July 9-10, 2011

But it is monsoon season!

Way to use the weather in an ad campaign!

Traditional India thali - delicious!

At Gandhi's Ashram in Ahmedabad

The textile were amazing!

I found my volcano of the summer! Interesting to note that the igneous geology of this region is not well understood

Helical Stepped Well near Champaner

Anna providing some scale for us

All the buildings in Champaner were sandstone and had beautiful carvings that combined Hindi and Islamic traditions. Look closely at the lotus flowers - note that no 2 are alike!

The intricate carvings in the sandstone was amazing

 A friendly visitor

Monkeys were seen in random locations throughout the trip!

Today was one of those continuous rain days and thus the start of our trip to Ahmedabad was pushed back to about noon. Anagha from the Navrachana International School, her son, Archana, Anna, Julia and I drove to Ahmedabad to visit Gandhi’s Ashram, and it was here I learned more about the life and leadership of Gandhi who was a remarkable man.  We had lunch at the famous Agishye known for their Gujarati thali, a traditional meal served in a metal dish and comprised of numerous small dishes.  It was delicious! We shopped for sari’s at a store that had thousands to choose from.  Amazing that after a week in India I have yet to see 2 of the same sari’s or kameez (tunic and pant set)!  We grabbed a snack and made our back to Vadodara by 11PM after a fun day exploring.

On Sunday Nigma took Anna, Julia and I to a world heritage site called Champaner, and on the way there I was treated to the site of an extinct volcano!  Nigma didn’t have an explanation as to how the igneous structures were created in this region, but perhaps they are related to the lava flows that created the Deccan Plateau.  We stopped at a Helical Stepwell used to capture and store water.  Champaner is situated at the base of the Pavagadh hill which includes 5 plateaus.  This site is rich in religious history as well as political history of India between.  We had a tour guide who was wonderful at showing us around all the significant features and then we spent some time climbing a little to get better views of the plateaus.  I’m looking forward to a return visit to hike through some of the plateaus perhaps with Nigma.  We had a late lunch and balance of the evening was for ourselves in which we took the auto-rickshaw to a shopping mall in while in the rain and I used some time to prep for my workshop.