ellora.this will be the last time we drive south as after this we will need to start making our way back towards Delhi. We left just after 6am with a big send off from a pack of barking dogs. I'm very glad I'm not scared of dogs!!

It was a great drive through the village as everyone was just waking up. Many people were sleeping outside in the traditional type hammock bed just covered by a blanket. I could see at least one bed with three sets of feet poking out. Mothers were waking kids and making chapati, kids were pumping water and the girls carrying it on their heads, people were cleaning their teeth on the side of the road, others were carrying sticks and chickens, goats, cows and dogs were everywhere.

I loved this village but we had to move on....saw some peacocks on the way and lots of agriculture..... wheat, onions, corn, cotton and papaya. Stopped for chai and the toilet at one of the roadside places and the chai was much better than the toilet.

This place also had curtained cubicles for people to drink alcohol in.

For the first two thirds of our trip we were on good roads...actually the highway to Mumbai. Not too much traffic except for trucks.Sometimes they carry interesting things...

We went through several small towns and most of them seem to look pretty similar.

For the last part of the trip the road got worse and we struck lots of bone shaking potholes. We also reached  mountains and that was a scary experience. We were in what seemed to be a convoy of trucks, very big overloaded trucks,  driving two abreast on a two lane road. What happened when one came downhill was an absolute miracle as the ones going uphill seemed to merge like a very tight zip!

I wanted to take more photos but I couldn't hold the camera as I was too busy biting my nails!!! Tarun's reaction  "Why are you scared? This is just normal"

Not for me it isn't Tarun!!!

 

We survived and made it to our hotel in Ellora which is very nice apart from the fact that they don't have good wifi...take a look at Tarun's face!

They don't have comfortable chairs outside either so the ground was a better option... I love Tarun's water bottle pillow.

We can see the Ellora Caves from the hotel. These very famous caves were built over 350 years between the 6 th and 10th centuries. Some are Hindu, some Jain and some Bhuddist. We plan to visit them tomorrow because there are 34 of them and I imagine it'll take some time. It got a bit late today.

Not great pics but you can see them if you look hard.

Just a laze about time for the rest of the day:-)