Sameep, his Mum, Dad, myself and a driver head to Nadiad at midday through the mad traffic and bustle of Ahmedabad, our driver feels important so pushes his way into every gap and leans on the horn more times than Jenna Jamieson. 20 minutes of driving takes us to the beginning of a 'motorway', I used the inverted commas, as I don't know many motorways that have rickshaws being serviced on the side of them, or cows wandering about all over them. We stopped at the beginning of this motorway and we all hopped out and were shoe horned into something resembling an old fiat 500. Luckily the owner had the presence of mind to think of the environment when he installed the 500litre LPG gas tank in the boot, making the already small car even smaller. We put our gear on a small roof rack and tied our worldly possessions to it using a ball of twine. And headed off down the motorway flat out at 40 mph.
Like an EasyJet First class seat.
Monkey poo !
This is the basic bath / shower. It works. I didn't smell !
After arrival I was intoduced to Sameeps fathers side of the family, knowing that they may read this I'll try and be a politically correct as possible. They are short. I felt like I had arrived in Lilliput. As with every Indian person I have met, they were really nice and offered me food every 10 minutes. I think they like that I try literally everything, I'm honest too, some things I'm not fussed on, only about 2 things so far our of the 100 odd that I have tried. After being shown to our room it appears that Sameep and I will be sharing a bed, we start arranging the pillows (not for biting) but as a barricade to stop any stray limbs or worse from flailing over to each others side of the bed. We feel it is a normal precaution to take. Most 'hetro' blokes will agree.
Sameeps mother is Jain, it is a religious belief that you shouldn't harm any living thing, and that includes plants. There is nothing wrong with eating an apple, as the tree continues its life, however eating a carrot would destroy the plant and therefore it is a no no. With that peaceful existence in mind, Sameep and I decided to clear our room of mosquitos, and there was probably about 100 of them, Sameep is a black belt in catching them, a Jedi mozzy murderer, one handed, using two fingers, he could use chop sticks too if he had any. After catching one in his hand he'd mutter a prayer "die little turd," something like that, before ceremoniously stomping on it or using his current novel to smash it to flat pieces. Once we had cleared the room, I decided to drop my mum a call, from the local internet cafe. Luckily 100m down the road past 3 cows was such a place. This Internet cafe / sweet shop / plumbers / rickshaw mechanic... in fact he did everything that would make him a Rupee made a call to mum and said hi for me, before handing me the phone, what a nice chap. For £1 I spoke to mum explained where I thought I was, what the plan was for the next couple of weeks, and told her to read this blog (I'd love to see her face). Mum is pretty cool about most things, but I think I might be pushing it with Bangkok and the islands, it was nice to chat to her, I miss my family, but not enough to go back for quite a while. I don't miss the weather or the cost of things, and I certainly don't miss the food. Thai and Indian food is so good.
A typical shopping street in Nadiad.
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