Sun 16 Nov Baroda Champaner
At 700 we walked to the railway station and attempted to buy tickets on the special first class train, leaving Surat 945 and arriving Baroda 1120. (Baroda is shown on most maps as Vadodara - same town). Unfortunately that train did not run on Sun, so we bought second class tickets on a train running 0900-1100.
Included breakfast began at 730. Breakfast was reasonable. There were 4 trays of hot food. Many hotel guests chose cold cereal and milk. We concentrated on a potato dish and some chickpeas. Throw in some fruit, juice, and tea, and we were reasonably well-provisioned.
The second class train seating is unreserved. Each compartment has two long seats and then two upper perches, which can hold luggage, or on which people can sit. Each lower seat is numbered for four seats but routinely holds 5 or 6 passengers. Counting the folks above and the folks standing everywhere, you get to know your neighbor quite well, Despite our lack of common language.
Folks were kind to us, perhaps given our advanced ages. We ended up with seats not long after we boarded. Carol sat across from a delicious baby girl dressed in bright purple, with many arm and ankle bracelets.
Somewhere toward the end of the trip, we were loudly serenaded by a singer, drummer (who also sang), and a third fellow whose only role seemed to be collecting money. They were quite talented, although we failed to identify the musical idiom. There was also a female figure, perhaps a male transvestite jester, who went around amusing and cajoling passengers. Some laughed along and gave money. Others received a rap on the skull. STRANGE.
In Baroda, the crowd helped us get our packs and ourselves off the train, and we walked the relatively short distance to Hotel SapphireRegency. Leaving the station involved finding an overhead walkway over the turmoil of vehicles below.
The reception desk gentleman recognized us immediately because in our phone call, he had thought we were coming in the day before. Anyway, for 2200 plus tax = 2540 R, we got by far the nicest room so far. The showerhead was sufficiently separated from the rest of the bathroom fixtures that the toilet seat and paper would not get routinely soaked when you took a shower. And the breakfast was quite good.
It was apx 1145. We got to the room, unpacked, and went downstairs. Today's destination: the much lauded site of Champaner/Pavagadh for a day trip. We declined a hotel-proferred driver for 1500 R round trip ($25), and made it there on our own. Carol: Oy, another of Mike's do-it-yourself-for-less schemes. Mike: A driver would have saved us no more than an hour.
So, at 1245 an autorickshaw took us across town to an isolated bus shelter. While we were waiting, some kids were playing cricket until one batter hit the ball into someone's yard. The game seemed not to resume.
After about 20 min, a bus (32 R each) came by going through the town of Halol all the way to Pavagadh. It was 1330. We were on our way.
Pavagadh is a mountain rising spectacularly about 2700 ft above the flat countryside. Some books call it a "Little Himalaya" in Gujarat. At the very top is the 11th century Kalikamata Temple (Hindu) with a shrine to the Muslim Sadan Shah tucked away on the roof. It is the kind of place that calls out to the supernatural in any faith
The truly devout walk the steady uphill 4 km from bottom to top. The rest of humanity, some of whom are truly devout, take a stuffed taxi shuttle half way up, and then a rope car (cable car) most of the rest of the way. All visitors need to walk the last 700 meters to the temple.
The problem was that it was Sunday and half of western India seemed to be here. At 1455 we were in the rope car line, which Temple Grandin would declare not fit for beast or man. Violating every best Disney practice, it snaked back and forth under a sound-reflective metal roof. However, no entertainment, just noise, noise, noise - crying babies and kids, rowdy visitors.
Eighty (yes, eighty) minutes later (1615) we actually got in a car for the 4 minute ride (98 R round trip). WOW! You get to walk thereafter. We kept our shoes on until reaching the temple. Carol thinks that the some of the police guards were betting on whether Mike would make it to the top. At the top one guard insisted on a photo with us. He was gloating, probably planning to show it to his co-workers and collect on the bet.
