Steintore
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Steintore
Thu, 23.01.2014: Udaipur −> Ahmedabad, sunny, 27°C
We drove south out of Udaipur which was very cloudy and up into the hills. We left the state of Rajasthan and drove into Gujarat where is was a lot hotter and sunny.
Our driver hadn't been to Gujarat for at least 15 years and didn't know the Stepwell we wanted to take a look at. Kirsten got out the computer and GPS but had problems because we have a new computer and haven't tried out the GPS software with it yet. It's obviously not compatible and Kirsten had to keep doing restarts.
She gave up in the end and just used the maps we had so that we could direct Yadav. The maps show road names which is all well and good except there are no signs up with road names here! We got to a point where we said "It must be somewhere here!" and found that we had stopped right next to it!
Adalaj Stepwell was built in 1499 by Muslim rulers. It is a water well, built for bathing and for washing clothes. They dug five stories down into the ground, it is 5°C cooler than above ground, and it has elaborately carved pillars.
We spent about 30 minutes walking down all the steps and then returning top side and walked above it. That's when bus loads of Indian tourists arrived. It is a popular point of interest so we can't understand why there are no signs anywhere pointing the way to it!
We drove through the rush hour traffic into Ahmedabad and found our hotel which looks new. We went to check in but there was obviously a problem with the booking as there didn't seem to be a reservation for us. We were asked to take a seat in the front lounge area whilst a number of phone calls were made. It took about 30 minutes but we finally got a room - clean but small and only one chair so the bed had to double up as a seat.
We braved the busy streets as we needed tea bags and some cough mixture for me to try and get rid of this cough and cold I've picked up. India doesn't really have supermarkets but a system of small shops and 'hole-in-the-walls' as I call them, so we needed to ask where to find tea bags. We are off the beaten track in Ahmedabad and it is rare for foreign tourists to come here so a lot of hand signals were needed. We even understood the answers in Hindu! (Well, we understood the hand signals at least!)
So we got what we needed and went into the hotel restaurant - closed due to a function but we could order room service. We had cold chips and a spring roll that was too hot and spicy - they don't understand the meaning of non-spicy, then had a banana each and some chocolate. Great diet.
We had cable TV and watched the last part of "Notting Hill" an old film, set in London, with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. It won various Oscars but we have never seen it. The reason I am mentioning this is because we both shouted out "Look how clean it is!"
It was such a shock to see clean streets! We've been in India for two months, surrounded by filth and walking along dirty and disgusting streets that seeing somewhere clean really did come as a shock. Oh boy! Maybe it is time to leave!
Fri, 24.01.2014: Ahmedabad −> Vadodara, cloudy, 27°C
We drove back the way we came for 2km so that we could visit Hanti Singh Temple. A Jain temple with elaborate pillars. Then we battled with the busy roads in the city and finally got onto the toll road south to Vadodara. The toll road was virtually empty!
We past lots of rice paddies on the way south and once we got off the toll road, we got out the computer to guide Yadav to the hotel. It took us one hour to get through to the centre of town and we arrived at 2pm. We were staying in the Hotel Presidency Towers which sounds upmarket but the room was very run down and old.
The bathroom was small with rusty fittings and tepid water and the bed sheets had hairs and pubic hairs on them. I went down to ask for clean sheets and was told to ring 517 and dismissed! Obviously the staff here are not able to phone!
I returned to our room and phoned but there was no answer. I thought that 517 might actually be a room number so I went to room 517 and found shelves with (hopefully) clean sheets - or at least cleaner ones. So I took sheets and went and made our beds. So much for a mid-range, 3 star hotel!
Of course, thought he room is below standard, there is a brand new TV! So we watched live tennis - the men's semi final in the Australian Open. Later we went up to the hotel restaurant on the 10th floor to get something to eat.
Here is a typical example of how confusing India can be and where we just end up shaking our heads. Please note, there are never any women working in the hotels. All the staff are men, including all the waiters and cleaners. I have no idea if that is part of the explanation or not.
We were told that it was a buffet meal so we couldn't order from the menu. (We still can't eat spicy food.) So we asked about other places to eat and they said we could get room service here and use the menu to order. So we ordered chips which was the only thing on the menu we could eat.
We placed our order and were asked if we wanted to eat in the restaurant or in our room????? Confused? Absolutely. So ... we can't order from the menu because it's a buffet meal only. But we can order room service, from the menu, and then eat in the restaurant! If anyone can explain this to us we would be very grateful. As far as I can see there is simply no rhyme or reason to it.
Sat, 25.01.2014: Vadodara, sunny, 27°C
We did some hand washing and went up to the restaurant for lunch. Kirsten had a vegetable spring roll and I ordered an omelette which came filled with onions and chillies! It was extremely hot and I tried to pick out all the chillies. I should have specified a plain omelette.
That afternoon, our driver took us out to Lakshmi Vilas Palace. It is a Royal family home that has been partially opened to visitors. It was built in 1878, took 12 years to complete, cost $270,000 US dollars back then and was the most expensive royal building to date.
The entrance fee included an audio guide which was filled with excerpts of Indian music so most of the time we just read the information boards. The grounds of the palace had been rented out for a wedding that evening and they were setting everything up. There were obviously going to be a very large number of guests. There were two white dummies dressed up as the bride and groom and the brides dress was made out of real roses. Very beautiful. Not very practical to be worn as a real wedding dress but beautiful all the same.
Our extra side trip into Gujarat hadn't really been worth it. We could've cut out a number of things, had we known, and maybe included some places east of Delhi. When reading up on places to see and visit, everything looks good but we'd had the same problem with Warangal and Hyderabad. Once we'd been to those cities we could say that it hadn't been worth it. Oh well. You live and learn.
We went out that evening and managed to find a fast food restaurant serving falafel wraps and potato wedges. Something different to our current diet of chips and spring rolls.
Sun, 26.01.2014: Vadodara −> Udaipur, sunny, 27°C
I asked Kirsten to take a photo of a sign advertising 100% weight loss in 28 days, losing 7 to 10 kg, and 5 to 7 inches reduction of hips and waist. We have lost more weight in less time just because we came to India!! The irony is that there have been a number of reports on the TV whilst we've been at this hotel, saying how obesity is reaching record levels across the world!! Maybe India is the answer!
We headed back out along the toll road and then took a side trip to Dakor to see a temple. The town was crowded and very busy. We drove along a maze of very narrow roads, hardly big enough for our small car, let alone all the tuc tucs, crowds of people, cows and motorcycles. There wasn't anywhere to park at the temple which was at the centre of all the chaos and there was a huge queue of people waiting to get into the temple which didn't open for another 15 minutes.
So we dropped Kirsten off so she could get into the queue and told her we would return and find her somewhere amongst the crowds! Yadav drove out through the side streets and managed to find a parking area in someone's back yard which has a man looking after the vehicles for a fee. Then we walked back into the throngs of people to tell Kirsten we would wait at the exit for her.
There were so many people that Kirsten was basically pushed through with the crowds and it didn't take very long for her to come out the other side. Photos were only allowed in the outer courtyard.
We headed back north into Rajasthan and stopped at Shandaji Temple, the same Krishna Temple that we saw in Dakor, but far fewer people. They was a lot of construction under way around the temple which was very elaborate and looked more like the Jain Temples we have seen. It is, however, Hindu.
We finally arrived back at our hotel in Udaipur at 5-30pm. We went straight out for a pizza at a local restaurant, and picked up some cakes from the German bakery. We scrubbed off the filth of the day in the shower and even managed to work on the website. It had been a very long and tiring day.
