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.