Author: simon

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.

Back to some hardcore sightseeing in Jaipur – the Pink City. First stop the Amber Fort (second only in tourist visits to the Taj Mahal- and showing my ignorance I’d never heard of it). So here goes – lots of fabulous pictures and a history to match but you’ll have to read up on that yourselves if interested.

A break for coffee – not sure why as the coffee has been utterly hopeless thus far. Better of with chai masala. Anyway, off to the Observatory. The Maharajah was a keen astronomer and built all this in the early 1700s.

This was the best bit for me.

By mid afternoon we’re done, so finished off with shopping, a walk around old Jaipur

and dinner on a rooftop terrace where we hooked up with a fascinating American woman who has set up a clothing business using Indian women co-operatives as her suppliers. Fabulous (veggie) food again.

More sightseeing tomorrow.

A bit of a break from culture, and a welcome return of the sun.

Great pictures. We had a guide with a telescope (and an ability to spot many birds that we couldn’t), and the pictures came from putting the phone camera through that.

The rest of the day was a bit of a write-off. Really not helped by the motorway tolls.

It is a long drive to Jaipur on a decent toll motorway. The problem came with the recently introduced speedy automatic ticket. Essentially it is neither. Our driver basically had a 15minute shouting match while they tried (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) to get a hand-held reader to scan the card. At the last booth, there were 9 of them failing miserably! So by the 4th time we had wasted about an hour. You either get fed up or just accept.

The motorway was interesting. They drive on the left, the same as us. On a dual carriageway the right hand lane is for normal speeds, especially lorries, buses and cars. The left hand lane is for the very slow – tuk tuks, mopeds, pedestrians, cattle and so on – and the very fast for overtaking the lorries and so on. There is therefore a lot of weaving about and tight squeezes.

And finally a somewhat bizarre evening with the hotel owners, their parents, a Chinese couple, a cat and quite a lot of rum. No idea what we talked about but it was fun.

I’ve put the day and date in the heading for our own benefit as it’s all going mega fast and is all a bit of a blur.

Today was an early start to see the sunrise over the Taj Mahal. But despite Eileen’s organisational abilities, some things are outside of her control. On a clear day you can see the Taj Mahal …

So pleased we saw it yesterday, but still magnificent close up.

As I said yesterday, one definitely ticked off the bucket list.

Also, as we were at a HomeStay in Agra, we had dinner with the family. Fabulous food, albeit a bit pricey, and the husband regaled us with his stories of business and travel. Eileen asked his wife what car she drove, and was told she didn’t know as she had a driver. And then said what a fabulous dinner we had eaten, and she said she had a good cook. A bit of friction on politics – suffice to say they are huge Modi fans.

But then we’re off again. This time to Fatehpur Sikri. Another magnificent palace which was only occupied for 14 years.

The King was a fan of all religions, and so had a Hindu wife, a Muslim wife and a Christian wife. They each had a separate palace within the walls, but all liked each other so the Hindu had Christian and Muslim carvings in her palace and so on for the others. We liked that.

And the King also had a giant games board.

We are standing on the squares. Apparently he had a giant golden dice, and the “pieces” on the board were his concubines. According to the roll of the dice, they had to move and dance. Not quite as sure about that one!

And the Mosque.

Couple of discomforts. Cover your head in this shrine (good job I had a couple of clean handkerchiefs, but no photos). And sometimes shoes off, in other places shoes and socks off, in other places cover your shoes with outer protection. Go with the flow, without really understanding why.

Also, the hassle here was mega. And being surrounded by 4 or 5 began to get a bit frightening. And when they said it was only 10 for a chess set (that’s rupees, so about 10p and still thinking it’s a rip off), apparently if you show the merest flicker of interest you find out its dollars and you can’t get away.

The guide bundled us into a tuk tuk and we escaped!

R&R – much needed in Bharatpur. On the move again to Jaipur tomorrow.

Oops – Jo on a bike on the beach in Aarhus – how did that happen??????