Blog 009 - Kankaria Lake

Day 21 – Sunday, March 23

Slept in til a little before 10 this morning – only day of the week to do that. Get a little time to work on my photos a bit. Had to get some money out of the ATM, and pick up some laundry before heading out. Today is Sunday, the day we get to explore the area. Jose and I are meeting up with Nora around noon to head out to Kankaria Lake. Get a text from Nora saying Mary is going to join us. Grab a ricksha and head over to pick them up, then we are off. None of us have been there, so we know a set rate is going to be higher than it should be, but you can't haggle a deal if you have no idea where you are going. We agree on 200 rupees for all four of us, 50 each so not so bad.

 

 

 

Kankaria Lake is a man-made lake about 35 km from Gandhi Ashram. Supposed to have a zoo, boat rides, places to eat, and hopefully a great place to take photos. Being Sunday, a lot of people should be out and about. That turns out to be an understatement. It's hot . . . but that's what you expect. We pay a 10 rupee fee to enter, wow that broke the bank. Once the camera comes out, I immediately start to make new friends. It doesn't take long before I become detached from the rest of my group, but no problem. I can always catch up with them later. All then women and girls are dressed in their colorful tribal Indian clothes, with plenty of gold and other jewelry. Everyone wanted photos; kids, teens, adults. Photos of kids and babies. Photos of old men. People coming at me from all over. How could I resist. I had one women get my attention and said Manav Sadhna – apparently I had met her Women's Day a few weeks ago. Being a tall, white, European, I guess I would stand out in a sea of Indians.

 

 

 

I came across this Indian who spoke very good English. He had a really professional level camera and said he was having problems with his memory card, saying his files were inaccessable. He asked if I could insert it into my camera to see it it was working in mine – determining if it was a memory card problem or a camera problem. At least it was only a memory card problem and he only had lost his photos. Apparently, he is living inn Bangalore and only visiting Ahmedabad through today. He used to work for Goggle in California for several years and had visited many cities in the US while he was there. He now owns his own hi-tech company in Bangalore. Gave me his card and told me to call him if I was ever in Bangalore. Around here, that sort of introduction is a good thing – and it also usually gets you a night or two at someone's house if you are traveling around.

 

 

 

Overall, it was a long and hot day, but the resulting photography made it all worthwhile. It will be a good outing to visit here again sometime before I leave.