Blogs from Vadodara, Gujarat, India, Asia - page 2

Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara December 27th 2009

Update: I am sad to report that our friend Hitesh Barot was killed by a crocodile in this river just a few years after we visited him. Here is a link about that if you would like to learn more. http://spicyip.com/2014/06/remembering-hitesh-barot.html 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 ... read more

Time for a chill

Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara February 23rd 2009

A taxi!

Chuff

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

Baroda right back at ya.

Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara February 10th 2009

"Sleeper bus"

JenGui

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

Photos

Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara January 28th 2009

Vardi (Indian for Farm)

Wings to fly

Happy Australia Day and Happy Independence day A selection of photos from the past couple of weeks Hope you like Tess Aajvu... read more

Half a day at Vadodara

Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara October 21st 2008

Shiva statue at Susagar Lake

charuavi

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/Maharaja_Sayajirao_Gaekw... read more

Vadodara: Montezumas Rache oder die Nazi-Kuh

Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara August 9th 2008

Lakulisha Temple 2

Judiphil

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

Baroda Wedding Celebrations

Asia » India » Gujarat » Vadodara December 25th 2006

Baroda Streets

Wings to fly

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

Brief history of India

The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab in...more history

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