Namaste!

We arrived in Ahmedabad via a very crazy route that brought us into the least modernised part of town via the slum areas down by the river, this in turn gave us a completely misguided interpretation of what we thought the city may be like :-) A success with accommodation raised our spirits high and we even had the luxury of a hot, powerful shower. It's the small things in life...

We really like it here, it has real pavements and there is very little rubbish in the streets :-) On arrival the air quality improved - neither of us can explain why because we were now in a city and past experiences dictated that it should have gotten worse :-)

We have achieved a lot here. We have gotten our bikes serviced, had some cushy seat covers fitted to them as well as brand new number plates (You will have to wait and see the photos). We have found a restaurant that serves good quality food at a cheap price. In fact the Lucky restaurant requires some further explanation - the single story building that it is situated in has been built over a number of Muslim graves. The memorials are in the form of green painted casket shapes, they are protected with a metal frame that is movable and is seated around their edges. These are dotted around in what appears to be a random order, as you eat you get to sit with the dead. It is not as eerie as it sounds and in my opinion it seems quite respectful although I admit that this may not be everybody's cup of tea, so to speak. There is also a tree that has been left and it's trunk remains intact with the roof accommodating it :-)

Over the last few weeks I have accumulated a number of gifts that I have needed to post home. We have embarked on a postal mission...

First you have to find a stationers to buy the packaging materials. We bought some envelopes and what looked like card, although K insists that it resembles pressed sheets of dried cow dung :-) :-) We protected everything with the few resources that we had. We knew that we had to get the parcels enclosed in some fabric and stitched up - 'tis the regulations of this land. We found someone outside the post office to do this. He produced some white fabric from his pile and went about neatly making a nice little tight fitting cube shaped smock for the packages to wear so that they looked neatly dressed for their journey (I guess) :-) He was very thorough and the work was neat and sturdy as he stitched the edges of the package together. The whole thing was very strange though, as most things in India it felt like an experience from a time now past. So, should you be lucky enough to receive a parcel in the post from either of us then you should not be surprised to have it arrive in some fine white linen.... (hopefully I will get some pictures of this to you)

We went on an historical heritage walk this morning, I shall save that post for another time because I am now beat!!

Thanks for reading, especially my previous rant about the pollution in Gujarat, it is something that I particularly abhor - in case you had not guessed!

So, it is goodnight from me....