Asia Adventure 2012: Ahmedabad

Our guide Narendra Singh Rathore arrived at 10am to pick us up for our tour. He was very friendly and eager to showcase the sites of Ahmedabad.

The first stop was to the Sabarmati Ashram, home of Mahatma Gandhi. The Ashram is located beside the Sabarmati River and is where Gandhi’s ashes are stored. We spent a lot of time in the museum, library, and bookstore, before heading over view Gandhi and Kasturba’s Ahmedabad home from 1918 to 1930. In addition to that, we also saw the hut where Vinoba Kutir lived for a few months from1918 to 1921 and Mira Kutir (disciple of Gandhi and daughter of a British Admiral) who lived here for 8 years between 1925 and 1933.

We visited the Adalaj Stepwell which is a unique Hindu 'water building'. The stepwell was built in 1499 The stepwell is intricately carved and is five stories in depth. It was wonderfully cool inside and that was a relief on this hot day. The fellow who maintains the stepwell was very proud of his work and happy to accompany us on the tour.

On the way to our next stop, a young boy in a motorized rickshaw beside us was waving madly and smiling so I nudged Greg to film him and he gave us the thumbs up for doing so. It was really cute.

Our next stop was the Hutheesing Jain Temple is a Jain temple, constructed in 1848 with a dome of white marble. It was supported by 12 pillars surrounding the dome and had 52 shrines in that square. Recently, a stambha (tower) was constructed at the entranceway. There were dozens of workers, male and female, smoothing the white marble dome when we visited and they were all smiling and equally curious about the tourists. An older local couple actually approached me and asked me to take their picture. They didn’t seem to be concerned that they wouldn’t get a copy of the picture, but they did enjoy seeing it through the viewfinder.

We stopped for lunch at the Gopi restaurant where we had a traditional Gujarati lunch. A large tray filled with samples of various vegetarian dishes was presented along with various breads (crisp, naan, pita) and refills were offered several times, along with some delicious deserts to finish off the meal. The staff were extremely friendly and attentive which led us to stuff ourselves a little more than usual. In this region of Indian there is prohibition on alcohol and almost the same goes for meat. Tourists can get a permit to consume alcohol, but can only do so in their hotel rooms. Narendra says that’s one of the reasons why Ahmedabad is such a calm and safe city.

Since I really wanted to get something a bit “Indian” to wear to the wedding in a tomorrow, we went to the Calico Craft Centre where I purchased a beautiful silk scarf. I hope it makes me look a bit more “Indian” (chuckle, chuckle).

One of the most famous mosques of Ahmedabad is located right across the street from our hotel. The Mosque of Sidi Sayed Jaali, built in 1573, is a series of arches and is famous for its beautifully carved ten stone latticework windows (jalis) on the side and rear arches.

We had a late dinner at the Green House restaurant at the hotel. Although it is considered fast-food snack fare, there are pages and pages of healthy options for snacks.