Step, step, step

The Gujurat law library. At Steve's insistence, we admitted ourselves and thumbed through a few Privy Council decisions.
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Ahmedebad

After hopping through the countryside, we made it back to civilisation and the most western point in our Indian adventure - Ahmedabad. The city was founded by the Moghul emperor who built the Taj Mahal, allegedly at the exact point where he was impressed by the bravery of a hare chasing a rabbit. Fittingly, the city became better known as Ghandi's HQ.

We rode a paddle-boat swan on Ahmedadab's lake at sunset (ohhhhh... how romantic). We were excited at seeing the town's fort, blissfully unaware that every town from this point on would boast a fort at least 10 times the size.

Ahmedabad's fort
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We visited a few Mosques (to her fury, Lea was refused entry to a few on the grounds she was a woman). The highlight was the amazing multi-story well built by a concubine from the local Sultan's harem. It was dark, gothic in style and full of bats.

Finally, we did some shopping in the glittering Ahmedabad night markets.

Palitana

Having been emersed in Hindu and Moslem culture for the past few weeks, we decided to take a quick trip south to Palitana to learn about India's other major religion - Jainism. As we came to learn, Jainism was created by one of Buddah's contemporaries and comprises a mix of Hinuism and buddism. Jainists are strictly non-violent and forcibly removed our leather items before granting us entry to their sacred sites.

Steve at the remnants of Ahmedabad's city wall
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Palitana is home to a collection of around 800 Jainist temples built on a 600 metre high plateu. Starting early in the morning, we made the 2 hour, 2km trek up  3,500 steps to reach the plateu. The hike was excrutiatingly painful and left Steve lame for the next few days.

The view from the plateu, together with the temples themselves were incredible. We've attached some photos which hopefully capture the site's majesty.

We then jumped on a bus back to Ahmedabad, then on to Rajistan.