Ahmedabad Trip & Visit to Statue of Unity

Our Ahmedabad trip was an unplanned trip, which came as a fallout of high ticket price for our return travel from Jaisalmer to Chennai. I was looking for places to see near Jaisalmer through an overnight train journey and that's how I decided to visit Ahmedabad. We took the train from Jaisalmer to Ahmedabad on 28th Dec evening. 

We reached Ahmedabad on 29th Dec morning. I had booked our stay at The Fern Residency Ahmedabad (which is at a walkable distance from Sabarmathi Ashram). Since the hotel couldn't guarantee early check-in, I ended up booking for one more additional day - as I didn't want to take a chance while traveling with family. Booking this hotel is one of the best decisions that I made - the facility was maintained very well and they had a good buffet breakfast. Also, it was closer to Sabarmathi Ashram. We spent 3 days in Ahmedabad.

Day 1 - Local Site Seeing

We booked a 4 hours package in Ola and visited multiple places

within the city - Hutheesing Jain Temple, Sidi Sayed Mosque, Teen Darwaza, Bhadra Fort, Rani Sipri's Mosque and Kankaria Lake. Of all these places, Hutheesing Jain Temple and Kankaria Lake are the well-maintained places. There are a number of kids attractions like a joy train ride in Kankaria Lake and you can spend 3 - 4 hours easily in that place. It looks like the government has completely neglected all the monuments of the Muslims. They were in a dilapidated condition. 

We ended up extending the 4 hours package by another two hours to visit Adalaj Vav Stepwell, as it was far away from the city (nearly 25 Kms). This is definitely a "must-to-see" place - amazing and astonishing architecture. They do have a well-maintained lawn around this place. We returned back to the hotel by 1.45 pm after visiting this place. The whole trip costed Rs. 2000. 

We had our lunch, took some rest till 4.30 pm, got up and got ready. In the evening, we walked to Sabarmati Ashram. It is maintained really well - helped us to reflect on the struggle(s) that M. Gandhi has to go through during the years that led to Indian Independence. The place is also adjacent to the Sabarmati river, which is maintained well within the Ahmedabad city limits. We spent nearly 1.5 hours at the Ashram and returned back to the hotel. We finished our dinner early and started retiring early, as we had to wake up early the next day for the SOU trip.

Day 2 - Statue of Unity

I hired a rental cab from Ahmedabad Car Rentals for a one day trip to the Statue of Unity (SOU). They charged Rs.11 per Km + Rs.300 driver bata. The overall costs turned out to be around Rs.6000 for the entire trip. We started from Ahmedabad by 7 am sharp (the cab driver was also very punctual - in fact, he came 10 mins ahead of time). We reached SOU by 10.50 am - after finishing our breakfast on the way. 

SOU is a massive infrastructure spread over nearly 927 acres. We had to park the car almost near the Ekta Nagar railway station (they have multiple parking bays there!) and take an electric bus (free!) to reach the SOU entrance. SOU is maintained like Disney Land - phenomenal crowd management and cleanliness. You can even spend 2 days going to all the attractions in SOU - and all of them are targeted at kids. For example, you can even spend 3 - 4 hours strolling through the Sardar Patel Zoo. It's better to do online booking before visiting the place and it's even better if you can stay closer to SOU itself. The viewing gallery and laser show tickets were sold out - as it was the peak season. 

We visited the SOU monument, Dino Trail, Miyawaki Forest, Maze Garden (must see!) and Sardar Patel Zoo (Jungle Safari). Though we had booked for the Ekta Nursery we were not able to go there - as it was far away and it closes by 5.30 pm. The Jungle Safari isn't even worth it - there was a long waiting time and you can easily cover most places by walk. Moreover, animals like Lion, Tiger, Rhino etc., are kept very close to the entrance itself for the convenience of visitors. 

If you stay closer to SOU (Vadodara or Ekta Nagar), you can stay till late in the night to watch the laser show and need not worry about transport options. Since, we stayed in Ahmedabad, we left the place by 5.30 pm and reached the hotel back by 9.30 pm, skipping dinner (the return journey took longer than the onward journey due to traffic in Ahmedabad city). 

Day 3 - Ahmedabad Local Site Seeing

On Day 3, we visited the Swaminarayan Akshardam Temple by Ola cab. This place was nearly 25 Kms away from the place where we stayed. As we reached the place by 9.30 am (and the temple opens only at 10 am), we visited the Vishwamaitri Dham Jain Tirth Borij Jain Temple across the road. This is also a well maintained temple and they allow you to take pictures in some areas. 

We returned back to the Akshardam Temple. Askhardam is a well maintained temple (they do have a musical fountain show in the evening). Camera/Mobile/Bags etc., are not allowed within this facility.  They do have a well-maintained dining area with restroom facility in the premise. We spent nearly an hour there in the temple. We took a cab from Akshardam to visit the River Front Flower Park in Ahmedabad. I was worried whether we would be able to get a return cab - as the place was far away from the city. Thankfully, we were able to get a Uber cab quickly. River Front Flower Park is a well maintained place with good eateries. As they were preparing for a Flower Show, we couldn't get into the area of the park with flowers. We just strolled through the Atal Bridge and adjacent areas. We spent an hour there and took a cab back to the hotel. We reached hotel by around 12.30 pm. We took rest for a short while, packed our bags, checked out (by 2 pm) and left our bags at the cloak room in the hotel.

We then visited the Sardar Vallabhai Patel Museum. This is a decent and reasonable maintained museum - mostly pictures from the yesteryears and a few belongings of SV Patel. They do have a well-maintained lawn in the museum. After visiting the museum, we spent an hour at the lawn munching some snacks (as we had skipped our lunch). We returned back to our hotel by 5 pm, collected our bags and headed back to the Ahmedabad airport. The flight was delayed by 45 mins or so. We reached Chennai by midnight, at the dawn of the new year.