Interestingly, like shrines we have seen all over Asia, folks tie cloth to trees and their branches, all over the top of this mountain. Uniquely Hindu is the practice of bringing food to the temple. In this case, vendors are selling coconuts on the trail. Most of the visitors brought whole coconuts as offerings. In the shrine, Carol glimpsed workers behind a screen. They were shaking coconuts to see which one were full of milk. She thinks that these were "recycled" to vendors. On the way down, a worker was breaking up coconuts that didn't make the grade. She grabbed a piece for a snack.
We were at the top at 1715, and could have walked back down the trail to the base of the rope car. We knew that the sun would set during the time it would have taken us to walk, but it turned out the trail was reasonably well lighted. At this pre-sunset hour, the line down to the rope car for the descent was even longer than that for our ascent. While we stood in line, there were numerous police/security men with whistles and air horns that they kept blowing for some purpose or other. Deafening. We ended up waiting for one hundred minutes in an interminable line, with nuisance whistles, and the crying of numerous exhausted kids and babies who couldn't be quieted by their parents (Carol herself was at the edge of a panic attack). The only food we had eaten since breakfast was a cup of masala corn (20 R in the line up and 30 R in the line going down). And not much to drink, either.
Finally, at 1915 and in the dark, we got off the rope car. Quickly into a taxi shuttle, and then quickly into an auto-rickshaw for 100 R into Halol. There was a bus immediately leaving for Baroda (44 R each ) all the way to the ST station, fairly near our hotel.
It was nearly 2145 when we were back in our room. Total transportation cost: 382 rupees or $6.34
The moral of the story: We had done this day trip on the wrong day (Sunday) and the wrong time (should have started at 700 am or so). The result was very stressful, but the constraints of our timing had sort of forced us into this. Mike was probably correct that because of the interminable waits, a pre-arranged driver surely would have charged extra for having to come back after 2030, well after dark
Back at the hotel, Carol took a shower and went right to bed. Mike went downstairs to the hotel restaurant, Cafe Khyber, and ordered what turned out to be a spectacularly good bowl of Mutton Shorba (120 R) and a cup of tea (30 R) which they insisted on serving long after he had finished the soup. Then, to bed.
At 700 we walked to the railway station and attempted to buy tickets on the special first class train, leaving Surat 945 and arriving Baroda 1120. (Baroda is shown on most maps as Vadodara - same town). Unfortunately that train did not run on Sun, so we bought second class tickets on a train running 0900-1100.
Included breakfast began at 730. Breakfast was reasonable. There were 4 trays of hot food. Many hotel guests chose cold cereal and milk. We concentrated on a potato dish and some chickpeas. Throw in some fruit, juice, and tea, and we were reasonably well-provisioned.
The second class train seating is unreserved. Each compartment has two long seats and then two upper perches, which can hold luggage, or on which people can sit. Each lower seat is numbered for four seats but routinely holds 5 or 6 passengers. Counting the folks above and the folks standing everywhere, you get to know your neighbor quite well, Despite our lack of common language.
Folks were kind to us, perhaps given our advanced ages. We ended up with seats not long after we boarded. Carol sat across from a delicious baby girl dressed in bright purple, with many arm and ankle bracelets.
Somewhere toward the end of the trip, we were loudly serenaded by a singer, drummer (who also sang), and a third fellow whose only role seemed to be collecting money. They were quite talented, although we failed to identify the musical idiom. There was also a female figure, perhaps a male transvestite jester, who went around amusing and cajoling passengers. Some laughed along and gave money. Others received a rap on the skull. STRANGE.
In Baroda, the crowd helped us get our packs and ourselves off the train, and we walked the relatively short distance to Hotel SapphireRegency. Leaving the station involved finding an overhead walkway over the turmoil of vehicles below.
The reception desk gentleman recognized us immediately because in our phone call, he had thought we were coming in the day before. Anyway, for 2200 plus tax = 2540 R, we got by far the nicest room so far. The showerhead was sufficiently separated from the rest of the bathroom fixtures that the toilet seat and paper would not get routinely soaked when you took a shower. And the breakfast was quite good.
