10 Year Itch

Champaner is the main reason why we came to Vadodara, so we woke up this morning with great anticipation. We were at the Central Bus Station by 7am and managed to get a 7:15 bus out to Pavagadh, which is about 50km from Vadodara. Now, when I say bus, this one is no luxury bus … it’s a true-blue State Transport bus . The bus looked battered from the outside and the seats inside, a little worn, but it wasn’t dirty and seemed to function quite well. So, for Rs.22 each, we found seats and got to Pavagadh by 8:45am. I thought the day had started out quite well … hmmmm.

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Kalika Mata temple is located at the summit of Pavagadh hill.

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For some reason, Madhu and I were a little exhausted with yesterday’s walking around. So we couldn’t imagine doing too much today. We had intended to head out to Champaner in the morning but decided not to as we just didn’t have the energy for it. Instead we woke up late and lazed a bit. We soon realized that we weren’t tired enough to spend all day within the hotel room, so we headed out to see the rest of Baroda’s sites, which weren’t really on our list of must-see places…

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Hotel Valiant

Rating: 8 out of 10 (No wireless … but they are working on having it setup soon)

Hotel Valiant was listed in LP to be a good mid-range option, so we decided to check it out first. It occupies the 7th and 8th floors of a building called BBC Towers in Sayyajigunj, which is less than half a kilometer from the train station. So we walked the distance and found the building easily. However, finding the entrance to the hotel wasn’t as easy. The first entrance we walked up to had no signs but just an office space. A bunch of guys hanging out there told us that the main entrance was round the corner. So we walked around the corner and entered another entrance that had two elevators. We got into one but it refused to stop at the 7th or 8th floors. Finally, a security guard on the 5th floor told us that we need to exit the building and take another entrance, which would take us to the hotel’s lobby. So we rode the elevator back down and walked out again. This time we found the right entrance – it had the hotel’s name on it as well. The elevator, though extremely claustrophobic, took us safely to the hotel’s main lobby on the 7th floor. I wasn’t expecting much from a budget hotel, but it turned out to be surprisingly well-kept. It is newly renovated – fresh paint, new marble floorings and fixtures – and very clean.

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The Gandhi Shilp Bazaar is organized by the Government of India. The stalls are provided to the artisans free of cost.

Kurti Stall

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Tambekar Wada, a 4-storey haveli was the residence of the Diwan of Vadodara. This is famous for its wall paintings from the 19th century Maratha tradition depicting scenes from the Mahabharata, Lord Krishna’s life and the Anglo-Maratha war.

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Our OCI application was finally filed yesterday. It didn’t require a lot of work – just 2 copies each of the OCI application form, US passport and the old, cancelled Indian passport, plus a Demand Draft of Rs.14,230 each. The only annoying part was that the application had to be mailed to the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) using Indian Postal Service only – no private courier was allowed. The India Post office near Thane railway station was in a dilapidated building that must have been at least a hundred years old. There was a notice near the entrance warning customers to be careful – apparently, the cement ceiling above the shutter doors was crumbling and pieces of it have been falling on people! Well, anyway, we stood in line for the Speed Post service and, after nearly an hour, were able to mail the documents. Two good things about Speed Post service – it’s super-cheap (just Rs.34 for a packet of documents weighing about a kilo) and has a tracking number to track the delivery.

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The Lakshmi Vilas Palace, an extravagant building of the Indo-Saracenic school, was built by Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III in 1890 at a cost of GBP 180K. Major Charles Mant was the architect.

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