Stepwell and Ashram
A slow start to the morning whilst we ate breakfast and drank chai...
We chatted about places to visit, different phone apps to order 'everything' from cinema tickets to milk!
We caught the bus to Adalaj Stepwell, which in times gone by was a source for drinking water and other household needs. Indian price 25 rupees, tourist price 300 rupees.
The well goes down about 5 tiers and each tier is intricately carved. One of our friends is an artist so she wanted to do a small watercolor painting and encouraged us both to do some drawing too. It was very therapeutic!
On the way out we stopped for a sugarcane juice which went down well in the heat. We also watched a big dog squeeze himself into a small bath to cool down. He was very funny.
We caught an autorickshaw, with a very adept driver who managed to dodge and swerve us quickly to Sabarmarti Ashram (Gandhi's Ashram). There was an interesting museum on the site of Gandhi's home from 1917 to 1930, set on the banks of the river.
Next stop was street food. First we had paani puri, then we went for chai. After we ate many other street snacks but we can't possibly remember all of them! And ....drank more chai from a saucer, which is really a 'thing' in Ahmedabad!
Then a friend picked us up in his car. For him it is a tradition every year on the anniversary of the passing of his mother to distribute food for the homeless. We were privileged to go along with him as he handed out vada pav and dabeli. Many smiling faces made our day as we were able to help hand out food too.
We then had more street food, this time sev puri, followed by more chai. Interestingly the chai place we stopped at was on the edge of the main highway - it felt a bit like drinking chai sitting in the sliplane on the M27! It was an extremely popular spot with the young.
