Pics (clockwise): Diamond Market, Surat Highway,
Tapi River
My company is an HRO so my job profile includes traveling to places as and when we have to conduct workshops, consultation projects, etc. So, I thought why not post about my travel to places on my blog..
This May I went twice to “Gujju Land” Surat to be precise as we had to conduct an in house training for a Fortune 500 company out there. The first trip was just for 3 days so there’s nothing much to pen down (or type).. But my recent trip was for 11 days (24th May to 3rd June, 2007) so I can type a detailed entry in my blog. Here goes..
We went to Mumbai via Cool Cab on the express highway and every time I travel via this route I fall in love with it. The route is truly amazing. The roads are very well maintained and since we left on a Thursday afternoon, the roads were relatively free from traffic and we managed to reach Mumbai in a record two and a half hours.
Once in Mumbai Central we boarded the August Kranti Rajdhani Express which is a super fast express train and it took around three and a half hours to reach Surat. Since we were supposed to stay in the Company’s guest house which is located on the Surat Hazira highway, it was a 45 minutes drive from the Railway Station. The roads are very broad and traffic is well disciplined but there are a few bumps here and there and thanks to the occasional bump I managed to stay awake till we reached the guest house.
Now, a wee bit about Surat..
Surat is a port city in the Indian state of Gujarat and administrative headquarters of the Surat District. It is the second largest city in Gujarat and ninth largest in India. Surat is now India’s second cleanest city. Sometime back, Surat was ranked the No.1 city in India to earn, invest and live.
Surat has the highest number of flyovers in Gujarat. In fact most of the times I was highly amazed by our driver who would go in a zig zag fashion in and out of flyovers. But thanks to the flyovers time is greatly reduced whilst traveling.
Since Gujarat has a lot of industries, there are seldom any power cuts. This is a huge relief as the summer heat can be very irritating. (It was 42 degrees HOT but thanks to being in the AC all the time I did not feel the heat at all).
The city is largely recognized for its textile and diamond businesses. Three-quarters of the world's diamonds are cut and polished in Surat, thus it has been called the "Diamond capital of the world". So, one thing I was really looking forward during my stay there was to go shopping.
We did go shopping one evening to a place which is called the Bombay Textile Market. This place is really huge and I guess roughly there will be around more than 100-150 shops out there.
One thing I was warned about was that Surat although being world famous as an exporter of textiles, its mostly synthetic textiles which are exported. The Textile Market proved this point as most of the salwaar kameez and saris were synthetic stuff. I don’t really like synthetics and worse still I hate shiny chamkili type of clothes so I did not enter any of these shops. But there were a few shops wherein I spotted some nice bed sheets and so purchased some for my mom. I also got some shirt pieces for my dad so shopping in Surat proved to be shopping for my parents..
Believe me the prices are really rock bottom when you compare the same with places like Mumbai and Goa (roughly 1/2 to 1/4th the price) so I felt very content with the fact that I struck some really good deals shopping there.
Whilst walking through the Textile Market a sari on display in one of the shops caught my eyes.. It was in my favourite colour black (My mom hates me wearing black and I’ve tried for ages telling her black commands a powerful fashion statement. But she still doesn’t agree to this..) and had a lot of intricate work done on it. Since most of the other shop keepers were calling out prices like Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,000 for saris on display, I assumed that it would be around that price range. But when I asked the shop attendant for the price, he said it’s a little above Rs. 20,000/- I was shocked and said ta ta to him [and the sari.. he he.. ;) ] but then I guess the sari was worth that price as it was really very beautiful. One thought which crossed my mind while I was walking away from that shop & sari was that one could only guess what would be the (addition to the) cost of that sari if it were to be exported!!!
Surat is located on the banks of the river Tapi and we spent two of our evenings at the river side which was really very refreshing.
Surat is also known throughout India for its unique Surti cuisine. I got to savour some special and unique dishes of Surat which included Locho, Surti Undhiyu, Rasawala Khaman, Surti Kheer, Cold coco and Surti Ghari.
A major thought at the back of my mind which kept bugging me was that everyone had warned me that Gujarati food is very sweet & rich. In short full of calories! :( But contrary to popular belief, Surti cuisine is not as sweet as the stereotypical Gujarati food, but rather quite on the spicier side. Although its not as spicy as Maharashtrian food.. So, I had a really nice time eating food out there with a firm resolution that I’ll go on a strict diet when I return to Pune. Before you roll your eyes please note that I haven’t broken this resolution..
Overall it was a very splendid trip and I really had a lot of fun. Till I go ‘tap tap tap’ typing my next post ta ta…
This May I went twice to “Gujju Land” Surat to be precise as we had to conduct an in house training for a Fortune 500 company out there. The first trip was just for 3 days so there’s nothing much to pen down (or type).. But my recent trip was for 11 days (24th May to 3rd June, 2007) so I can type a detailed entry in my blog. Here goes..
