Ahmedabad

Hey hey, ‘t’as been a while but thought another blogging effort was called for. I’ve made up my mind to hit New Zealand after leaving these shores next month, so I decided to forsake my mountain refuge and head into the heart of the incoming monsoon as I’ll have plenty of mountains to play with later.

When I was heading to Ahmadabad, my first stop in the Gujarat, it still hadn’t rained yet so was not looking forward to the sweltering humid conditions on offer but luckily the monsoon arrived with me. I’ve never seen people so happy to see rain, they were dancing in the street in one of the heaviest downpours I have ever witnessed, it was like someone had turned on the proverbial taps. From then on I got a drenching every day which cooled things down to a more pleasant level.

Gandhi was from the Gujarat and it shows in the relaxed temperament of the place, it is mostly vegetarian and it is the only dry state in India meaning there ain’t much in the way of night life. The people I met were all very friendly, with all the shop keepers buying me drinks and pan. On one of my wanders I somehow ended up in a backstreet factory for fake jeans with a small room stuffed with sowing machines another piled high with finished products. All work ceased when I arrived and the factory floor turned into a Bollywood disco, they even gave me a free pair of jeans as a parting gift.

The staff at my hotel seemed a bit odd too, all the staff kept asking when I was leaving, even the lift boy asked me every morning and evening if I was checking out, I was the only guest so thought they would be more pleased to have a paying customer. After I had told him for the 4th time I was not checking out today he started looking a bit frantic and followed me to my room. When I opened the door he ran straight to my bathroom stood on the toilet and removed a half full bottle of whiskey from the suspended ceiling! Everyone lost interest in my departure after that.

The city fort is a rambling old structure the downstairs of which is now a government office, but if you ask nicely they unlock the gates to the roof and let you explore. I spent so long looking around the place that by the time I came to leave they had forgotten about me and locked me in. I went back around and tried all the many different dark staircases and dingy passageways but every exit was bricked up or locked. Finally I managed to attract the attention of one of my jailers to release me from incarceration. Not the easiest places to break out of, forts.