Blogs from Gujarat, India, Asia - page 2

A quiet day. We start at the Naulakha Palace, part of the medieval Darbargadh or fortified palace complex of Gondal, which was the original seat of the ruling Maharajahs. The main building was built in 1748, and is ornately decorated with stone carving and ornate jarokha balconies. It’s not clear where we go, and the only person visible speaks no English. We climb the steps up to the first floor of the main building, but everything is locked. As we descend, a young man greets us and starts to open up the various rooms of the palace. The main building was the Maharajah’s residence, and houses a large durbar hall with stuffed leopards glaring snarlingly down from the four corners. Most of the other rooms and buildings are devoted to little collections of items either commemorating ... read more

At 5.15am the next morning we drag ourselves out of bed. We have slept well, but sleep has been disturbed intermittently by what sounded like rats trying to eat through the wall by our bedhead. Our gypsy sets off at 5.35am and we repeat the rigmarole at the ticket windows. This time the driver does not assist and David does it on his own, with a sharp pair of elbows to help. Into the park and it is very cold. We have our fleece sweaters on but forgot our gloves. It is magical though to be going through the forest as the sun comes up. Suddenly, we see three or four jeeps on an adjoining track. Our guide yells to a ranger he sees, and tells us we have permission to join them – they are ... read more

We’re heading south now towards Diu, a coastal resort. It’s too far to drive in a day so we’ll stay one night in Bhavnagar, 4 ½ hours away, with a stop at Lothal Harappan. Lothal was a major port, trading and bead making centre under the Harappan or Indus Valley civilisation from around 2400BC to 1500BC, so before the arrival of the Aryans in India. The Harappans were trading along the Silk Road long before the concept existed, buying copper from Oman and Afghanistan and selling beads and other goods as far west as Turkey and Egypt. They used standardised weights and measures, and installed mains drainage and sewage thousands of years before the Romans. The towns were built on a grid pattern with all dimensions of roads etc standardised. The town of Lothal is thought ... read more

We’re up early to take in one last sight in Ahmedabad before driving to Vadodora. It’s the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Kalupur, the temple of a Hindu sect that worship Swamirayanan who founded their sect. It was built in the 19th century of brightly painted teak wood. We enter through a massive gate into a courtyard with a haveli on three sides of the square and the temple on the fourth. At 8.30am it is teeming with people who have come to make their devotions. We are surprised to see what looks like a large yellow bell shaped tent approaching. There seem to be two women inside, and David is ordered to move away with all the other men, as only women are allowed in the immediate vicinity of the moving tent. Mystified, Sara looks on as ... read more

Sadly we have to leave the idyllic pleasure of the Taj Mahal Palace. As usual hotels worry about traffic and we arrive at Mumbai airport ludicrously early at 930am. The queues look horrendous with the hordes returning from their Diwali holiday, but Indigo have an enormously efficient queuing system for bag drop and we are through security by 10am. The security check ignores three bottles of water they find in our hand luggage, but confiscate one bottle – “Water not allowed sir”. “Can I keep these bottles though?” “Yes sir”. Hmmm....maybe he was thirsty. The new Mumbai domestic terminal is a huge improvement on the old one, efficient, light, and spacious. Indigo are also a revelation, a seemingly brand new A320 neo, with more cabin luggage space than BA business and plenty of leg room. We ... read more