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Published: February 12th 2009
Sorry it has taken a while to get this updated... after the north I hit Goa where it was very difficult to do much else than eat good food and chill by the beach, getting back on it now though!
So going back a few weeks now, from Udaipur I took a bus at 8am on the 25th of Jan up to Mt. Abu. I had read that there were loads of hotels there, so I decided not to book ahead since I was due to arrive at around 2pmish and thought that that would give me plenty of time to look around and find a good deal on a hotel room. I first started realising something was different on the bus there, it was full of not the usual indian crowd, but wealthier, very excitable 20 something indians all gasping out the windows at the view and being very loud... when I got to Mt.Abu, it was packed, middle class indian tourists everywhere, and very very few western faces in sight. I tired loads of different hotels but could not find a room anywhere, even at the expensvie places. The reason for this was that the day I arrived
(Sun 25th Jan) was the day right in the middle of an national indian festival, republic day or something, and all the more wealthy indians were all having a weekend of tourism and as such everywhere was booked up. To make matters worse, I found I had very little money left and since it was republic day, all the banks were closed. With the help of a travel agent I found a room, a very dirty horrible little room in a side street hotel with no more than a bed and a fan and a shared bathroom, for at least three times what I had been paying for accomodation elsewhere, but I had to settle for it, I just needed a room for the night and then would try and find a cheaper one the next day. I also managed to scrape some dollars together and found a shop which would change the money (at a very poor rate), but I needed the money.
After this relatively shambolic start, things in Mt Abu started to brighten up. The weather was really nice, very sunny and a good temperature, and since the westerners were not the only ones with money
in this place, as had been the case in every other place I'd been too, I didnt get hassled at all, the shops were all occupied already by the indian tourists, browsing stall selling things like 'High fashion gogals...' (sunglasses), and masses of fake clothing.
So the next morning I changed hotels, a much nicer room at nearly a third of the price in a hotel with mostly westerners staying there. I quickly dumped my bags in the room and then we set off out into the hills of Mt.Abu on a trek with our guide, two danish people and french guy. We were provided with a big wooden staff at the start and told that they were to be used to defend ourselves in the event of a bear attack... We first went to a lake that was said to have crocodiles in it, and sure enough we saw a baby one on a rock, and stayed well away from the water after that. We then continued up into the mountains and reached a peak where the views were incredible. At the end of the trek the two danes and I decided to go up further to another
Intrepid trekker
Ready with my stick for any attacking bears, in front of the incredible view.temple a few km walk up the road. This turned out to be quite far away and luckily we managed to hitchhike to the top of the hill with some holidaying indians.
The next day I got the bus back to Udaipur and stayed one night there, ready for the 16 hours bus journey to Mumbai that lay ahead the next day. I was looking forward to getting away from the hectic cities of the north and going south where things are more calm. Also looking forward to staying in one place for a bit, getting tired of all the long journeys every other day!
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