Kankaria Lake

I'm eating my second lunch of leftover spaghetti after an initial one of masala dosa. It's pretty hard to not have spaghetti for a month as I have a slightly serious addiction to it and it's not exactly something that Guarati's do best. Fortunately, we have out own kitchen and made enough tasty (but not quite as good as at home) spaghetti that I could have a whole extra portion of it today. Yum. But not before having a scrumption masala dosa first. I absolutely love them!

Today was our day off. We went to Kankaria Lake, somewhere I'd never been to before, but it was in the guide book and we thought we'd do something new. It is sort of like a theme park. The guide book said it was a lovely place for a promenade around a calm and peaceful lake; an escape from the city. It was in fact a place to entertain your children on a family day out with rides and a zoo and an aquarium all surrounding a big lake in the centre filled with boats and pedalos. In the centre of the lake there's an island which you can walk to, and in the evening you can see the musical fountian in action! It was certainly not peaceful. We were a little disappointed that the pedalos were closed and the hot air balloon wasn't functioning due to the strong winds, so there wasn't too much that we could actually do, but we thought we'd make the most of having a relaxing walk. The "relaxing" walk turned into more of a parade as we were gawped and pointed at, in the same way as we usually are, but in a confined area. Like we were an additional attraction to the usual fun activities. The pedalo replacement. Lots and lots of people came up to take our photo, show us to their children and shake our hands; asking "from which country" and also for our good name. My name seems to be unpronouncable in far too many countries...

We decided not to visit the zoo for fear it may be a little bit depressing, but we did visit the aquarium. I say aquarium, it was more like a collection of fish tanks with exciting fish such as goldfish, some of which were dead!

We ended our day there by taking the train around the park. This only exaggerated the feeling of being on show as we were now suddenly trapped in a carriage, looking out of the window, unable to escape and stationary for the first few minutes before the train departed, allowing the public plenty of time to film us on their phones, shake our hands and talk to us about anything they felt like. It was very odd. There were 3 male students sharing our carriage. One of them laughed at the people coming up to us and asking to take our photo, saying that they think we're celebrities just because we're white. He then talked to us while the train went around the lake, telling us about his studies etc. When we arrived back at the starting point, he turned to us and asked us for a photo! After he'd been slagging off everyone else for wanting one. Of course I said no, despite his whining please's, and we left him disappointed. Such is the life of a celebrity I suppose! You can't please them all....