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Published: January 3rd 2008
Udaipur
Day 14 & 15 of Rajasthan Tour
The drive to Udaipur took us to a 500 year old fort, Kumbalgarh, yes I think every one of the old 25 kingdoms had a fort, but this one was quite interesting, it had 360 temples within its walls. Its wall is the second longest to the Great Wall of China. Lots of walking up hill, lots of huffing, but we got to see the Queens toilet, like this hole in the floor that dropped straight down like 3 floors to a concrete floor - splash! There is a village in the fort and the Muslim families were all dressed up in their bright colours and the children had been given money for sweets and chippies. It was an annual festival, the celebrations of which include sacrificing a goat, like cutting it up in front of everyone…. “right lets go”.
On the way we drove past many villages - the clay/brick huts, woman carrying the firewood on their heads, children washing by the well, men seeing to the crops or manning the food stalls. We stopped at a well and the boys showed us how the buffalo pull the wooden
Watering the Crops
Normally this is pulled by buffalobeam around which rotates the water wheel which brings up water from the well, it then runs down the open drains onto the fields planted with crops. Also there are wells all around the towns where they are pumping water for drinking and washing, the girls carrying to back home in a large tin on their heads.
There are cows and buffalo all over the roads, the cows have “good mind” our driver says, they move for the cars, but the buffalo have “not good mind”. No horns or car noises seem to budge them, so a subtle nudge on the bum with the car does the trick. We have seen so many little kids from 4-8 years old herding the buffalo down the road with a little stick, adults no where to be seen! But the worst thing today was we hit a child. The roads were quite lean going through the villages and this kid just walked out in front of the car, but luckily he only suffered a cut to his foot. They banged on the drivers car, so we got out and he rubbed it with some mustard oil (the healer of everything) and we
left. He must have just slipped under the wheel, we never go very fast. Our driver says “they have no money for medical” “Sometimes it gets like fight, I am lucky this time”.
We have found the friendly children asking for pens have disappeared and been replaced with children asking for money. They will run up to you, put their hand out and shout MONEY. Like hell. I was walking behind a grandmother carrying the toddler in her arms who was looking back over her shoulder. The child saw me and smiled, I smiled back, isn’t she cute I thought….then…..hand to mouth gesture! I could not believe it they teach them so young, you see a tourist and you go like this….outstretch arm and bring it back up to your mouth curling in the hand - it says need money for food.
We arrived at Udaipur at our hotel, which was not in the Lonely Plant, it was the drivers recommendation and we were happy as it was overlooking the lake. What we did not realize is that there are 7 lakes in Udaipur, so we got by a lake alright, a nice, green mossy, lake, with the
clean sparkling lake in the distance! But who cares the hotel is fantastic!
Sights There is a palace at the end of town that has a hotel at the lake front. We don’t go, we have seen enough palace. Also in the middle of Lake Pichola is an old palace that is now the Lake Palace Hotel which completely covers the island, so it looks like a hotel just sitting in the water. Very expensive, US$500 per night - they didn’t have a room when I asked. You can get a boat and go over for lunch or dinner, but no, too expensive. So we take the afternoon off from sightseeing we just walk around the town, it’s a little hill with another palace at the top of the hill and small thin roads running off the centre. And we were back into “come into my shop, just look madam, no buy just look”.
Food We spent the days walking the town and people/traffic watching from the Sunrise restaurant, which by the way has tasteless food. We went to Savage Garden, a restaurant recommended by Lonely Plant last night, Italian, very nice décor, but the food was
Daily Washing Chores
The locals do their washing and bathing at one of the Lake ghats terrible, gnocchi that tasted like glue and a mutton patty that was like $9 for a hamburger patty and a few fried vegetables. I would not recommend this restaurant. But the next night we took their advice again and went to Whistling Teal and I would definitely recommend this, if not for the food the escapism. It was in an enclosed garden, with 4 high gates rescuing it from the outside world. The hosts were excellent, the food good, décor elegant and prices reasonable.
