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Ahmedabad trip

26-JUL-2019: Eyes were not opening. It was the last day of the trip and we would have liked to take it bit easy but we had a long day ahead of us. Woke up at 6:00 am and ordered tea. We had tea, bread and jam for breakfast. We got ready and did the checkout formalities. The Owners were very nice and we had a nice stay at this old and historic haveli. They had called auto rickshaw for us which dropped us to Chand pole. There our driver from yesterday Raju was waiting for us. We loaded our luggage and moved towards the airport which was far from the city. As it was early morning there was not much traffic and so we reached airport by 8:00 am and so had about 2 and half hours to kill.

Being early, we had to wait at the outer lobby only. So we decided to have a look around the shops and got a nice key chain for us. Once the checkin started we got formalities done and reached our boarding gate which was at the lower level. We still had time and were hungry as well. So we got veg hot dogs for Aai and me, Maggi and chips for G & Ar, baba only had tea. We later had chai, with morning paper. The flight was on time and we left this beautiful city by 10:25 am and after an uneventful flight reached Ahmedabad by 11:15 am.

Earlier while waiting at the airport I had called few taxi services in Ahmedabad and inquired for local tours. We had 4-5 hours gap between our flight back to Pune and so we had thought to explore the city in that duration. Earlier aai and baba were thinking to take rest at a hotel but they also decided to join in. The taxi was booked for 80 km/Rs 2250. We were out of the Ahmedabad airport quite fast and after calling the driver he came in 10 mins with Innova. We loaded the luggage and were on our way. The first stop was going to be Akshardham temple, but we were quite hungry so we decided to have lunch. The driver took us to Pratiksha hotel where we had Gujrati thali. It was Ok, could have been better.

What we instantly observed back on road was be it Ahmedabad or Gandhi Nagar, the roads were super good, very few traffic signals, mostly they had roundabouts at junctures and overall people were disciplined and following rules. We reached Akshardham by 12:30 pm. We had to deposit mobile and electronics at the gate. I have been to Akshardham temple in US, but was looking forward to seeing the original one. As is their style of architecture, the temple is located in a great expanse, the temple itself is grand. We spent some time inside did pradakshina, saw water show and decided to head back. Rain had started but stopped after a while luckily as we had not brought the umbrella with us. But due to short spell of rain the weather became very hot and humid.

Next stop was Adalaj stepwell, which is located in Adalaj village. Its a old step well which after a long descent which is almost five floors below ends in a well and was filled with water. On the way there are multiple structures with pillars and roof tops beautifully carved. It had great architecture. Aai took rest at the top and Ar followed us for a while but ran back after being disappointed on seeing just water at the bottom

From here we went to Sabarmati ashram. It was nice being to this historical place and one of the main centers during Independence movement as Gandhi ji’s residence. We saw charkha room, museum etc. Then we went to see the Sabarmati river front. This is a well developed area with parks and walking tracks along the Sabarmati river. We could see nice bridges over the river and cool breeze refreshed us in that humid weather. We decided to have tea and while entering the ashram we had seen a tea point in the gully on the other side of the road. We ordered and sat waiting to be served and it took them over 25 mins to get chai. The chai itself was average and we spent much time unnecessarily. We bought some biscuits from nearby Amul store.

En route to airport, we took a break at famous Gwaliya sweets store to buy some local delicacies. We got Bhujiya, Mohan thal, gathiya, Khakra etc. We reached the airport bit before time but learnt that the fight is delayed by an hour to 8:20 pm now. If we had known earlier we might have spent more time in the city. First we waited in outer lobby and then went inside after all formalities. The flight time kept on changing 7:40, 8:05, 8:40 then final 8:30. We decided to have dinner meanwhile not knowing when the flight would finally arrive and leave for Pune. We had veg roll, sandwich, thepale etc. Finally boarded the flight and were back at Pune by 10:15 pm. This time Ar did sit besides me

We were welcomed to Pune by heavy rains. We off boarded in rain, got the baggage and called in Uber. Due to rain there was lot of chaos and confusion and we finally got into the Uber near the airport parking after searching and locating them. I was quite wet. We had to make our way through traffic and water logged streets. We reached home by 11:15 pm, had tea and then slept, we all were too tired but what a fun trip and had been in waiting for quite a some time.

PS: I remembered the book Chasing the monsoon but other way round. We had left the rain behind at Pune as we boarded flight for Jaipur and then we were always were one step ahead of  the rain as we moved from one city to another until it finally caught us as we were back to Pune