For some factor, Madhu and I were a little tired with the other day's walking around. So we could not picture doing excessive today. We had meant to go out to Champaner in the early morning but chose not to as we simply didn't have the energy for it. Instead we got up late and lazed a bit. We quickly understood that we weren't tired enough to invest all the time within the hotel space, so we went out to see the rest of Baroda's sites, which weren't actually on our list of must-see places ...
Since the Baroda Museum doesn't open till 10:30 am, we first went to Tambekar Wada, which was explained in LP as a common Maratha estate. The Diwan of Baroda, Bhau Tambekar, lived here in the late 19th century. When we got there, it didn't look anything like a mansion from the exterior. It looked old and majestic, yes, however it remained in the middle of a hectic street and I doubt anyone death by would have provided it a review. There were 2 guys at the main door who searched for at us curiously when we strolled up to them. We later on learnt that they are caretakers of the Wada and were published there by the Archaeological Society of India. When Madhu inquired if this was certainly Tambekar Wada, they both nodded and after that one of them volunteered to show us around.
There's no admission cost. We were required to the first flooring of the building, stairs resulting in which were high and high. We got in a long, rectangle-shaped room, which had a long, narrow terrace on the left. The terrace was covered entirely with steel mesh, which let adequate light in but didn't exactly match its vintage environments. The hall, itself, though, was exquisite. The walls were completely covered with miniature paintings that depicted scenes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. However the majority of the paintings remained in a state of decay. The caretaker discussed that it was only just recently that the Wada had been used up by the Archaeological society of India as a Heritage site. Till then, it was being utilized as a Marathi school for the local Maharashtrian children ... unfortunate. He then took us to another hall, which was on the flooring above. Here the murals were much better preserved and most paintings were complete. The paintings were of European as well as Indian themes. Apart from these 2 halls, no other rooms were open in the big Wada for public watching.
Before we left, we were asked to sign a visitor book. Madhu saw that we were the only visitors for the day and that there were a few foreign visitors, probably one a day, over the month. I guess they all had LPs which brought them here.
Our next stop was the Baroda Museum, which is within a park called Sayyaji Bagh. We got there at exactly 10:30 am. The park itself wasn't anything special so we headed straight to the museum, which was housed in an enforcing brick structure. The entry ticket was just Rs.10 and we were told that we were the 1st visitors of the day. Unfortunately, no cameras were enabled within the museum. This was actually sad 'coz the museum had some amazingly pretty things. There were elaborately carved sandalwood figurines as well as brass sculptures, which are our preferred. The museum, surprisingly, had artifacts from around the globe- apart from Nepal, Tibet and China, it had paintings and marble sculptures from Europe also. There was likewise a children's area and a Natural History section, both which were intriguing. The highlight of the children's area was a 71-feet skeleton of a blue whale-- rather a sight!
By the time we ended up seeing the museum completely, we were truly exhausted again. So we chose to obtain some lunch and invest the afternoon inside your home in our space. At 4pm, we headed back out once again. Since there is nothing else to see as such in Baroda we chose to have a look at the trade fair that we had actually discovered yesterday on our way to the Laxmi Vilas Palace. It turned out to be an exhibition and sale of Indian crafts and fabrics called Gandhi Shilp Bazaar. Apparently, during the traveler season, which is practically November thru January, the govt arranges these exchanges to promote local craftsmens. This fete had stalls from UP, MP, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal and Orissa. It was very colorful and Madhu had an excellent time clicking away. Seeing his professional-looking electronic camera, many stall owners asked us if we were from journalism.
I had a fantastic time checking out all the stuff. The textile stalls from Gujarat were the very best as they had fantastic bedspreads and cushion covers. We talked with a lady at one of the Gujarat stalls and she told us that the govt supplies them with free transportation and lodging to come out to these trade fairs and install their stuff. The stall is free also so all earnings go directly to the artisans-- we were very impressed!
There were numerous stalls of UP Lucknowi Chikan work. I tried to search for a Lucknowi Kurthi, which was fairly priced at Rs.250, but could not find a nice among my size. The jewelry stalls didn't have anything special to offer. Thank God for that otherwise I would have had a difficult time resisting them. There was a food stall too from where I consumed pani puris. They weren't the best I've had however not bad either. We left not long after.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a Cafe Coffee Day for some tea. It had extremely good interiors and a relaxing atmosphere. Tomorrow we'll go out to Champaner. We'll probably begin early so that we can be done before the afternoon heat wears us down. Officially, it's winter season but the weather throughout the day is still a little too warm- I can't imagine what the summertime heat would be like!
For more information on Gujarat holiday packages from Delhi and any other tour packages contact Swan Tours one of the leading tour operators in India.
