Ahmedabad

Our bus had disgorged us a long way outside the city in the late afternoon, on some sort of ring road, so it was a 30 minute rickshaw ride to our hotel right in the centre of town. The ride was almost pleasant. The driver wasn't a noteworthy lunatic, there was only a modest amount of jostling for position, and he even obeyed traffic lights; generally. This was rather unnerving as other road users were behaving in a similar way. We discovered why in the local paper the following morning.Over the weekend the traffic cops had been on a purge, not for the first time apparently, and the previous day alone had extracted 2.5 lakh rupees (about £3500) in fines for traffic violations in the city, and confiscated over 50 un-roadworthy vehicles. On speaking to a group of traffic cops the following day, who seemed very interested in us for some reason even though we were on foot, it seems that there is a determination to make road transport a safer activity in Ahmedabad. So even though it is a big, bustling city with a great density of traffic, you do have half a chance as a pedestrian of actually getting across the road at the lights without risking life and limb; which is nice.

Anyhow we stayed at a decent hotel here, as we'd been on the road for 10 days on this leg of the trip and felt in need of proper facilities and a bit of TLC. The place was super, the service was great, the room was totally clean and everything worked. I'd had a discount voucher from www.hotels.com which I'd put to good use for this reservation so it wasn't too expensive. This was just what was required I thought, so I put on the robe and slippers supplied and pulled the curtains to get a view of the Nehru Bridge and the river. What I got was a view of a corrugated tin shanty town on the river bank of maybe 200 'homes'. I later understood that these were likely displaced people from the earthquake in Kutch, although that was over 10 years ago. The guilt I felt looking out from my 4-star window onto this no-star hovel was quite overwhelming. I'm sorry to say that I simply closed the curtains.

Ahmedabad is not really a big tourist destination. It has some interesting mosques and temples in walking distance of one another in the city centre and a nice gateway, but is not really what you would call a tourist hotspot. So for the first time since arriving in India I was forced to change currency at a bank, rather than at a money changer or bureau de change. It took well over an hour and required a copy of my passport. I shan't go into it in detail as it pains my spirit to re-live the process, but it involved finding the foreign exchange person in a dingy office on the second floor of the bank; the completion of two forms, each in triplicate using good old fashioned carbon paper; a longhand entry in a ledger. Then each of the documents required the signature of not one, not two but four different people located in different parts of the building. I then gave one of them to the cashier and after he and one other person who had already signed the documents, signed the remaining document again finally changed my US$100.

There is a guided walking tour of Ahmedabad every day for 50 rupees, about 70p, but it starts at 8:00 in the morning from the Swaminarayan Temple which was a 30 minute rickshaw ride from where we were staying. Sadly we never made it, I think we are beginning to get a little tired, so we had to do what we could of it from a very colourful but not very accurate map provided by the hotel, but sponsored by those nice sandwich people at Subway.

Sitting on a roundabout not far from the Nehru Bridge is the Siddi Saiyad Mosque. Its not very glamourous. From the front it looks like 4 tall connected garages each missing its up-and-over door. From the back however, looking through the fence with barbed wire on its top, you can see two intricate yellow sandstone Jalis; hand carved lattice work in yellow Sandstone. Depicting the marvellously detailed intertwined branches of a tree they are known as 'The Tree of Life' jalis and are fabulous.

Go southwest from there and yes, we were using a compass, and you  come to the Bhadra Fort, which has seen better days although it was easy to imagine that it was was once very impressive. From here, all the way along the MG road is one big market up to the Teen Darwaza, a very grand three arched gateway that straddles the road. Sadly the market stalls now obscure much of it so its not as grand in our photos as it is in reality. I bought a chilly slicer from a market stall and was thinking hard about getting a mandolin, but pulled back from the precipice.

Keep going and on the right is the Jami Masjid, a large courtyarded mosque built in the 15th century. Its very open and there tablets at the entrance describing it and its construction.Much of it was made from destroyed Jain & Hindu temples. Its nice to see that Ahmedaad had a recycling programme that early in history.

It was very hot so we doubled back and ducked into a small restaurant with formica tables, had a cold drink and shared a punjabi thali that was more than enough for two, tasted great and was as cheap as chips. There's also a Subway around here somewhere.

Kathy had noticed in the paper that morning that there was an 'exhibition cum sale' of local handicrafts that day at a football ground on the outskirts of town. We jumped in a rickshaw and went. Hope of attitude change evaporated as this rickshaw driver 'drove' as if intent on dying and going to heaven as soon as possible, with us as unwilling eye - witnesses. We survived but, as this is a few days ago at the time of writing, we are less certain that he will have in the meantime.

Anyway, we bought a nice beach blanket, in readiness for our return to Goa, and I bought a garlic skinner. The garlic skinner is like a piece of rubber inner tube. Pop the cloves inside and then roll with purpose and the skin theoretically comes off. Kathy was very dubious but I now have it on good authority from a friend in Pune that this unlikliest of devices works very well. I again nearly bought a mandolin.

We found a nice little restaurant not far from our hotel and had two smashing dinners there during our stay. We were the only foreigners on both evenings and the place had a feeling of 'deja vu' to it. I realised what it was - it was a place that was like most indian restaurants in England, even down to the fish tank and the wailing music. I felt at home. The food was spicy, not simply hot, and good. No beer though - its as dry as a bone here.

Next. Big tin budgie to Pune.