Day 6 (Jan 6th)
Today we went to Swaminarayan Akshardham (google me… www.akshardham.com) This place was so amazing! We took a small van taxi from the hotel and negotiated a price of 900 Rupees which is less than $18. It was about a 20 minute ride there arriving around 12noon. When we got there the taxi driver kept saying…"I wait for you"…we kept trying to refuse and just pay for our ride there but he would not take our money! We felt bad because we had planned on staying at the temple and exploring its grounds the whole day, considering it is set on 100 acres! But he would not take no for an answer so we headed towards the front gate. Photography is strictly prohibited so we took a few shots before we headed in and decided to use the bathroom too…my first Indian toilet experience of the trip…wasn't as bad as I had conjured up in my head! It basically looks like the bottom part of an american toilet without the seat and its on the ground with traction spots on each side for your feet…squat and go!
Before you can enter the grounds you have to turn in any bags, cameras, and phones. They have a really cool system though. Once you get to the counter you take your camera/phone out of your bag and they have a surveillance camera that catches everything and is connected to a number that is also on a metal "coin" that they give to you. So then when you are ready to leave you turn in your coin and they check the video to be sure that the right person is picking up the right bag/camera/phone. So anyway, my India book called this place the "Disneyland of Temples"…and I would have to agree! We spent the entire day there. The main temple is totally breath taking and I felt like I could stand there and stare at it for hours…I guess I kinda did! Around the bottom of the outside of the temple they have carvings of depicting different stories from ancient text, gods/goddesses and so forth, so realistic. The temple is carved out of red stone and white marble and built without the use of any steel! You should definitely check out the website to get a better understanding of what I mean! The inside is equally impressive. There are several exhibitions throughout the grounds including a boat ride (which reminded me of 'Its a small world after all" ride) that takes you through the history and tells the story of India, a life size diorama that moves from room to room telling the story of Neelkanth Varni (this whole place is dedicated to him), who was an enlighten being and yogi by the age of 11, and a really cool musical color water fountain show after sunset. It was such a cool day and was nice to be on our own enjoying it all at our own pace. As we were walking out we started placing bets on wether or not our taxi driver would still be waiting for us (it was 730pm when we were leaving!) and if not how easy it would be to make it back to the hotel…sure enough, after 7 1/2 hours there he was waiting for us with a smile and was happy to take us anywhere else we wanted to go! We could not believe it! When we arrived at the hotel we gave him 2000 rupee's ($36) and he acted very surprised and so very grateful! We think that maybe he meant 900 rupee's round trip…so when we gave him double that he asked if we need a taxi for tomorrow:) We probably gave him too much but it felt good to make someone else so happy and to see the gratitude he expressed was priceless!
By this time we were starving and were lucky to get a reservation in one of the hotels restaurants Bukhara. It has been said to be one of the best places to eat in all of Asia! We had just enough time to shower and get ready for dinner at 915. The restaurant was very unique and delicious. I had something called Alloo Dum…potato stuffed with cheese,nuts, and dried fruit covered in a yummy sauce that was spicy…but not so spicy I couldn't handle it:) YUMMY! With a full tummy I was so exhausted we went straight to bed and got a wonderful nights sleep.
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| Swaminarayan Akshardham |
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