Month: January 2020

We’re getting near to the end, and so beginning to reflect on all sorts of things. But first, losing one’s dignity ….

Yup. That will be drinking opium and wearing a turban. Not sure what purpose either served, but that’s sometimes what you do on holiday.

Had a visit to the local Bishnoi village. Not entirely sure about these trips, visiting local villages and craftspeople but it was ok. Mildly diverting, out of the noise of the city, and managed to get one or two small souvenirs and escape from the pressure selling.

R&R on the roof in the afternoon and met up with Robin and Gary from New Zealand. A really nice way to spend a couple of hours (did I say it got too hot in the sun?).

And into town for dinner for shopping

And to demonstrate our bargaining skills, we managed to negotiate him down from 1,000 rupees to .. err .. 1,000 rupees!

And found a coffee shop that knew what a flat white was and delivered excellent ones for £1.

Then off to dinner with John and Sue again. Views from dinner

And weddings and fireworks in town

Just when we were both feeling a little jaded, up pops Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur.

As we’ve moved west, we’re into the desert, and Jodhpur has been a major market town and fortress for hundreds of years. According to the guide, this is the second largest desert in the world, after the Sahara, although we haven’t checked that.

Lots of pictures

Note it’s called the blue town. Higher caste and more important folks are allowed to pain their house blue.

Apparently when the Maharajah couldn’t be bothered to choose which wife or concubine to spend the night with, the ladies would play a version of Ludo to see who wins. See the board in the picture.

Then a quick whizz over to the Cenotaph

Bit of a rest on the terrace at the hotel

And then some shopping. Good job it wasn’t busy …

But first of all the motorway service station knows how to attract customers.

Although not completely true!

Anyway, back to the main event was the visit to the Jain Temples, near our hotel. They don’t open to tourists until 12.00, so able to chill in the garden for a couple of hours. With musical accompaniment…

Temples – which aren’t easy to capture, but here goes. And there are 1,444 pillars, all different.

Then our last long road trip to Jodhpur.

Good hotel:

• WiFi wasn’t great so they put another router in the room
• Music on the terrace restaurant wasn’t great so the waiter tuned his phone to radio Hindi and left it next to our table
• It was a bit chilly so they lit a fire

Sightseeing tomorrow.

I’ve said before it’s all a bit of a blur, and it still is. But I think we’re getting used to it – loads of surprises and new experiences. And even Eileen, with all her planning and reading, is on overload.

The good news was that she warmed to the hotel, eventually. What’s not to like?

Actually didn’t like their credit card machine, which decided not to like our card. So had to run into town to get cash – and when the first 3 also didn’t like the cards was getting a bit worried. Relieved to find it’s the Indian IT at fault, not us. But as we’re heading into the wilds stocked up with more cash just in case.

But if that’s the extent of our problems, I’m very very happy with that. And writing this on Tuesday, exactly 2 weeks after we arrived, and only a few days until we fly home on Saturday. So feels safe and not tempting providence to give a tummy report – very very good I’m delighted to say. Sticking to non-meat and scrupulous hygiene certainly help.

Anyway, back to business. Here’s a route plan.

Looks professional doesn’t it. Eagle-eyed will spot I missed Bharatpur between Agra and Jaipur but hope it gives some context – and demonstrates my slick IT skills at the same time.

But today was all about Kumbhalgarh Fortress

3600 feet above sea level and the walls are 36km – referred to as India’s Great Wall of China’s.

But first found some friends and their water wheel

Then to the main event – which Santosh described as a “massage drive”.

And at last some people wanted a selfie with me. They were so awed with my clip-on flip-up sunglasses they wanted pictures. I always new I was a style icon – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Few more

No idea who the last guy is. He was singing his heart out and being filmed, so can probably be found on tik tok.

And finally to Ranakpur to our £40 B&B.

And the dining room

Very noisy Indian party – Gujarat is a dry state, so apparently they had come here to celebrate Republic Day with booze. We moved rooms …..

Mooching around today. First decent coffee in two weeks, with a nice view of the lake.

Bit of shopping.

