Baroda - Vadodara?
Many of the Indian city names have been changed back to the original Indian names. Vadodara is hard for us to pronounce correctly but Baroda is far easier to pronounce. Indian people only understand us when we use Baroda!
A late start and a great local breakfast - Fafda with sweeter dips than we are used to in India and a green papaya salad. Everything in Gujarat is quite sweet and apparently this is to do with cotton strands and jaggery sugar, way back in history.
Confusion with where to stand for the local bus was obvious, so a local man took us to a different bus stop. We then caught a bus to the city terminal and another to Laxmi Villa Palace. A beautiful building from the outside and the current home to the king. Only a small part of the palace is open because of it's special residents. Though, it is 4x the size of Buckingham Palace ... apparently!
Next stop was a small gymkhana club across the road. They were decorating the polo ground ready for Navratri. All of the dancing will be done outside on the small arena.
Khandaro market was our next stop but we were distracted by a really huge, old building. We took a closer look and went invited inside. It looked like offices but the manager spoke to us and explained it was a members only cards club where members played rummy. They must have only used part of the building as it seemed far too big for a card club.
We entered the market through small styles. There was fruit and veg, an incense sticks area and a flower area too. We also went to a huge clothes market selling dresses and fabric for Navratri. We had a tasty ice cream from a man selling from his bike.
Across the road was a Sikh Gurdwara. A beautiful building, so we went to take a look. Shoes off, head covered and in we went. We were the only visitors and were given a personal tour. It was really nice. Darryl was allowed to wave the chair sahib (yak hair wand) over the Guru Granth Sahib (holy book). We were invited for lunch and were given sweets and prasad. Our guide called his friend in the Gurdwara in Southampton and we chatted on WhatsApp.
There were plenty of beautiful buildings ane went to see a huge Shiva statue in the centre of a lake.
We had our photoraphs taken with some ladies and their children who were selling fruit by the lake. One lady was quite funny, not quite as reserved as usual!
We decided to look for a pitstop and have a cool drink. We came upon 2 girls eating something we hadn't seen before. The shop owner saw us and called us over. He told us they had been selling khaman (a coriander flavoured cake made from gram flour with a green dip) for 63 years. His grandfather had started the business. It was really tasty and before we knew it we had another plateful.. when we went to pay the man would not take any money from us but asked for a selfie outside the shop. He then gave us a bottle of water each and we were on our way.
An old cinema stood next to the lake. We went inside to take a look. We ended up watching a movie - Mission Raniganj - a true story about a group of miners rescued from deep underground. It was good, although we missed the start.
It was time to head home. A bus pulled up just outside the cinema. We reached the city bus station in no time. We tried to find our next bus. This was a little bit more difficult even with help. It was getting late and we decided that the bus might not run anymore. We decided to negotiate an auto. 150 seemed to be the price they all told us. However, the locals said it should be more like 100. A man agreed to take us for 100 but didn't know the way. He asked a passerby who directed him. The price increased suddenly back to 150. We gave up and jumped out. We walked to where we thought a bus might pass. We asked some local businesss men and one said he would drop us near where we were staying. That was a very kind offer and we chatted enroute to our destination. He dropped us very near and we searched for a snack for dinner.
We found a recommended thali restaurant but decided not to eat there as there was only one thali on the menu and it was enormous and we only needed a snack. We ventured next door to a Bombay/Baroda snack bar. We snacked and drank chai before a short walk home.
