Our short visit

---

Leaving Ahmedabad I feel excited and relieved at the same time. Relieved because we’re going back to calm and order. You may not think that Johannesburg is calm and orderly most times, but once you’re experienced the streets of India, anything else will seems tranquil. This week I found myself seeking the quiet and cleanliness of our hotel room. The day overwhelmed my senses and left me exhausted every night.

We filled our days with some touring of ‘Step Well’, which is a 5 story ‘walk-in’ well, and a tour of Mahatma Gandhi’s Ashram where his ashes are scattered. Our driver was much obliging, pulling over on the side of the road allowing me to take a photo of a camel pulling a bogie (trailer).

We spent the afternoon looking at apartments in an area called Satellite. It gets its name from the Indian Space Agency which was the first establishment in this area. After looking at about 15 flats, some of which were horrifying, we finally found a place that we think we could potentially call home. This was in a quieter neighbourhood called Vastrapur. One thing we really liked about this place was the fact that it overlooked a street and trees as opposed to a rubbish dump. The kitchens are all very simple and none have ovens. Every one of the places we looked at had exactly the same style bathroom, and there was a basin in the lounge. We were looking for places with a balcony; we are used to the outdoors of South Africa. The place we like is huge. They rooms in Indian houses are all very spacious and are all fitted with much needed air conditioning.

We visited universities the next day as I am thinking of studying Psychology next year. Nirma University was beautiful however they don’t offer what I am looking for. Univeristy of Gujarat offered psychology, but it was a dump. Gordon is an expert ‘googler’ and has been finding other options for me. Perhaps studying through an open university in the UK.

On the other hand, both Gordon and I feel excited. The opportunity to engross ourselves in the culture of India is addictive. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting restaurants where we tried and tested every dish we could fit into our stomachs. We asked all the questions we could and we were not shy about it. We are reminded that we are the visitors in the country every time we got smiles and ‘hellos’ because we are the amusing people with our white skin. But it’s ok because everyone goes out of their way to make you feel at home and welcome.

There is a lot to do in the next few months, packing and getting organized to move here. The first thing we need to do when we move here next year is set up our home, aka our sanctuary, where we can escape to and get some peace.
For now we are heading back to our current home and we are looking forward to seeing familiar things, and especially our friends and family who we missed in this short week.

---

Photos

Catching taxi between terminals
You have to catch a taxi between terminals. They put the bags on the top of the tiny car.

Rickshaw ride
the driver insisted we all have our photo taken in the rickshaw and was very pleased when we did