Even though we were late to reach Ahmedabad and slept in the car itself ( Please Refer Previous blogs for reference), the tiredness in us made us have a great sleep, but some how I woke up early due to non comfort of sleeping over Driver’s seat.
It was still dark and just opposite to the car parked I saw a small decent shop selling some agarbattis and Pan masala. I just went ahead with a hope that I could get some help atleast with charging my phone. The elderly guy over there was very kind. He just mentioned that the Hotelier is lazy and always does that. He just told me to get mobile charged. Not just that he was also very kind enough to offer me tea and also he tried connecting to the Hotelier himself.
After some luck he could connect and Hotelier finally opened the door. But by than it was 6:30 am and taking that room was literraly of no use.
I just woke up my sister, we just unloaded the bags as I wanted to give back the car as it was last day with our great car Altoji which helped us make a successfull trip really smooth.
I just cleaned up the car and dumped all the plastic bottles and wrappers into the dustbin and called the guy who was assigned to pick the car. Sadly he mentioned that the area which I had chosen to drop is different from the Hotel location, so he shared me the location over WhatsApp that was near Sarangur Bridge.
I quickly went ahead and submitted the car. He did assessment of the car and finally gave me node of perfect submission and gave assurance that extra re- fuel amount will be refunded soon.
But in hurry I had forgotten to charge my mobile completely and it was dead again and frankly speaking I just took an Ola auto who dropped me to another unknown place. Somehow I managed to charge a couple of percent of my battery in a tapri and learnt the direction over maps and walked to the Hotel Location.
It was 9:30 am and we were all set to go to our next Destination i.e Vadodara. We had our Rent a car booked from Zoomcar in Vadodara from 10 am. But that wasn’t a concern as we had the booking for entire day.
But concern was right now we were missing our Altoji as there was a lot of stuff to carry and we were not sure how to reach. We started booking Uber and Ola outstation but either they were over priced or were cancelling. So Hotelier told us to go near the Ahmedabad – Vadodara Highway where we could get plenty of options. So we finally called Uber to take us to that place i.e CMT Express way.
From Ahmedabad to Vadodara Hotel on Special Taxi took us Rs 800/-
Once we reached there were plenty options on sharing basis, but we wanted it separate as we had lot of luggage. so we did some negotiation and finally came to a price where they agreed to take us.
Once we sat in the car I hardly remembered anything, the roads were damp smooth. I knew it will pass through Anand area (Place known for Amul Industry and Milk Revolution) . But the first time when I openend my eyes was at some junction in Vadodara itself where Driver told us to tell the maps direction of Hotel we booked.
We reached our Hotel around 12 noon. It was located in Sayajigunj Area just opposite to The Maharaja Sayajirao University.
The hotel was clean, we quickly got fresh, even though I was not fresh mentally but our last destination was Pending i.e. the tallest Statue of the World – Statue of Unity.
It was hardly 1 and half hour drive from Vadodara. So once I got fresh around 1 pm I started walking setting my maps to destination where the car was stationed.
Maps showed me walking direction passing through University. I waked through the university with various activities going around and it was a nostalgia feeling of my college life.
Finally i had glimse of the car parked just outside the Sayajigunj Garden and by its first look it looked very old. Opened the car and it literraly stinked a bit, I just completed the checklist and once I started the car it didn’t start at all. The battery was completely down. I tried to start it several times but no use. So I had to call the ZoomCar again to get it sorted for me. Finally after waiting there like a fool for around 30 minutes the agent came only to give me bad news that they don’t have any backup vehicle and they are sorry for this and will refund the amount.
I was really frustated with Zoomcar Gujurat as within span of 1 week this had happened twice. Just screaming out the frustation to the Customer care I started walking back to the Hotel location. By now it was 2 pm and hiring a private cab and going there wouldn’t make sense. So sadly came back to the Hotel. But somewhere I felt it all happened for good reason.(As we had not pre booked our tickets for Statue of Unity so our chances were less. Also I was really exhausted).
Straightaway we walked few meters only for Police Uncle who helped us to a really good restaurant named ” Radhika hotel”. Let me tell you I never had such a tasty authentic Gujurathi Thali till than. We had our tummies full and we did the best part than, went to our respective rooms and get a well needed sleep.
Woke up all lazy at around 5 pm, just had a tea and had no plans what to do. So a person out there told us that there is really good market by the name “Mangal Bazaar”, where you can do shopping.
We just hired an auto and went there. It was full rush and best place for streets as well as fashion shopping. The clothes were really cheap as compared to other cities we had seen so far. We did some shopping for Papa and me and also bought some sweets from Jagdish Sweet mart (Its a famous outlet in Vadodara, and make sure to buy from Original outlet as many shops have kept the same name. ). We came back to the hotel and did our Final packing.
At around 8:30 pm we weren’t much hungry but decided to go down for a walk and explore the area. But as we got down just below the hotel complex there’s a cute Tea cafe with weird tagline.So we decided to check it and also have something to eat. Gujurat state which is known as Dry state (No Alcholol) had a tea cafe with tea having various alcohol flavours. The cafe had a cute ambience and lots of games to play.
I tried Rum and Vodka tea(It literraly had same taste), ate maggi in Kulhad and played timeless Ludo and snake and Ladder. We stayed there for almost more than an hour that it was already 9:30 pm. So just had a small walk and went back to Hotel only to watch a Hindi dubbed South Indian movie 🙂 (I am a fan of such movies :P).
Next morning woke up around 8 am. We had pre booked our train fleet from Vadodara to Surat which was scheduled at around 9:30 am. (Train is the fastest mode of transport to reach Surat). Got fresh and checked out from Hotel. The Railway station was just 500 meters away from our Hotel location, so decided to just drag the luggage and walk along.
We didnt have our breakfast as we decided to just experience the food from train itself. The train was on time. The train was clean but it stinked a bit due to smell from the toilet, but since it was a short journey it was manageable. We had some bondi wadas and tea.
We reached Surat around 12 noon. My sister had her Flight back to Goa at around 4 pm. There was a lot of time but I had to get back to Pune that night itself. So we didn’t waste time and hired a cab and straightway moved towards airport. We just had view of well structured city of Surat and heard it is this place where most of the women clothes are designed and sold across the country and its way too cheap. (Definately a place needs to be explored in future).
We reached airport around 1 pm and it seemed a very small airport and I am assuming there are hardly any fleets from here by looking at it from outside. I bidded a Good Bye to my sister who had been a great company through out this trip and really it was our first trip together :).
And now I had no idea how I will get back to Pune. Only thing I knew that there are frequent trains from Surat to Mumbai. So as I was checking way to go out of airport to hire cab back to Railway station, a couple of guys told me that a bus will be coming in 5 minutes that will drop at the railway station and literraly within 5 minutes there was a local bus and I was dropped at Railway station for just Rs 20 (while going from station to Airport cab took Rs 260) and bus service was good and so was condition of the bus.
It was close to 2 pm as I moved inside the railway station and luckily I met with an agent who helped me get a Sleeper ticket (Even though for a second I thought I got fooled by that guy). The train journey was good this time, I was just recollecting all the memories of my 7 Days tour.
I got down at Borivalli station in Mumbai at around 5 pm and from there took a local to Dadar station as I was aware that outside Dadar station there are various sharing based options.
Took a cab till Wakad in Pune and from there Ola Auto to my Room. I Reached Room at around 9 pm.
The Great Trip to Gujurat ended with Great memories Added in my Life.
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Untill next Destination Signing Off :).
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