We found 2 coffee bars, Café Edelweiss, tasteless food and coffee. The French bakery, 2 doors up at the back, good coffee and cakes but sits on top of 2 smelly drains, so take your vicks!
Accommodation Review This is like our most expensive hotel in Rajasthan so far, our Xmas treat, 1700 rupees so 70%!m(MISSING)ore than we usually pay but its great, it is called Hotel Hill Lake. We have a view of both lakes, we have a very cean room and bathroom, we have nice clean furniture, floors, walks, sat TV, a view, sun and a rooftop restaurant and they have internet that takes USB - what more could we ask
Lake Pichola
We felt like we were in venice for! The staff are great, the internet fast, and a short walk into town. We did not eat at the roof top restaurant, plenty did though, no reason, we just like to go out.
Hotel Hill Lake Pushkar
Day 16 & 17 of Rajasthan Tour
The only thing we liked about this place was our accommodation. This place is alcohol free but that myth lasted for about 3 minutes until we were offered beer, so we brought a few bottles and celebrated on Xmas eve. The draw to Pushkar is the lake which is ringed by temples and 52 sacred bathing ghats (steps down to the lakes edge where they wash and bathe), the one and only Brahma temple (Hindu god - creator of the universe), plus marijuana is cheap and available. So many hippies came here in the 60’s and 70’s and have not left! Apparently you are hasseled heaps by Priests (some phony) to take flowers and then pay hefty prices for them - but we did not get any of this at all. The town was small and consisted of one main street that had cheap clothes with a more western influence in their design.
Hotel Lake Palace
Could only afford to look! But the street smelt of open drains and there were heaps of flies. We did not like Pushkar.
We woke up on xmas morning and opened our present each that we had picked out the day before and traveled to Jaipur which is a city of 3 million, so the biggest since we left Delhi. Otherwise xmas was just like any other day in India, our driver being the only one to wish us a Merry Xmas and he even gave us a present - a lemon! Just what I wanted for my gin!
Sights On the way we visited a Jain temple, Nasiyan, which had room filled with golden models depicting the ancient world by Jain beliefs. It is worth a look just because its different, cheap to get in, does not take long. We did not go down to the lake at Pushkar we had a look from the top of a ghat, we did not go into any temples either - we had a sightseeing rest.
Accommodation Review We had a suite! It was like NZ$44 per night (1320 rupees) but it was grand - Hotel New Park it was called. We had
a conservatory at the front, a short hall and huge bathroom and large bedroom with a couch and all. They have cheaper rooms but they showed us this one first and I was not moving. It was very clean had all the usual plus a fridge to keep the beer cold. They have restaurant and even room service which was great. As soon as we arrived we were offered beer for 150 rupees, but they are not keen on small orders like 2 bottles. I would recommend this place, the environment is great and in summer there is a garden full of flowers apparently. Beware if you don’t ask they will not tell you the room prices do not include tax.
Hotel New Park Jaipur
Day 18, 19 & 20 of Rajasthan Tour
Jaipur is great, the central city is contained within high concrete walls with access through about 7 gates. All painted pink, they call it the pink city, I say terracotta town. Inside is a palace and streets and streets of shopping all leading to a gate. The shops outside the gates are also painted the same colour. There are a lot of sights in Jaipur
but we give most of them a miss, well actually nearly all of them. We give the driver a 1.5 days off, as our accommodation is so good we are staying 3 nights in Jaipur, and spend the days walking around the city.
“McDonalds!” I scream. Oh my god….fantastic, so Carl gets a hamburger (without the ham) and chips on his birthday, then we hunt down Coffee Day and we down a latte and an ice cream sundae.
Well it’s been 3 months and no mosquito bites despite being on antibiotics the entire time. Carl goes off them, his hair is falling out! I get indigestion from them, I am not sure it is worth it. Our tans are fading and although we have had 5 weeks of no rain, with having to cover up you don’t get any sun.
