Champenar and Baroda

July 17, 2016

On Friday I came out of a small specialty grocery store where I shop that has a fruit cart in front of it. The vendor, like all vendors here, throws waste on the ground behind his cart. There was a cow eating a banana peel. I must say I feel like there is horrible ‘cow abuse’ here because no one seems to feed them properly so the cows wander around town in traffic on busy streets (they are all busy streets here as far as I can tell) and they eat garbage. Ron has even seen one eating a plastic bag because it had food adhered to it. OY. It breaks my heart to see this day in and day out. I have never been anywhere in this city that there weren’t cows on the street. In my neighborhood twice a day I witness a herd of about 30 cattle being moved from one spot to another and the one spot where they spend part of their day is a dirt lot, no grass or vegetation. But garbage on the streets abounds.

In addition the same situation occurs for the street dogs. I assume because they have no owners they have been breeding with abandon and now 90% look alike: mid sized, light to medium brown and constantly looking for food in the garbage on the street.

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Sunday

Yesterday we woke up early, about 5:00 because one of us had fallen asleep by 8:30 and the other one about an hour later. We needed to be up by 6:00 to leave at 7:00 for our excursion to Champaner, about 100 miles away. We left at 7:10 when most of Ahmedabad is just waking up so we had no real traffic to deal with and it still took 45 minutes to get to the expressway as it was on the other side of town. It was the first time we had been over there. The expressway was an excellent road and no auto rickshaws or two wheelers (motorcycles) were allowed. It makes a big difference, trust me. After about an hour on the expressway we stopped for a tea/pee (which is different from a teepee) break.

We got to the Champaner- avagadh Archaeological Park, a World Heritage Site around 10:30 or 11:00. Champaner was turned into a splendid new capital by Sultan Mahmud Begada in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. We started our tour of the park and walked through the ‘city mosque, built about 500 years ago. It is beautifully preserved as were the Citadel walls which were worth the trip alone. 

We then drove through the little village that seems to reside within the Citadel. Poverty abounds. It has been raining here for three days counting today and people had their clothes hanging out in the rain. I fight this daily during the monsoons. Sankar has rigged a cover over one set of clothes lines but late in the day I bring what I can inside and hang things on hangers in the spare bathroom to assist with getting stuff dry.

Our next stop was at the customs house, which was used as a waiting area for visitors to the Sultan.  The building was 5 bays by  bays.  Inside we found an ass and four dogs. Several cannons stood guard in the back and two young school boys were "guarding" by the front.

Next we visited the Jami Masjid, a large intricately carved mosque also 500 years old. It is outside the Citadel but not too far away. It hadn’t started raining yet so we were able to poke around at our leisure. It is interesting to note that Rahul, our driver has come here five or six times to visit Pavagadh and the Hindu temple on the hill but has never visited the Citadel and mosques. He really enjoyed learning more about the history here. He even took selfies in front of various parts of the structure. The carved screens were well preserved and quite beautiful.

There was a step well behind the mosque. We attempted to see the Nagina and Kevda mosques but the road was impassable and if we tried to walk in we would have been up to our ankles in mud. Since there is a lot of clay in the soil here I could just imagine us slipping and sliding and possibly falling and having no way to clean up. The three of us wisely opted to not try it. 

On the way out of town Ron saw a directional sign to the right announcing another mosque so we turned around and explored the remains of a mosque. The foundation and minaret were all that was in tact and a very deep well with a brick lined wall. It gave us pause to consider how they built this without the walls collapsing on the men who dug this well.

 

We ate a delicious meal at an Indian hotel on the highway which seems to be a good safe bet when on the road. They have frequent customers which ensures frequent turn over of food and that makes it safer. The three of us shared two veg dishes, an unending supply of fresh hot roti, buttermilk for Rahul and pappadams. That cost us a rip roaring $7.00 for the three of us. Back on the road and we looked at our tour book and saw that there was a maharaja palace in Baroda which was right on our path home.

Although it took three of four stops to ask for directions once we got to Baroda we made it to this splendid 170 room palace. Forget Downton Abbey, this palace rocks! The upper floors are inhabited by the royal family and the first floor is available for visitors. The price of admission for the three of us was a little over $15. When Rahul saw the price for his ticket which was $3.00, he said he would stay with the car. We always pay his admission. He thought it was too expensive and would be a waste of money. I said we could afford it and it would be educational, he could learn about India’s history and that it would not be a waste of money. He decided to give in to me; besides you all know how brutal I am!  All of us enjoyed it. The opulence was astounding. Aesthetically it was gorgeous. Being the practical person I am I kept thinking about the maintenance cost. HA! The grounds were lovely and the only place where photography was allowed. Too bad they didn't allow pictures inside the structure.

Back on the road with the rain coming down, we admired the freshly planted green fields. Sowing has been late this year since the monsoons were so late. Irrigation is not an option for many farmers so they depend on the rain for their crops. One thing we learned today is that large trucks are not allowed in cities except from 9:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. so outside of Baroda and Ahmedabad for example there were hundreds of trucks sitting idle in the middle of the day and afternoon awaiting 9:00 p.m. Think of the lost productivity with that rule. It speaks to the lack of adequate infrastructure.

Being on the road here is always a scary proposition. Rahul is a careful driver. They drive on the left side of the road here, thank you Brits. So the slow lane is the left lane when there is a four lane highway. On the expressway Rahul was driving in the right lane, the fast lane. Speeders would zip between us and a truck that was about one car length ahead of us in the left lane. OMG! It happened again and again, scaring us each time. Once when we were on a bridge in the slow lane someone passed us on the shoulder to our left while another car passed us on the right in the fast lane. We weren't’ the only ones this happened to. Many trucks are passed on the left by a car driving on the shoulder. Not smart. Well obviously we got home unscathed arriving around 5:30.  At 7:00 we walked up to our village and grabbed a light dinner at the Silver Leaf, a hit or miss restaurant. Our biryani was tasteless and the began bharta was delicious. I guess one out of two isn’t bad.