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Udaipur was not originally on our list, but because the train from Mumbai to Jaipur was full we had no choice than to go to Udaipur from where we would have to book a bus trip to Jaipur. The seats we reserved were promised to be very comfortable but that promise did not come true. Our seats were back seats so we couldn't move the seat back for even a few centimeters. The two boys in front of us didn't care so much about our space and moved back their seat as far back as they could (in Joost his case until the seat found his knees and in my case my chin) . Joost .. poor man could not move all the way, let alone sleep. When you forget about the status of the bus and about the people that needed to stay in the isle, sitting and lying on the ground throughout the night it would still be fine was it not for the way the bus drivers drive. The best way to describe them is suicidal maniacs and only luck is the reason we are still alive. The which they drive would fit more to that of a
F1 race, they would not slow down for intersections and curves and I think they close their eyes when they overtake other vehicles. You would be afraid to go to sleep (if that would have been an option) in the fear never to wake-up again. Anyway, we survived the journey and arrived in Udaipur.
Udaipur, AKA the White City, directly after our arrival we knew we would like this place much better than Mumbai even though we were not going to stay here over night. But first things first, with a riksha we went to a travel agency where we could book our next bus seats to Jaipur. We now learned from our first experience and were now more successful with our booking, this time we reserved a sleepers bus. The bus was to leave at 9:45 pm and we had the entire day to explore the city and beyond. It was still very early so we decided to go to an “internet cafe” (this meant a small place at the rickshaw driver's family and with the speed of our old 52k modems) because we needed to book plane tickets from Delhi to Kathmandu there we lost some time and
couldn't effort to loose more time plus we needed to confirm our hotel in Delhi. The owner of the place also sold clothes which was great because I really needed a comfortable pair of paints so that the man could stop staring at my legs and because the only comfortable pair got really dirty during our bus trip that night and I bought a scarf. We hired a rickshaw plus driver for the day and had him show us the entire city. The first stop was at Lake Pichola, with its 2 small islands, Jagniwas which holds a hotel and Jagmandir Island with Jagmandir Palace.
Next stop was the Jagdish Temple where you have a beautiful view of the lake, other sights and the of the White city it self.
In the same manner our rickshaw driver took us through the entire city and its surroundings.
Because we had started so early in the morning we ran out of places to look at (or our driver just had enough of it) around 2pm but we had still 6 hours of waiting time left to kill. Rickshaw driver took us to the local zoo, where he said we can spend the
rest of the time and said goodbye to us.
With the rucksacks on our back and with a temperature of over 40 degrees Celsius we arrived at the zoo. The Map at the entrance of the zoo promised us a nice lake where we could stay cool while dipping our feet in it and rest we would set of for another long bus journey. We were terribly tired.
Unfortunately for us the promised lake had dried out and now served as a garbage belt. All we could do was to find a bench in the shade and look at the passing locals as they stared at us (we were sitting on their bench).The remaining time we spent sitting in the shade, drinking lots of water, walking around and have dinner. At last the bus arrived, we took our berths and installed our selves for the night. This bus driver was crazy about his horn which he used about every other minute but it did not matter much soon we both fell in a deep deep sleep to wake up the next morning in Jaipur which was about to show us a nice side of incredible India.
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Jason & Moni
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My favourite picture
Hi guys, we love this photo of yours (we love all your other photos of course). You are looking so tanned... I could not tell you guys apart from the Indians at first :) Did the people in the photo realise that you were taking a picture with them? It look like the first time that they have seen a camera:)