Trip to Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Mt Abu- 22nd Oct-27th Oct-2015

Trip to Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Mt Abu-22nd Oct-27th Oct

Day 1-22nd Oct

One positive thing that has happened to me over the years is that I do not find it that difficult to adjust with people with whom I have never interacted before. Maybe I have evolved better as a human and matured more J. And this was a second time that I was planning a trip with a group whom I met the first time at the airport . Of course both the trips there was a common friend/colleague in between .Maybe that made it easier for me to adjust.

Well this time the plan was to travel Ahmedabad-Udaipur Mt Abu and the planning was going on for a considerable time with my friend telling me saying she had got in touch with a travel agency who will organise the tour for 7 -8 people. We were hoping for a bigger group as the cost factor will come down and also secondly it was during the season time that we were going. The number of people kept fluctuating from 3-4-6-8 -6 and then then finally 7. At the same time I remembered another friend of mine who had organised the tour for me and I remembered him again to check what the best time he could give is. The itinerary was changed some ‘” n” number of times till we finally freezed on Ahmedabad-Udaipur-Mt Abu. The choice of vehicle also kept on changing from Tavera-Innova-Tempo Traveller and finally we freezed on Tempo Traveller as there will be more luggage space. The choice of hotels kept on changing as the hotels earlier to be booked were not available .In between all this my patience level too kept fluctuating as it is easy to take a decision about yourself quickly but to keep the 7 people agree to you is one big job s the responsibility to handle the tour itinerary was given to me  PHEW!!!

Finally the D-Day came. My friend had booked the tickets only 2 day in advance and that was one reason the trip turned out to be bit expensive but worth it. We all reached the airport at 5:15 am. The flight was at 6:20 am. It was there that I met my travel group. They were all relatives of my colleague and in the 5 days trip we all got to know each other very well including my colleague. I came to know what is her pet name which I keep using in between to irritate her and what is good at and the good qualities of other 6 people too. The group consisted of 3 aunties of my friend, their colleague, and cousin of my colleague.


 
 

We landed at Ahmedabad airport at 8:30 am and by the time we came out with the luggage was 9 am. The vehicle was waiting for us at the airport. But instead of directly checking in at the hotel we decided to see the list of places –which was a huge list with all of them having done a groundwork as to what to see. And we wanted to save time as well. We nobody was tired but we decided to first have breakfast and then start the tour and conveyed the same to the driver. We had actually travelled on Dussehra and all the shops were serving only one dish-Fafda-which we came to know from the driver that this is what will be available today everywhere in Gujarat. Fafda  is a traditional crunchy snack that is synonymous with Gujarati cuisine. Made of gram flour and other spices, it is a convenient and quick snacking option that can be had at anytime of the day. We too had the same dish served along with Gujarati Kadhi and Papaya Salad. I loved the papaya salad that they had made of the raw papaya .It was totally a different experience but somehow was not okay with the idea that we might have to end up the same dish in the afternoon and evening as well.


 
 



 
Well after our pet puja the first thing on our list of things to see was Sabarmati Ashram, formerly known as 'Satyagraha Ashram" was home to Mohandas Gandhi from 1917 until 1930. While at Sabarmati, Gandhi lived in a small cottage. It is a place of great historic value, where we can view some of the things which Gandhi used- a writing desk, a khadi kurta, a yarn spun by him and some of his letters. Also there is a cottage called Vinobha Kutir and Mira Kutir names after Vinobha Bhave and Mira , one of his disciples. It has a museum which exhibits Gandhi’s life through paintings, photographs, letters etc. We spent some close to 40 minutes seeing the place .next to it is the Sabarmati waterfront which is 10.5 km stretch on the river which is a focal point of leisure and recreation . We did not go down the stretch leaving it as one pf the to do activity for the evening as the weather  was very ,very hot in Oct similar to that of May-June summer.


 

 

Next we wanted to see Calico Museum but could not you have to book in advance for that and there are 2 timings for that. We did not want to take a chance going there and see if we can get the tickets. So we started out for Modhera Sun Temple which is dedicated to the Sun God. It is still a magnificent piece of Gujarat's architects of the bygone days. Before you enter the sun temple, you first come across a large  kund known as the Ramakund, built in rectangular shape containing 108 shrines to various gods and demi-gods. As per the legend goes- after vanquishing Ravana in battle, Lord Rama and Sita halted here on their way back. After consulting with sage Vashishtha, Lord Rama decided to conduct a yagna here to cleanse himself of the sin of killing a Brahmin, namely Ravana who was a Shaivite and one of Shiva’s most glorious disciples. This yagna was performed by a local Brahmin belonging to the Modh community thus originated the name Modhera. It was an amazing experience to see the beautiful carvings there.

 

 

On the way to Modhera, we also visited Matangi Mata or Modheshwari Maa temple. Matangi had eighteen arms each having a weapon like trident, Kamandal, Shell club, Pash dagger etc. Goddess Matangi killed devil Karnat, who was causing  havoc in the area of Dharmaranya( one of the names of Modhera) . We spent some time at the small museum there.

 

It was lunch time as we did not want to eat Fafda. Hence asked the driver to take us to a restaurant where we could have a gujarati thali . We all had our fill and gulped down a glass of buttermilk each which was really good. Now that energy was restored we started out to see the next place in our list which was Science City. It is a huge planetarium which has the Hall of Science & Hall of Space, Energy Park, Life Science etc .built on sprawling acres of land. And you need to walk a lot. It did not interest me that much maybe because I am not a science enthusiast but I am sure kids will really enjoy coming there. The one thing I liked was the Life Science park which had the prehistoric animals displayed and the small garden which has cactus of various varieties grown there. Even though we did not want to spent much time there, we ended up staying for a longer time as the place is huge and we had to pass all the various halls to reach to the exit.

 

 

It was already 5:15 pm And the group wanted to see Akshardham temple. There is also this water show. Though I have seen it in Delhi but missed out on the water show which starts at 7 pm. Swaminarayan Akshardham, the complex was built over 13 years and is a tribute to Swaminarayan and his life and teachings. It is a 23-acre complex and in the midst is the Akshardham mandir, which is built from 6,000 metric tons of pink sandstone from Rajasthan. It is definitely a nice place to spend in the evening and all of us had a good time. By the time we came out it was already 9 and we were dead tired. So we decided to call it a day as we had no more energy to see any places. Finally we checked into the Guest hose that was booked by my colleagues aunts .By the time we could reach the city and the guest hose it was 10 pm and I just wanted to sleep. Usually I can never get any sleep in a new place no matter how comfortable it is but today I slept like a log.