Gratitude List # 8 / Travel Journal : Ahmedabad

The husband and I arrived back from Ahmedabad this afternoon to our mouldy apartment. That’s one thing I really will NOT miss about Bombay’s unrelenting monsoon. Mould. Everywhere.

As we waited this morning to board our flight back to Mumbai, we read an email from a friend of ours in the US who just welcomed his firstborn son into the world, and we thought how blessed we are for having such great friends! If only we could gather them altogether and live in the same place!

For now though, we are really grateful that once in a while we get to see these said awesome friends who are scattered all over the world. This weekend we had the honour of being hosted by our friend S in Ahmedabad.

On Saturday morning, we headed out to the old part of the city for a Heritage Walk. I really enjoyed all the information our guide gave us as we meandered through the narrow streets of this historically and culturally rich city.

Here are a few of my favourite images from the weekend.

Gujarat is famous for its kite-flying festival (Makar Sankranti). But it happens in January so we were quite surprised to see the manja (abrasive kite string) being made so early. Maybe it was mostly for tourist benefit but a cool thing to see anyway.

Cow-slaughter is illegal in Gujarat so you see a LOT of cows roaming the streets!

Jama Masjid was my favourite part of the Heritage Walk. Commissioned by Sultan Ahmed Shah in the 1400s, he had local artisans to build it and it is a infused with what is typically Hindu and Jain temple architecture. 

After the walk and breakfast we headed over to Dada Hari ni Vav which is a gorgeous five-story deep stepwell.