Blogs from Vadodara, Gujarat, India, Asia
June 2nd 2010
this is about my escapade during feb 2010 to vadodra.. it was a 2 days weekend visit.. genesis of this trip is in my earlier visit to junagad last year.. in junagad i came to know that there are 2 forts in gujarat namely, junagad and pavagad.. also during visit to museum in junagad i got references of historic places of dabhoi and champaner.. in all it looked quite attractive package.. vadodra city tour, champaner, pavagad, dabhoi.. i dont know why most of the vadodra tourist sites dont have mention of sardar sarovar dam. i realised it quite late and dint manage to visit there.. we left mumbai at night by train and reached vadodra before sunrise.. as a pleasent surprise we found rickshaw driver speaking to us in marathi... Marathi is a local language of ... read more
December 27th 2009
Kim and I spent the last three days in Bhalod, Gujarat, India. Bhalod is about 2 hours by car from Vadodara. We went to visit our friends Hitesh and Nimisha Barot there. They live three blocks from us in New Delhi and invited us to their village in Gujarat where much of Hitesh's extended family still lives. Hitesh was born in the USA and grew up in Huntington Beach, so he is as American as Apple Pie, but he moved to New Delhi so his sons could get a feel for living in India. Hitesh’s dad still lives and builds homes in Orange County, California, but they have kept the family farm in Bhalod where they grow bananas. Nimisha is from a village about 100 kilometers from Bhalod. We spentChristmas weekend in their home in Bhalod ... read more
February 23rd 2009
The tour has now finished, and the group disbanded, it feels weird having spent such a long time with them to no longer have them right there. Despite this I have managed to sort myself a plan for the last few weeks, which i am currently extremely happy with. I guess I'd better recount my tales of the last part of my tour. I must first recount an event which happened before my last blog which i forgot to mention. Anna, Roberta and I were walking to the ATM in the hot hot sunshine. I decide it is time to apply the keep me white cream and so pause to apply. Then as i bend to cream up my ankles a man cycles past. turns to look, turns back, double takes, looks away, turns for one ... read more
February 10th 2009
Leaving Diu was no easy task. First of all, we had made some very good friends, Anne and Cesar, that we had become quite attached to. Second of all, its just so damn nice there! But the pull of seeing new things is very strong and we managed to leave the sedated easy going grip of this little slice of Portugal in India on the most Indian form of transport; The sleeper bus. These are buses that have, above the usual seat level, crumb-filled little cubicles with matresses where you are meant to sleep during the long hours that bus journeys in India are known for. Of course sleeping is no easy task, being bounced around like a pin ball is not exactly condusive to sleep but it sure beats being in a seat. Verdict: ... read more
January 28th 2009
Happy Australia Day and Happy Independence day A selection of photos from the past couple of weeks Hope you like Tess Aajvu... read more
October 21st 2008
Vadodara was known as Baroda formerly When I started to write about our recent trip to Vadodara, I found to my delight that the venerable ‘Vatvriksha’ became a mundane ‘Banyan’ tree in English language because early British found that the Hindu Gujrati ‘Banias’ (merchants) mostly conducted their business in the shade of these trees. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banyan Whenever I start writing a travelogue, a gather from the Net many such nuggets of what Avi calls “Profuse and Useless Information”. So, dear readers, like Avi, if you are interested only in ‘short and useful’ information, please refer to a travel guide. Vadodara, at present is a small town in Gujrat. It was the seat of princely state of Maharajah Gaekwad till 1947. What progress Vadodara has shown today is due to a very able ruler Sayajirao Gaekwad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha... read more
Vadodara: Montezumas Rache oder die Nazi-Kuh
Published: August 9th 2008Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara
August 9th 2008
Es ist soweit. Nach Ps unvorsichtigem Trinken von Leitungswasser inklusive (zum Glueck schon ueberstandenen), Konsequenzen, hat es nun auch J erwischt. Daher Weiterfahrt postponed. An Papa: Keine Sorgen machen!! Trotz allem haben wir gestern einen amuesanten Ausflug gemacht: Zu den Tempeln von Champaner und Pavagadh. Was nun der Unterschied zwischen diesen beiden ist, ist uns nicht so klar, haben wir doch, obwohl es sich um Unesco World Heritage handelt, keinerlei Touristen oder englisch sprechende Einheimische dort angetroffen. Zuerst fuerte uns unsere Fahrt mit dem Local Bus (von welchem uns im Hotel mit den Woren "you have all the villagers" abgeraten wird) und dem stark an Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Carribean erinnernden Kassier zum Chauhan Rajput aus dem 8. Jahrhundert. Nach einer abenteuerlichen Jeepfahrt (ca 25 Leute in einem Jeep!!) beschlossen wir (J.allerdings eher unfreiwi ... read more
December 25th 2006
After a seven hour delay at Delhi airport on 23 December 2006 due to fog/smog...you choose!! I landed in Baroda City in the late afternoon, to be greeted by Ompriya my Australian student at University of Queensland Gatton Campus. Gosh she was a site for sore eyes. I just hugged her so tight and cried and cried. I was so relieved to see a familiar face. One of a million as it seems to come, when I was greeted by endless family members at the Baroda home of the grooms parents. Family is pivotal in India I quickly learnt. And not just immediate members. The extension has breadth and depth, each member so reverent to the other, greetings of Namaste and hands in prayer at heart centre. I was overcome with love by strangers, who did ... read more
