Amazing Ahmedabad

The journey went really well. Far above expectation, and probably one of the most interesting trips that I have done in my life. Thus I will divide this trip in to two posts.

Traveling by sleeper class was quiet an experience, with little sleep. The bunk beds were in three levels, and petty close to each other. I was lucky to have the bottom one. Well, not counting having bypassers in the hallway bumping in to my feet when walking by. The train was very shaky at times, and did not have the soft cradle effect that puts one in to sleep. The noise.... yeah, lets say that the noise from the heavy snorer above me somewhere drowned in all the other noises. Kadooonk-kadoonk..boooom-booooom... hooonk-hoooonk....screeeeee-screeeee.... beeep-beeeep!!! ..and occasional festival music form villages and cities in between. The worst noise was from passing trains with ear numbing train whistles. My backpack was chained to my bunk and laid under me. So I felt it was safe there. Besides, any thieves had to get passed the old man that slept on the floor between the bunks.

The guy next to me when I boarded the train turned out to be a carpenter from Malaga, Spain. His name was Raul and it was his first day in India. He was going to travel India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka for a year. We talked with each other at night before going to sleep, and in the morning. When we arrived to Ahmedabad we decided to share an auto rickshaw and look for a hotel. After looking at various places we decided to share a double room at Hotel Kingsway.

We decided to become travel partners while in Ahmedabad, so we went out discovering town together. I didn't know much about this place before arriving, but I have to say that I took a lucky shot going there. Ahmedabad is an intriguing city with 4,5 million people. About the forth of the size of Bombay, but with ten times more cows roaming the streets.
There were even more of other types of animals. There were goat herders with 20-30 goats walking around. There were donkeys ...and more amazingly, at parts there were groups of large falcons on top of houses, that flew down or soared only meters from us, catching fish parts or other eatable things from the piles of garbage on the streets. I have never been so close to wild falcons before, and never seen so many at the same time.

We went and saw some tourist sights... the first one being an intriguing baoli built in 1499, the Dada Hari Wav. A baoli is a big well, that looks like a big gray stone temple in the ground, with lots of stairs and pillars in different levels. It was quiet an fascinating and spooky place. Next to it was an other interesting place, an even older Hindu temple, where we (and our rickshaw driver there) got a private tour by an old temple guard. During the trips to one of the roof tops he pulled out a huge pack of foreign money ...dollars, euros ..and currencies that I didn't recognize. I guess he had his own little side job with black market money change or something. I had no interest in it.

We visited a few other cool sight, including an impressive Jain temple (where photo was not allowed). But mostly we just walked around randomly visiting markets and streets that seemed interesting. That's how we run in to some more interesting things, including some type of parade with large crowd of men with big colourful turbans. ..lot of them holding up sabers or flags.
I stood there with a camera and then suddenly a bunch of them wanted to shake my hand as they passed me... and in between I managed to get some nice photos.

I got more attention in Ahmedabad as a white foreigner than I usually get in Bombay. Raul had a little darker skin, so he could pass as an northern Indian. People were constantly yelling "Hello!", "How are you?", Which country?", "Welcome!" or "What's your name?" People were generally friendlier too in my opinion.

At one spot close to Bhadra Fort Raul and I were stopped by three women in Indian clothing. They pulled up Raul's right shirt sleeve and started to stamp his upper arm with henna tattoos. I wanted one too and asked them to give me some too... being aware that they probably would ask for money afterwards. Raul's was cooler, mine was a cheesy heart with "I love you" and some nice patterns around it. Plus, being placed on a snow white, non-muscular, arm didn't make it cooler. ...and the darn thing burned too! It's not supposed to do that. They warned about that in my Lonely Planet book. Not sure how it affected me, but at least I didn't get an allergic reaction from this one ...strange thing.
Hmmm.. have to admit that when I look at my henna tattoo, here at the internet cafe, now afterwards... it does look pretty cool. ..yet still cheesy at the same time.

At night there was some celebrations... since this was an other of these numerous Indian holidays. They had stuffed a huge sculpture, made out of paper, with fire crackers. He was symbolizing some evil dude. After having put on some show on a stage, they lit it off and the sculpture exploded. Quiet interesting... even tough I got confused about whether I should take photos or cover my ears ..I hope the loud explosions didn't affect my hearing too much.

The next morning we went on an other walk randomly in the streets discovering more interesting things. Ahmedabad feels much more exotic than Bombay... and I do think that I like this town even more than Bombay. I finally got to see my first Indian elephant. It's head was painted colourfully. Not sure if it was part of some other festivity or if it just was his regular everyday makeup.

I started to have some eye problem again, so I walked around with my right contact in order to make it feel better.

After an interesting time together, Raul's and my path together ended. I had decided to take the bus to the city of Patan, 3,5 hours northwest of Ahmedabad, and he was going to Oidapur in Rajasthan up north later that day.
My photos, that I eventually will be putting up on Facebook will do more justice to my visit to Ahmedabad.... even though they can't describe my emotions and impressions that I have hard time to describe in words, without making it a novel. I also didn't have the opportunity to photograph everything I saw ether, for various reasons.

Anyway... I loved Ahmedabad! ... and now it was time for Patan!

I'll see if I have time to write about it before I have to leave... and I am not sure about my internet access this upcoming week... but please read it. Patan was even more amazing!!! :) (Not meant to be a cliffhanger)