Lot of tech to carry around – iPad, phone, phone charger, portable WiFi – which is all working fantastically well so can be connected all the time and call Santosh when we need him. And it’s Republic Day today so everyone has a flag.

And the main event was a sunset dinner at the famous Ambrai with John and Sue. Although a public holiday means no booze.

Not a bad view from dinner.

Udaipur is certainly the most photogenic place we’ve been. View from the hotel.

Then the sightseeing starting with a boat ride

Looking at the second largest palace in India (1,600 rooms, since you ask). Barely scatched the surface in 2 hours with a guide

They were a bit of fun. Noticed the guides have to be good with photos these days.

But the key part of the palace is the array of miniature paintings, for which Udaipur is famous – and still is apparently. Not photographable but fascinating. So some general pics.

49000 pieces of glass.

Tea.

The guide took us to his favourite (very very scruffy) tea shop – 65 ingredients including tea powder, coffee, ginger, honey, salt, cardomam, black pepper and 58 others that we can’t remember, but wonderful.

Rest, folk dancing and dinner – formed an impromptu group of 8 of us for dinner so lots of travel tips and stories shared.

So farewell to Bundi and a 5/6 hour drive to Udaipur. Not as tedious as it might have been, and Santos found us a small distraction on the way.

Together with our driver Santosh

And found some friends

And then found the hotel in Udaipur

But isn’t it strange. Pictures of hotel are stunning, as was the food in the evening. But Eileen hasn’t connected. It’s a bit run down and I have to say that with some TLC it could be absolutely stunning. Talk about first world problems…….

I think it’s Thursday, and I think it’s day 10, but to be honest it’s all a bit of a blur. We’re totally immersed and everything is passing by so quickly, and in a haze.

But technology is on the whole pretty decent. I’m writing the blog using WiFi in the car as we’re travelling between Bundi and Udaipur on Friday.

Bundi is described as small and peaceful – hmm. Certainly not as big as Delhi or Jaipur, but suffice to say that after a 15 minute tuk tuk ride our ears were ringing from the deafening racket.

But it’s really about the palace and the paintings.

With a fantastic guide Keshav Bhati who seems to be the world expert on the paintings. Having a laugh with Eileen about the price of a ring she didn’t buy, but the chai was good.

That was the highlight of Eileen’s holiday so far. Rest of the day was having a rest – room where Kipling wrote part of the Jungle Book

And dinner on the roof again – superb food. Even the not so good dinners have been pretty good.

Udaipur tomorrow – a long day in the car.

As I said yesterday, Jaipur is hard work. So it’s nice to be moving on. But first the hotel manager and his father:

And him with the famous – he was very proud of that.

And then a 3 hour drive to Bundi. Beautiful hotel

Bit of a mooch around in the afternoon – which we needed.

And saw the answer to the key question – where is all the cow mess? The women (obviously) pick up the pats by hand, knead them like dough, put them on the roof to dry and then use them as cooking fuel. Lovely!

As a bit of a contrast, our dinner was fantastic. Hooked up with John and Sue who we met at the bird sanctuary – they’re away for 10 weeks and travelling independently. So loads of stories to swap. Meanwhile, this was our view.

We’ve come to the conclusion that Jaipur is really hard work. Apart from the traffic making it difficult to get around, there is no simple core to get your head around. It’s more about lots of amazing places all connected by the story of the various Maharajahs, and with independence only in 1947, the story effectively continues.

So lots of great pictures, but here isn’t the place to tell the story.

The City Palace

Those were the museum. The next few are where the Maharajah and his family still live.

Not sure if you can refer to it as “bling” if it’s all real – which it is.

Also chai on his terrace …

Textile Factory

Had a go at some block printing. Hmmm …

The Monkey Temple

It’s a temple with monkeys!

Gardens

The Tower

Back into town for some fabulous views. Note the sundial in the bottom right.

And it’s hard to make out the pink. I must admit I had imagined a city built out of sandstone (it isn’t, it’s just painted pink) and in the sunset it glowed pink.

Anyway, by mid afternoon we were done, so wound down with more chai, a walk in Central Park, a bit more shopping and another fantastic dinner.

On the move again tomorrow.