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Published: January 13th 2012
Midway restaurant
Midways are restaurants on the road that are mostly for tourists. They are more expensive, but safer than street food while on the road and are still actually pretty cheap. They also have clean bathrooms. Second day in India and we are feeling good. Quite happy to leave Hotel Ashiana, but we knew we still had a day left in Delhi at the end of our trip to see more sights and go shopping, so we were ready to hit the road to Mandawa. It was going to be a long drive and Annette and I didn't have breakfast or more importantly, coffee! On the way out of Delhi, we told Hardev we wanted coffee after we passed a Costa Coffee and Coffee Day Cafe, India's impressive version of a western cafe, at Connaught Place. We're not sure what he didn't understand, but he didn't stop. For a long time. We would soon learn that once we were on the road with Hardev, we didn't stop until we hit a Midway or for at least 3 hours, whichever came first. Next thing we knew, we were outside the city and no coffee in sight. Oh woe were we!
But we survived until we stopped at a lovely Midway restaurant for lunch. Midway's are more expensive than local village restaurants, but safer. And they have clean bathrooms and pretty good coffee. We ate at this one,
Toll Booth
On the way from Delhi to Mandawa but my Aloo Dum was disappointing. The drive was long, but interesting. We drove through several villages I was happy NOT to stop in. Here is a bit of uncensored honesty. They were absolutely filthy and no one could have paid me enough money to eat at any of the restaurants or use one of the toilets we never saw. Not enough money in the world. Cows everywhere, street dogs, camels pulling carts, animal waste and rubbish everywhere and people standing ankle deep in all of it cooking on street carts. No way in hell would I have eaten at one of those places. I don't need to eat street food and have fluids squirting out both ends to say I've been to India. We had a full itinerary and it did not involve squirting bodily fluids. Midway it is.
We arrived in Mandawa around 4:30PM so we decided to tour the havelis first before it got dark. Hardev said we'd need a guide, and one appeared at our car. Funny how that works. His name was Taj and we soon learned that we did indeed need someone to lead us around the streets and the many havelis. I
Haveli
Haveli means 'rich person's house' and Mandawa is known for these. Most are between 100 - 200 years old and in need of repair/restoration, but they are reason tourists come to Mandawa. thought we were going to see one - a rich person's house. But there were many! At one time, the men would leave Mandawa and make their money somewhere else and then build these havelis in their home of Mandawa for their families to live in so they could show off their success. There were havelis everywhere and it was interesting to see them in different states of repair. The first one, the only dirty one, was 100Rs to get in. It had a gold leaf ceiling in one room that had been partially restored, but what annoyed me was all the rubbish in the courtyard and the married couple, the caretakers, that took our money, were lying in bed wrapped up in blankets eating! One look told me they needed to do a little more care and a little less taking!
The other havelis we entered were 50Rs to enter, but after a while, they all look the same. Three is enough really, in my opinion. When we finished our tour of the havelis, Taj, our guide, took us to his 'cousin's shop' to see some textiles. Surprise, surprise. Shopping in India is really similar to Turkey. They
Haveli Door Decor
The hanging plaque (I forget what it is really called.) means that one daughter is married. use a lot of the same lines and strategies that Turkish shop owners use, but the Indians are much less aggressive. The textiles were really beautiful and we did end up buying some, and while we were happy with the prices at the time, we realized later we probably paid about 30% more than we should have. But my table runner is freakin' gorgeous and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Never cared about a table runner until I saw this one. This shop was clean and organized and the two men working their were hospitable and gave us chai (Indian tea, which we loved) and were strictly business. No fake chit chat, you have beautiful eyes, America good, and blah, blah, blah like Turkish salesmen. I liked Turkey and loved Turkish goods, but shopping there was exhausting, even when I was a resident. The Indian shopowners were professional and funny and I hoped all our shopping experiences were as good as this one. I am sorry to say I do not remember the name of this shop, but I do remember it was on the other side of Mandawa from our hotel, Hotel Shekawati, near the last haveli we
Another Haveli
Not open for tourists toured.
Taj walked us back to the car in the dark, and Hardev drove us the short distance to Hotel Shekawati, which is in Lonely Planet. It is clean and has beautiful haveli style paintings on the walls. I think it is an old haveli that has been restored, but I am not 100% sure about that. Our room was freezing, but they brought extra blankets and we were fine at night. We had excellent food on the rooftop restaurant and a wonderful breakfast the next morning. Breakfast was not included, but we only paid 1000Rs for a room for two people (about 20USD). The staff was friendly, young guys working hard, but be prepared to wait for that good food in the restaurant. I think the small kitchen slows them down, but it really was good food. Oh, and beer. We had beer. There's no alcohol in Kuwait, so I was really excited to have beer. Lots of hotels in India don't serve it. I didn't realize India was so conservative when it comes to alcohol.
Off to bed. Another day of driving and seeing the sites tomorrow. On to Bikaner tomorrow.
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