Sights On the way to Jaipur we stopped at the Chittor Fort, meant to be the greatest in Rajasthan, we just got the driver to drive around it. We got out at some places but it covered a lot of ground with temples and old ruins but was not as impressive as previous forts we visited,
it was too vast plus we are like fort’ed out. It has been 3 weeks of forts, temples and palaces now, so in Jaipur we give them all a miss except the famous Amber Fort. This fort was quite cool and you could drive up to it on an elephant, but horrendously over crowded with tourists. 90% of tourists do the triangle, Delhi -Agra - Jaipur - Delhi, only 10% go further around Rajasthan, so it was like 90% more tourists at a sight than we are used to. Its like “Get out of the way bloody tourist, I want to take a photo!”
We also visited a memorial site (family grave site), the Maharaja of Jaipur, the story goes that one of the Maharaja’s had like 100 babies and they all died of malaria so he adopted a child, but I do wonder if I heard that one correctly. But they did show us memorial monuments where 40 of the babies bones were buried, and also where he and his sons were buried. The latest family member was buried in the 1990’s and the difference between his tomb and the ones hundreds of years old was amazing,
Pushkar
New Park Hotel conversatory in our suite his was just so plain compared to the carvings on the others. One of the many Rajasthan Maharajas apparently they say he had over 360 wives!
Shopping Driver takes us to a few tourist factory shops selling expensive clothes, cloth, jewellery etc. Jaipur is well known for its gems but this is not a shopping holiday - unfortunately. The clothes and cloth items at these places are exorbitantly overpriced, and the car parks are full of tourist cars and drivers. Straight away you know - overpriced - I think it’s the shops that give the drivers commission, but I don’t know. We brought a hand embroidered runner thing and cushion cover at a Government store which had fixed prices - our first purchase over like NZ$5! We could have got it cheaper at local stores but by this time we had had enough of the whole bargaining thing.
Well, we were shopping with pigs today, can you believe it, walking down the road next to us were pigs, I thought cows were bad enough!
The best enjoy (as our driver would say) - around the corner from our Guest House we find a new 4 storied
building that houses a Café, Italian Restaurant, a book shop and clothing shop. Heaven, so we spent Carl’s birthday dinner at Little Italy. It has a bar although NZ prices for a glass of wine - NZ$10. The interior décor and dark windows put us in an up-market restaurant in another world for a few hours. So this was our Xmas and birthday dinner, it was not cheap (in Indian terms) but worth every penny, and it was a special treat from home. Walking back to the guest house we passed richshaw drivers wrapped in blankets lying on top of their bike sleeping at work to catch the early morning traffic. The next day we went back and spent most of the day there visiting the café, bookshop and Anokhi, a womans clothing shop with excellent quality and reasonable fixed prices.
Accommodation This is our Xmas treat so it is costing us like NZ$95 per night at Giri Sadan, it was recommended by our driver. There are 8 rooms and it is run by a couple, ex captain and his wife, they also sponsor and shelter people who have suffered tragedy in their lives. They have only been
Traditional Cooking
she is cooking the chipartis in the restaurant (like roti bread in NZ) open for 6 months and make fantastic hosts. I cannot rave enough about the breakfast, Indian or American, both were the best - there is no need for lunch and we were so impressed we are staying another night just so we can try their home cooked dinner. The room is lovely (there is a woman in the house), very very clean, and is serviced daily - a first! It has an ensuite in the room and a flat screen TV with the best satellite reception we have had yet and the most channels, it also has wireless in the rooms. Well we stayed for dinner and it was fantastic, great masala chicken, we even got to watch the cook prepare it.
Giri Sadan You get your privacy and little luxuries but at the same time you get to meet an Indian family and other guests from around the world at meal times. We are not bed and breakfast kind of people, but this one I definitely recommend.
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Grant
non-member comment
Hair Loss
"Antibiotics made my air fall out" yea good one. Ahem would it be rude to state the obvious??