India: Where I Come From - Unjha! Part 1 - Spice Market

I finally put my pictures from my India trip I went on back in November. I've used my India pictures to practice what I have learned so far in my new photo editing software, Lightroom, that was one reason for the delay...along with my laziness to go through a thousand pictures! I appreciate any feedback on how my pictures look and thoughts on how to improve them! I will post pictures from my trip slowly throughout the month.

Shama and I traveled around India for 19 days and visited 9 cities during that time...we visited our families, vacationed, attended my friend's wedding, and learned how to pack and unpack quickly! Our first stop from Chicago was Ahmedabad, a city in the state of Gujarat. We went there to visit my cousins and of course, do some shopping! We also had a chance to watch my niece, Aesha, compete in the Gujarat state championship!!!

Aesha playing tennis

Then we drove an hour and a half north to Unjha. We spent a night in Unjha. Shama had never been to Unjha so we had to take her to the main attraction...Asia's largest spice market known as the Ganj Bazaar. The market sells are cumin, sesame, mustard seeds along with psyllium (which is the fiber in Metamucil). My cousin, Hiten, and uncle, Popat kaka, took us around the market. We made a quick drive through to see the hustle and bustle in the area and stopped at my uncle's office there. Here is what we saw:

The Ganj Bazaar - Unjha's spice market

Piles of spices

Bagging to transport

Waiting to be transported - notice Patel on the bag? These are outside my uncle's office!

PATEL UNJHA!!! :)

Popat kaka (my uncle) outside his office.

Transporting sacks by pulling a cart...

...transporting sacks and a PERSON by pulling a cart...

...and transporting with a truck!!!