I'm here in Ahmedabad with one other guy from my program, and our guesthouse is crappy - in that our toilet and shower are Indian-style and the walls could really, really use a coat of paint - but endearing. It's located in a good spot, around lots of good, cheap restaurants and bazaars, so I'm happy with it. I'll just need to find somewhere else to go when it's time to crack down and write this 30 page paper.
We've done a good amount of general exploring around Ahmedabad, including a Heritage Walk around the Old City that went through a bunch of these little neighborhoods that all had bird feeders in them:
this lake/park that reminded me a bit of Balboa Park in San Diego:
Ok, you can't really see the park here, but an interactive Indian census display? Pretty great.
Gandhi's Ashram:
Stepwells:
and afterwards we met an Imam who collected foreign money and took us to the roof of his mosque:
This weekend we went further west, to Junagadh and Somnath. Junagadh is home to a 10,000-step hike to the top of a mountain that holds Hindu and Jain temples. Our train got in at 4:30 AM and we went straight to the base of the mountain to try and make it up before sunrise. False. I'm really bad at doing physical activity without proper rest/caloric intake, so we made it about 2,000 up before sunrise. Ultimately, we made it up 5,000 steps because by that time we had spent about 4 hours on the mountain, had reached one peak and seen some beautiful scenery:
And we were tired, thirsty, and hungry. Also, the hike has yet to make it in to the Lonely Planet, so we were the only foreigners there. This resulted in taking many photos with random Indian men, including a father and son who paid a professional photographer to take their picture with me. Best friends? I think yes. After going back down the 5,000 steps we had just climbed (so we actually DID hike 10,000 steps...) and eating a huge thali lunch and climbing too many more stairs to internet cafes that didn't actually exist, we made it here:
Which is just about the coolest thing I've seen since being in India. It's a mosque, in an incredibly understated area, and there was a group of little kids playing cricket right in front of it. Luckily, it was also right near the train station, since the next stop on our journey was another town, Veraval, about an hour and 40 minutes away by train. When we got to the ticket counter, our train was at the platform. When we finished buying our tickets, the train had started pulling away. So we ran. And jumped. And made it on just fine! And proceeded to take the most beautiful train ride EVER - it felt like we were going through a tropical paradise. Also, we were in general class so there was no glass on the windows, leaving the views unobstructed. And then, after arriving in Somnath, getting a hotel, showering, and napping, got ice cream and went to the beach. I was SO happy to see the ocean. It looked really similar to the South Bay, complete with jettys and power plants if you looked to your right (in this case, the west). But this picture is facing east:
So the next day we were beach bums all day. Somnath isn't western-touristy either, and Indians generally don't know how to swim (they mostly pull up their pants/saris and stick their toes in), so we were the only ones actually in bathing suits and going in the water. Needless to say, we attracted a lot of attention from the locals. When we first got there I spent about 10 minutes sitting in the sand, fully clothed, uncomfortable, and angry at the fact that I was a girl/that I felt so uncomfortable/at India in general. But then I got over it and jumped right in. And it was GREAT. I was so happy. I left the beach that evening very sunburned and, for the first time, really homesick. Which is really the wrong note to end this post on but so it goes.
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