It was apx 1145. We got to the room, unpacked, and went downstairs. Today's destination: the much lauded site of Champaner/Pavagadh for a day trip. We declined a hotel-proferred driver for 1500 R round trip ($25), and made it there on our own. Carol: Oy, another of Mike's do-it-yourself-for-less schemes. Mike: A driver would have saved us no more than an hour.
So, at 1245 an autorickshaw took us across town to an isolated bus shelter. While we were waiting, some kids were playing cricket until one batter hit the ball into someone's yard. The game seemed not to resume.
After about 20 min, a bus (32 R each) came by going through the town of Halol all the way to Pavagadh. It was 1330. We were on our way.
Pavagadh is a mountain rising spectacularly about 2700 ft above the flat countryside. Some books call it a "Little Himalaya" in Gujarat. At the very top is the 11th century Kalikamata Temple (Hindu) with a shrine to the Muslim Sadan Shah tucked away on the roof. It is the kind of place that calls out to the supernatural in any faith
The truly devout walk the steady uphill 4 km from bottom to top. The rest of humanity, some of whom are truly devout, take a stuffed taxi shuttle half way up, and then a rope car (cable car) most of the rest of the way. All visitors need to walk the last 700 meters to the temple.
The problem was that it was Sunday and half of western India seemed to be here. At 1455 we were in the rope car line, which Temple Grandin would declare not fit for beast or man. Violating every best Disney practice, it snaked back and forth under a sound-reflective metal roof. However, no entertainment, just noise, noise, noise - crying babies and kids, rowdy visitors.
Eighty (yes, eighty) minutes later (1615) we actually got in a car for the 4 minute ride (98 R round trip). WOW! You get to walk thereafter. We kept our shoes on until reaching the temple. Carol thinks that the some of the police guards were betting on whether Mike would make it to the top. At the top one guard insisted on a photo with us. He was gloating, probably planning to show it to his co-workers and collect on the bet.
Interestingly, like shrines we have seen all over Asia, folks tie cloth to trees and their branches, all over the top of this mountain. Uniquely Hindu is the practice of bringing food to the temple. In this case, vendors are selling coconuts on the trail. Most of the visitors brought whole coconuts as offerings. In the shrine, Carol glimpsed workers behind a screen. They were shaking coconuts to see which one were full of milk. She thinks that these were "recycled" to vendors. On the way down, a worker was breaking up coconuts that didn't make the grade. She grabbed a piece for a snack.
We were at the top at 1715, and could have walked back down the trail to the base of the rope car. We knew that the sun would set during the time it would have taken us to walk, but it turned out the trail was reasonably well lighted. At this pre-sunset hour, the line down to the rope car for the descent was even longer than that for our ascent. While we stood in line, there were numerous police/security men with whistles and air horns that they kept blowing for some purpose or other. Deafening. We ended up waiting for one hundred minutes in an interminable line, with nuisance whistles, and the crying of numerous exhausted kids and babies who couldn't be quieted by their parents (Carol herself was at the edge of a panic attack). The only food we had eaten since breakfast was a cup of masala corn (20 R in the line up and 30 R in the line going down). And not much to drink, either.
Finally, at 1915 and in the dark, we got off the rope car. Quickly into a taxi shuttle, and then quickly into an auto-rickshaw for 100 R into Halol. There was a bus immediately leaving for Baroda (44 R each ) all the way to the ST station, fairly near our hotel.
It was nearly 2145 when we were back in our room. Total transportation cost: 382 rupees or $6.34
The moral of the story: We had done this day trip on the wrong day (Sunday) and the wrong time (should have started at 700 am or so). The result was very stressful, but the constraints of our timing had sort of forced us into this. Mike was probably correct that because of the interminable waits, a pre-arranged driver surely would have charged extra for having to come back after 2030, well after dark
Back at the hotel, Carol took a shower and went right to bed. Mike went downstairs to the hotel restaurant, Cafe Khyber, and ordered what turned out to be a spectacularly good bowl of Mutton Shorba (120 R) and a cup of tea (30 R) which they insisted on serving long after he had finished the soup. Then, to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment