Statue of Unity : Travel blog I By Param, 11, Boston

“I am so excited!” I yelled early in the morning. I was going to the Statue of Unity, the tallest statue in the world! It was five thirty in the morning and I was getting ready. I was going with my cousins, my grandparents, and other relatives. 

At seven thirty in the morning, the car was here. I could not wait to go there. We got our stuff into the car and everyone was soon ready to go. As we left the city of Surat, Gujarat, we entered into the countryside. From the car window, I saw many birds like egrets, ducks, eagles, and lots of other birds that I have never even heard the names of. After a while, I was getting impatient. I asked how much time was left.

“Two hours are left.” 

I was surprised. It had only been one hour! For me, it felt like two hundred years. After a little while, I was asking a lot of questions about the Statue of Unity and its surroundings.

“What types of animals can you find there?” I asked one time. One of my family members told me that the Narmada River flows next to the statue. Then I remembered that the Narmada River has many crocodiles. I asked if you can find crocodiles there. My family member said that they come out in the monsoon season. But they also said that if you are lucky, you may see one. After that, we had a break. We went to one of the restaurants nearby for some food. I ordered a delectable food called idli. The first food they served to us was a food that my family did not even order! They took it back. When the idli was here, I tasted it. It was not even cooked well! After that we left the restaurants without any food.

Later, we stopped at another restaurant. This one had much better food than the other one did. We enjoyed our food. Delicious! Yum! After the break, time went by quickly. I slept in the back of the car with my cousins. After forty-five minutes or so, I woke up.

When I asked my dad how many minutes are left, he said “There are thirty minutes left.” As soon as he said that I woke up my cousins that were sleeping.

“Wake up!” “Wake up!” I told them. Soon they were up too. I decided to look out t

he window. I wanted to see the statue first. Around the road, I noticed that there were many trees.

Then one of my relatives said “Look, the Statue of Unity!” I looked out of the car. There it was, the Statue of Unity. It was gigantic. We were soon going to be there. As we drove closer, the huge statue towered over my head. I was so excited that we had made it. It took so long.

“Look!” my cousins told me. “It’s so big!” For one of my cousins, this was her fifth time coming here. For my other cousin, it was his third time. For me, it was my first time. Then finally, we reached there. We had to go in a purple rickshaw, a two wheeled hooded vehicle you see a lot in India. We had to go in a pink auto rickshaw because cars are not allowed near the statue. I noticed that only women were driving the rickshaw. In a couple of minutes, the rickshaw took off. The rickshaw was super fun. Zoom! It went.

“This ride is so fun!” I told my cousins. In just a couple of minutes, we were in a parking lot right next to the tallest statue in the world. I knew that you could go inside the statue. But what would we look like from high up there? I asked myself. After a little while, we went into the small building under the statue. There, inside the building was a little museum about the Statue of Unity and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. This statue is made to honor Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is a freedom fighter from India. He was known as the “Iron man of India”. He wanted to unite the entire nation. 

After reading everything in the museum, me and my family took some photos. In no time, we went in an elevator and then we were going up. A shiver went down my spine as I was going inside the statue. Then, we were here. I was in the heart of the statue! There were windows on both sides in the room inside the statue. I looked through the windows. We were so high I could not even see any people! I could see some rickshaws but they were the size of ants! Then suddenly, my dad called me.

“Look!” he said excitedly. I looked down. I could not believe my eyes. “Look, a crocodile!” my dad said. There in the river was a marsh crocodile. This animal is locally called “Mugger”. I called my cousins. One of them came.

“Look!” I told them.

“Oh, there it is!” One of my cousins said. Then I told my grandparents. I was so excited. After two minutes or so, the crocodile disappeared into the depths of the river. My other cousin did not believe me.

“There’s no mugger!” he said. He did not see it. After that surprising encounter, we went back down the elevator. Next, we were going on the top of the building under the statue. The building had escalators on the sides and we went on them to go to the top of the building. From the escalators, I looked into the river. Then, I saw a crocodile coming up to the surface of the water in the river. So far on this trip, I had seen two crocodiles. I was extremely happy. In a minute, we had made it to the top of the building. We were right under the statue. It towered over me and my cousins. It felt like the statue was a million feet high. After a couple of minutes exploring the top of the building, I decided to touch the statue. The statue’s foot was even bigger than me! Since I touched the statue, even my cousins decided to touch the statue. After touching the statue and taking pictures, we decided it was time to eat lunch. Plus, we were getting hungry. When we were going down the escalator, I saw another crocodile!

“Mugger!” I called my cousins. This time both of my cousins saw the crocodile in the water. They agreed that this was a crocodile and not something else. Then a second later, I saw another crocodile! After that another! “Wow!” I yelled. “Look! It’s another crocodile!” About two minutes later, I saw another mugger crocodile! Next, we went to get lunch. For lunch, I ordered dosa, a south Indian dish. This restaurant was very good. I enjoyed my lunch. As time was passing, the temperature was getting hotter. It was about ninety degrees outside. My family decided that we were going to go to the jungle safari. My mom told me that there, you get to sit in an open car and get to see the animals in their cages. “So, is it a zoo?” I asked my mom.

“It is basically a zoo, but instead of walking, you have to go in a car.” She told me.

“Ok!” I responded. When we reached the safari in the pink auto rickshaw, I was very hot. Then, we got our tickets. When we asked where the car was, they said that we had to walk a little bit first and then we would get the car. Then we continued to walk ahead. I saw animals like cheetahs and lions. When we reached the tiger and the leopard area, I noticed that many people were annoying the tiger by banging on the glass of its enclosure. I did not like that they were disturbing the animal. I also noticed that they were disturbing the leopard. I did not like that either. 

Ahead, we got a car and we saw mammals. We saw mammals like antelope, one horned rhino, and even a hippo. Later, we got to the bird part. Out of the car, me and my dad saw some deer. I asked my dad if they were wild deer and he said that they were. We soon reached the bird part of the Jungle Safari. On the sign it said “Exotic Birds”. We went inside of the enclosure. There were a lot of cool birds. There was a bridge going over the wetland environment and there were many wetland birds like herons. There were also cranes and egrets in the wetland habitat. After the wetland area, we got to the forest environment. In that habitat we saw birds like white peacocks and pheasants. I decided to then go ahead. Soon after running the whole way, I made it to the exit. Then in front of me, a family of monkeys crossed the road. I was surprised. I knew that these were wild and that they could steal your stuff like food. Then, I ran all the way back into the enclosure to get one of my relative’s phones to take some photos. When I came out of the enclosure, I saw the monkeys climbing on top of the enclosure! I immediately took some pictures of the monkeys. Then the rest of my family came out of the enclosure. They saw the monkeys too. “Wow!” I yelled. On we went, until we reached a different bird enclosure. Some of my family members said that it was the same enclosure as last time but me and my dad still went to check. It was a different enclosure. So, we went in and we saw many birds like geese, cranes, ducks, macaws, and parrots. 

Then my dad somehow got a parrot to come on his arm. I also wanted to try so I asked my dad and we transferred the parrot from my dad’s hand to mine. It was a bit heavier than I expected but I could still hold it. Then, its head went down and the bird’s beak opened. I thought it was going to bite me. But luckily, the bird did not decide to chomp on my finger. Soon the parrot got off my hand and on to the fence. That was fun. After observing some more birds, we came back to our family who were waiting for us. They said that we took one hour and I was surprised. One hour? It felt so short. Then, we decided that we need some snacks. 

When we got to the area where we had to eat, there were a lot of monkeys. They were after the food and it made me jump. We quickly ate some snacks and we were lucky that no monkey attacked. Next, we were going to see the laser show. On the way, me and my family decided that we would get some ice cream. It was nice and tasty! After we ate some ice cream, we reached the area where me and my family were going to see the laser show. We got there early and got a pretty good seat. We waited about thirty minutes until it was dark. Then they closed all the lights. So, it was pretty dark. Then the amazing laser show began! The laser had a brilliant effect on the statue. It showed the history of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. It also showed how the people made the Statue of Unity. At the end, it played the national anthem of India. It was a glorious moment! 

After the laser show, our plan was that we go to the resort, go eat dinner, and then explore the resort. When we reached the resort, it looked pretty good. While we waited for them to find our room, my dad and I played catch with a ball that I brought. When we found our room, we got settled. Then we had dinner. I ate dal and rice for dinner. It was good. My cousins and I had planned that we would play outside at night after dinner. 

At first, we played our own separate games. Then we decided that we will all play cricket. Cricket is a sport where there is a bat and a ball and you have to hit the ball to get runs (points). You can also get people out in cricket by throwing the ball on the stumps. So, we played cricket for about two hours and then we took a break. “Out! I yelled. It was very fun. We finally ended it when my family told us that it was twelve thirty at night. Wow! I cannot believe that I played cricket for so long! After that, it was time to have some rest. I was tired. Today was a very fun day, I thought!

“Wake up Param!” My mom said. It’s eight? I asked myself. Yes. It was eight in the morning. My cousins and me agreed that we would go swimming in the pool today. I got ready, ate breakfast, and went into the pool. My cousins were already there. One of my cousins was screaming. I did not know why until I touched the water of the pool. It was freezing cold. I understood that he was freezing cold. I went in the pool. It was so cold. I thought that I was going to be a cube of ice! I decided that the water was too cold and I could not bear it. So, I just decided to get out of the pool and do something else. So, I played cricket instead. My dad was bowling and I was doing the batting. After that, my grandparents also played with me. This time, I was doing the bowling and my grandparents were doing the batting. Not going to lie, it was a great time! Then, my cousins moved in the action too. They were also playing with me. While I was playing with my cousins, my relatives were biking. After about one hour of playing cricket, my parents and relatives called us and said that it was time to leave the resort.

“Ok!” I called back. It was eleven thirty in the morning and that was our scheduled time to leave the resort. That day was our final day here at the Statue of Unity and the area around it. After we got into the car, it took about fifteen minutes to get to the area near the Statue of Unity. By the time we got out of the car, it was time for us to eat some lunch. For lunch, I decided to just eat idli. The restaurant where we were having lunch was neat and the food was delectable. After lunch, we planned to go on a boat ride through the Narmada River. When we reached the area where we were going to have a boat ride, we had to wait about half an hour. Then we got on the boat. It was fun! I noticed that a few swallow-like birds were following the boat as it was moving on the water. Then we reached one area of the river where on the bank, there was a wall. From the boat, I saw many birds like egrets and herons perching on the sides of the wall to look for prey. My dad and I were looking for a crocodile. 

At the end of the boat ride, we saw three crocodiles hiding near the bank of the Narmada River. After the boat ride, my family had planned to go river rafting. When we reached there, we found out that it was too late and we could not go. So, instead, we just looked at the river and walked on a cool bridge. 

Time was passing by quickly. We soon had to leave. We ate some ice cream and then it was time to go. The car ride back felt shorter than the first ride. My cousins and I played Uno. Then later when we reached, we said bye to my cousins. “Bye!” We reached back home where we started. This was a wonderful adventure visiting the Statue of Unity! I will soon visit again!

Author’s note: There are many other things that you can do around the Statue of Unity. Due to limited time, we did not get that much of a chance to explore other places like the cactus garden, an amusement park, dinosaur land, and many other fun places.

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