Statue of Unity: Part Five

24th March 2024 late noon to midnight

The Circular bus tour

We started with the Narmada Canal view. I do not exactly remember the sequence in which we passed by the attractions for I had dozed off in between and woke up whenever everyone started exclaiming, "Wow!" We saw the birds eye view of the Narmada tent cities. We saw the Narmada river rapids which further leads to the Adventure point for River Rafting. It leads to the Khalwani Eco Tourism. We passed by the Miyawaki Forest. Miyawaki is a technique pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki that helps build dense, native forests in a short time. We also passed by the attractions I mentioned in last four posts. Finally we reached the SOU bus station. We boarded the car parking stop bus from Point 10. Done with all the stops, the bus driver was kind enough to leave us at the Ekta Nagar Railway station at 5:30 pm. Now our train was of 8:35 pm. So we decided to have early dinner at McD.

Dinner

Since we had a light lunch in hurry, we decided to have a hearty meal for the night. We ordered at the kiosk and waited for the food. The ambience was good and relaxing, much needed after a hectic day. 

Done with filling our tummies, we left McD at 7 pm and entered the station. Our train was already on the platform, it was not the usual train but a special one. We were actually trying for the Ekta Nagar Dadar Superfast so that we just board the train and dozed off but we couldn't book the seats in any AC compartment. Good that it happened, else we would have missed the experience of this train. 

Ekta Nagar Ahmedabad Heritage train

It is a weekly tourist train operating on Sundays, aims to facilitate the movement of tourists from the heritage city to the world’s highest statue, the Statue of Unity. The engines on both ends of the train are designed to resemble steam engines and include foggers for exhaust fumes, producing the sound of a steam engine. The train has three executive chair cars, each with a capacity of 48 passengers. These cars feature pairs of seats with built-in table trays. The blue chairs, resembling those in Vande Bharat trains, recline with the push of a button. All chairs are equipped with dedicated charging points, magazine and bottle holders on the side, and footrests. The heritage train is equipped with panoramic windows featuring roller blinds, offering a picturesque view of nature during your travel. 

The air-conditioned dining car has teakwood dining tables and comfortable cushioned seats for an cozy dining experience. The exterior of the train was brightly painted with the flora and fauna. Many were clicking photos with the engine and the train exteriors. Finally the boarding started at 8 pm. Here people started vlogging from this end of the train to that end. Passengers took their seats but the passengers of other trains as well got inside to click photos. The train started at 8:35 pm and reached Vadodara station at 10 pm. It was a much needed relaxing journey after a hectic day. 

Aravali Express (Vadodara to Borivali)

The worst part was to wait for two hours at the station flooded with people. For the first 30 minutes, we were just searching for seats. The AC waiting rooms and the ladies waiting room were full with passengers. My sister had sandwich while I munched on some dry snacks. There were trains arriving and departing in the intervals of 15 minutes with a 5 minutes halt. There were goods trains as well. Such a busy station it was. The announcements were in English, Hindi and Gujarati. Finally our train arrived at 12:06 am, we were sitting at the edge of the station, had to walk a lot till the AC three tier compartment. We got a upper seat on side berth and a middle seat on main berth. To our surprise, it was occupied by the woman who had the seat on upper berth. The compartment was dimlit and sleepy. The TC checked our tickets and this woman just did not move out of the seat. My sister climbed the side berth and do not ask how did I climb to the upper seat for the first time. I couldn't sleep at all given the height of the seat. What if I turned and slipped off! I had set the alarm to wakeup at 5 am. We got ready and stood up the door and the train halted at 5:20 am at Borivali station. We then boarded the 5:45 am Virar train and reached Virar at 6:15 am. Finally done with one more state in India.