Cambay Sapphire Ahmedabad

We took the sleeper train to Ahmedabad, Gujabat. I'm dizzy again, but I think it’s now the effects of the wobbly 9hour train ride.

Seems there is some event in town and most of the hotels are booked out. After some searching, we found a nice double bed to share. Apparently the law here in Gujabat (the state) make you lay down a finger print when sigining in ...

I decided to take the sleeper train from Udaipur to Ahmedabad which takes 9 hours instead of the bus which takes only 5 hours. This was a big mistake. The train was more like a washing machine and I think very few people managed to sleep. I couldn't even manage to lie down. At a certain ...

... together. Almost like we're lepers...LOL! the cabin itself was quite small and the beds were long and narrow and not very soft. We each had a pillow, two sheets and a thicker blanket (which all passed the sniff test). Yaarit and I were both on top bunks. We asked the Indian couple in our cabin if they wanted to switch so we could be with our friends and they gave us a very rude no accompanied by dirty looks. Hey, we had to at least try. I managed to haul my backpack onto my bed and ...

... got around like the guys from the television show "Fawlty Towers", the lumps (matresses) on the beds were 2 inches thick and the bricks (pillows) were charming. On the plus side we had a bell in our room that we would ring for room service or drinks and one of the guys would come running to the room. We buzzed for mango nectar drinks served in glass bottles then buzzed again for some stuffed naan bread and a bowl of clear vegetable broth (the only thing safe on the menu ...

... I met. We had to walk through a village to get to one of the temples -and they were so open and receptive. Everyone came out of their home to say Namaste (the traditional Indian greeting). We played with kids. Everyone wanted their picture taken. Everywhere I turned people had a smile on their face. It was filled with so many special moments -I could get a glimpse of an entirely different India today. Much of the ...

... were indeed a different species of seagulls, some cranes and storks of sorts, small little colorful birds, and my favorite for multiple reasons, the charismatic kingfisher. Once we began heading back towards the boat docks, the morning sun was reflecting heavily off the water and I was getting cooked. We plodded along to the dock where I took some pictures of the surrounding colorful boats. I think it was at this point that my sorry, sick self was supposed to ...

... selling various kites and strings. These are paper kites, made with little sticks that give them support. They are of every color imaginable with some variations of size and design. Children and adults alike run around everywhere flying kites, and you can't find a power cable or tree that hasn't snagged several if not many a kite. Now, Ahmedabad is a city of 5 million people, and as if traffic here wasn't harrowing and ...

... whopping 118 rupees, which i thought was ridiculous. So i unloaded my backpack, and made my way into the hotel, with the angry rickshaw driver on my tail... Once at the reception i asked the hotel owner how much i should pay him, and he told me no more then 70, instead of 118. (It turned out that this rickshaw driver drove me all around the city before he dropped me at the hotel, with a big bill as a result.) My thought: "Well, that's your loss mate, i ...

... Yet, for the one hour I spend with them each day, you wouldn't be able to tell that they come from underprivileged backgrounds. Their faces gleam with smiles as they make up a new dance move echoing the words, "Boom-Chicka-Boom, Chicka, Boom-Boom-Boom." Since the taal (the Hindi word for rhythm) workshop is a bit ad hoc, each day with the kids is a bit different. Some days I have the kids sit in a circle and listen to different rhythmic variations ...

... tobacco free. We stuffed the round leaf ball in our mouth as the juices sprayed everywhere. I thought it wasn't that bad, Laxmi was not such a fan. We then decided to walk down the street wanting to leap a little further into this idea of lucid dreams. Laxmi thought it would be good to sit with an old woman on the side of the road. We approached her with our hands folded in the sign of namaste and her face immediately lit up in a huge, toothless smile. She looked ...