Epic day today. We started out by walking around town again, first to the train station near our hotel to see if we could get an earlier train tomorrow when we leave and also a better class of seating. We had originally booked “sleeper class” which is the cheapest ticket you can get, but after seeing how crowded and packed and noisy and slightly dirty the sleeper cars were on our way up here we decided to see if we could up our options. In sleeper class there are multiple bunks in each open compartment with people basically hanging from the ceilings. It is only a difference from six dollars for sleeper to sixteen for first class, so it is definitely worth it to have a less crowded private compartment with a door that closes. Maybe we wussed out and missed out on the authentic Indian experience, but we figured why put ourselves in unnecessary discomfort on an already long train ride. I’m sure after this and other 12 or 24 hour train rides we’ll be happy with going for first class.We also cruised the zoo today which was sort of rundown with old buildings that are closed and look neglected. Saw some monkeys, the planetarium, some alligators and some deer.
Headed back to the hotel after that to wait for Kevin’s friend Pankit's friend to pick us up for the kite festival. When he showed up we stopped by a kite stand that was selling all types of small paper kites. We bought a bunch of them and some big spools of kite string also. Pankit's friend whose name is Pranav (hell of a dude) drove us out to his house in the sort of suburb area of Baroda in his car. The ‘hood was in a nice working class family area, good and clean, with three or four story homes with flat roofs. We immediately went up to the rooftop and were overtaken by a 360 degree view of thousands upon thousands of people on top of their homes flying thousands upon thousands of kites. Pranav and a younger guy that was with Pranav when he picked us up as well as another buddy that came up from Mumbai started flying their kites also.
The kites themselves are a little smaller than a foot square and are made from thin sticks and tissue paper. They aren’t easy to fly and I never really succeed at getting one to actually fly. It mostly thrashed around for a few moments before crashing over the side of the house. I gave up after losing a few and just took in the sights which were completely amazing. The guys and gals who are really good at flying kites purposefully try to get them entangled with their neighbors kites in order to cut each other’s kite strings. The string is actually lined with glass so that they can cut other kites out of the sky. It’s like a little battle or game which all is done in good fun.
As the sun moved lower in the sky and the light over the white rooftops turned to that only-in-India-amber-orange-color the sky filled with more and more kites. Everyone as far as your eyes could see were out on their rooftops enjoying the evening. To truly do justice in words to the beauty of seeing so many thousands of kites in the sky is hardly possible, not even pictures can duplicate what experiencing the event is like first hand. My expectations of the kite festival were far exceeded and I couldn’t even have imagined what seeing the sky completely full of kites zipping around like gnats everywhere I looked would be like. It was a life moment that will stay with me forever, the views, the people, the interesting Indian candy and chai tea provided by Pranav's wife and the good company. It was outstanding.While it’s on my mind I want to mention that everyone, no exaggeration, everyone on the streets here in India stares at you. As far as I can tell it probably has something to do with the fact that we are white or maybe westerners, can’t think of another reason, we don’t dress a whole lot different than younger locals and, well, it just feels really weird. As I was walking by myself around the streets of Baroda today an old man on a bench noticed me from a distance and pointed me out to his friend that he was sitting with. Earlier, when Kevin and I stepped into a restaurant for lunch many of the people eating stopped and did a double take toward us at the door. There was that “old record player scratching sound” and it got quite for a moment. The staring doesn’t have a malicious feel to it though and if you smile at the people staring at you they will definitely smile back. I guess they don’t see westerners a lot in Baroda.
Anyways, back to the kite festival. As darkness fell things got really neat. All around us people started lighting fireworks off from their rooftops, and not small ones either, real full-sized mortars going off in every direction. This was definitely the most fireworks that I have seen going off at one time in my life and they went on for more than an hour. The fireworks, and the hundreds of paper lanterns propelled by hot air from little candles inside, made this nothing less than a completely magical, once in a lifetime experience. It was better than anything I have seen like New Years or the Fourth of July on the Embarcadero in San Francisco because the fireworks here surround you for 360 degrees. Kevin and I had a great time and we are privileged to have been given an inside look into this experience by the locals.
When things quieted down a little, Pranav took us back to our hotel area but first showed us one of his favorite street vendors in town who he called the Omelet Guy. The Omelet Guy was really more of an egg scrambles guy, but he definitely made some great egg-based dishes, all very flavorful. The three three selections of Pranav's favorites that he ordered for us were extremely tasty. The cart was busy with locals ordering every combination of eggs, vegetables and spices that you can imagine. I only caught the name of one that we had, which was a masala omelet, but they were all great. Definitely the best food we have had so far on this trip. I did personally think it might be a little early in our trip for street cart food but the hygiene of the cart seemed alright and the food was hot. My fingers are crossed.
After dinner we got some ice cream and when I told Pranav that I eat pretty much any food he said he had something for us to try that we couldn’t get in the US. I was interested. We went to another street cart down the road that had a man wrapping some sort of filling with large green leaves. It was called paan and is a sort of after dinner breath freshener and digestive. I read about it before I came to India and learned that they are most commonly filled with tobacco and betel nut. It is common to see Indian men spitting the red juice from the paan everywhere. These that we had were the non tobacco version and had an intense mentholy minty eucalyptusy flavor, cleared your sinuses instantly and tingled in your stomach. My mouth was super minty fresh. Kevin didn’t like it at all and almost offended the whole of India by instantly spitting his out.It was about 9:00PM by this point and Pranav had to work the next day (six day work week in India) so we parted ways. We are eternally grateful for everything he showed us and we most definitely owe him and his family a fine day in San Francisco.
Before Kevin and I called it a night ourselves we decided to check out a rumor that we'd heard about some of the larger hotels in Baroda having alcohol despite, as mentioned, it being prohibited in Gujarat. The rumor turned out to be true and the hotels actually have devoted liquor and beer shops, called wine shops here in India, out in the open, not hidden, you just have to have a foreign passport to purchase the liquor or beer. Unfortunately the shops closed at 8:30PM and unfortunately it was 10:00PM by the time we arrived. Oh well, probably better off in the end for us anyways.It’s 11:30PM now and we have an early train to catch to Mumbai where we will hang out for three days. Gonna hit the sack now.
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