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Ahmedabad is a much more modern city than the others I have been to in India. Perhaps I happened to be staying in an upmarket area. They have a BRT system and the roads seem a little less chaotic but crossing the road was still a little tricky. I walked to 3 malls and a temple within a 2km radius of the hotel. There were 3 cinemas very close by as we'll so I decided to watch a Hindi movie. I watched Satyagraha. There were no subtitles so I couldn't follow the finer details of the plot but I got the gist from my limited Hindi, the pictures and the occasional use of English words in the movie. The cinema had reclining seats and a good surround sound system. I was expecting people in the audience to cheer and sing along etc but there was nothing of the sort.
Next morning, I went to Sabarmati Ashram - home of Mahatma Gandhi for a number of years. A sobering experience.
Then it was off to the train station for my first train ride in India. I was quite nervous. The driver did not know Ahmedabad at all so I wasn't sure if I was at the right train station but fortunately it was. They have different waiting rooms depending on the class of ticket you have purchased. I had a first class ticket so I could wait in an air conditioned room but there were people sleeping on the floor and the seats were not the cleanest in the world.
There is a tv telling you the departure times of the various trains and which platforms. They don't tell you when your train has arrived. I left the lounge 15 minutes before the departure time and found the train waiting there. I battled to find my carriage and eventually boarded after dragging my bag up and down the platform.
Next challenge was to lift my bag which was probably over 25kg onto the overhead shelf. I have obviously lost some strength since I couldn't get the bag up high enough. The other passengers just watched me struggle. Eventually one guy came forward and helped me. Taking it down was a lot easier and I managed that myself.
In first class, I had a seat at a table with 3 other people. They bring you a sealed bottle of water, snacks and sweetmeats to eat and tea/coffee. The train had to stop for over 30 minutes for some reason so the 3.5 hour journey became over 4 hours.
I got off at Surat train station. It stops for 3-6 minutes only so you have to move fast and get off quickly. Surat station is the chaotic dirty place you typically associate with Indian train stations. The agents that were supposed to be waiting for were not there. After several phone calls and an aggressive attitude from me, they fetched me almost an hour later. In fact, they sent 2 cars because they were not sure which would get there first!
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