We went to Mumbai via Cool Cab on the express highway and every time I travel via this route I fall in love with it. The route is truly amazing. The roads are very well maintained and since we left on a Thursday afternoon, the roads were relatively free from traffic and we managed to reach Mumbai in a record two and a half hours.
Once in Mumbai Central we boarded the August Kranti Rajdhani Express which is a super fast express train and it took around three and a half hours to reach Surat. Since we were supposed to stay in the Company’s guest house which is located on the Surat Hazira highway, it was a 45 minutes drive from the Railway Station. The roads are very broad and traffic is well disciplined but there are a few bumps here and there and thanks to the occasional bump I managed to stay awake till we reached the guest house.
Now, a wee bit about Surat..
Surat is a port city in the Indian state of Gujarat and administrative headquarters of the Surat District. It is the second largest city in Gujarat and ninth largest in India. Surat is now India’s second cleanest city. Sometime back, Surat was ranked the No.1 city in India to earn, invest and live.
Surat has the highest number of flyovers in Gujarat. In fact most of the times I was highly amazed by our driver who would go in a zig zag fashion in and out of flyovers. But thanks to the flyovers time is greatly reduced whilst traveling.
Since Gujarat has a lot of industries, there are seldom any power cuts. This is a huge relief as the summer heat can be very irritating. (It was 42 degrees HOT but thanks to being in the AC all the time I did not feel the heat at all).
The city is largely recognized for its textile and diamond businesses. Three-quarters of the world's diamonds are cut and polished in Surat, thus it has been called the "Diamond capital of the world". So, one thing I was really looking forward during my stay there was to go shopping.
We did go shopping one evening to a place which is called the Bombay Textile Market. This place is really huge and I guess roughly there will be around more than 100-150 shops out there.
One thing I was warned about was that Surat although being world famous as an exporter of textiles, its mostly synthetic textiles which are exported. The Textile Market proved this point as most of the salwaar kameez and saris were synthetic stuff. I don’t really like synthetics and worse still I hate shiny chamkili type of clothes so I did not enter any of these shops. But there were a few shops wherein I spotted some nice bed sheets and so purchased some for my mom. I also got some shirt pieces for my dad so shopping in Surat proved to be shopping for my parents..
Believe me the prices are really rock bottom when you compare the same with places like Mumbai and Goa (roughly 1/2 to 1/4th the price) so I felt very content with the fact that I struck some really good deals shopping there.
Whilst walking through the Textile Market a sari on display in one of the shops caught my eyes.. It was in my favourite colour black (My mom hates me wearing black and I’ve tried for ages telling her black commands a powerful fashion statement. But she still doesn’t agree to this..) and had a lot of intricate work done on it. Since most of the other shop keepers were calling out prices like Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,000 for saris on display, I assumed that it would be around that price range. But when I asked the shop attendant for the price, he said it’s a little above Rs. 20,000/- I was shocked and said ta ta to him [and the sari.. he he.. ;) ] but then I guess the sari was worth that price as it was really very beautiful. One thought which crossed my mind while I was walking away from that shop & sari was that one could only guess what would be the (addition to the) cost of that sari if it were to be exported!!!
Surat is located on the banks of the river Tapi and we spent two of our evenings at the river side which was really very refreshing.
Surat is also known throughout India for its unique Surti cuisine. I got to savour some special and unique dishes of Surat which included Locho, Surti Undhiyu, Rasawala Khaman, Surti Kheer, Cold coco and Surti Ghari.
A major thought at the back of my mind which kept bugging me was that everyone had warned me that Gujarati food is very sweet & rich. In short full of calories! :( But contrary to popular belief, Surti cuisine is not as sweet as the stereotypical Gujarati food, but rather quite on the spicier side. Although its not as spicy as Maharashtrian food.. So, I had a really nice time eating food out there with a firm resolution that I’ll go on a strict diet when I return to Pune. Before you roll your eyes please note that I haven’t broken this resolution..
Overall it was a very splendid trip and I really had a lot of fun. Till I go ‘tap tap tap’ typing my next post ta ta…
2 comments:
Interesting narration. If you are interested in Surat, please visit our website Shopping Surat
This is a Surat based website where u can find different categories of Surat business. Shoopping Surat contains information about Surat Diamond, Surat Textile and Surat Sarees.
Surat India is World's largest Diamonds cutting and polishing industry. Surat India is located beside Tapi river. And Arabian sea touches its feet, hardly 15 Kilometer away from Surat City. Dummas is Surati’s respite place. If people of Surat wants to spend sometime away commotion of the city, Dummas is the right place of Surat India for them. If you ever go there on Sunday or any holiday, you can see large people flocking there with their families to take a respite from the daily business routine. Surat India has many other places to visit.
Surat is always know all over the world for its business acumen. Local lore is that there was a young and dynamic businessman called ‘Gopi’ who started business here in Surat India. But later seeing his success many businessmen followed suit his footstep and finally what grown as a business center of the as Surat Diamonds and Surat Textile these two businesses has popped Surat on world map as business hub
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