Advertisement
Published: July 29th 2006
Two updates in one here...apologies for the lack of pictures in the last but the internet connection was similar to that in Windward!
So we left Cheru the camel and the desert in search of more friendly climate...where better than Mt Abu? A hilltop retreat at 1220 metres where Indians head for their summer holidays!
We had a quick overnight in Jodhpur with nothing of interest to report. We rose before sunrise to catch our train and were horrified to find men, women and children asleep littering the roadside! It seems they sleep where they fall. The train station was hardly any better, more sleeping bodies! There were two desks open to serve 100 plus agitated Indians...we only had half an hour to spare and this was bad news. Thankfully woman are entitled to queue jump in this country, so I took my chances at the front, jostling with the masses and returned exhausted, sweaty and victorious with two pieces of cardboard which were to serve as tickets to Abu Road. We thought we were home and dry but the dreariness continued; rats ran rampant on the platform and tracks and a shoe shine boy plagued Ed to shine
his flipflops until he had to shout to scare him off. This must have been bad karma as he later discovered he had stood in cow-shit! We arrived at Abu Road in the midst of a downpour and basically the tone had been set!
It was dull, damp (especially in our horrible little hotel) and there was nothing to do. The highlights were the view on the taxi trip up the mountain (when we still had expectations), the views on the way down the mountain (when we and all the other westerners aboard were delighted to be leaving!) and the tacky peddalos on the lake (on which we were photographed, laughed at and chased by all the middle class Indian holiday makers)
Next stop, Udaipur! What a relief, we arrived in sunshine and jumped on the first autorickshaw, we had decided we need some luxury to revive us and so checked into a fab hotel with a pool! Oh heaven! Udaipur also known as the lake city or white city is billed as Indias most romantic city. We have thrown the budget to the wind, feasted on latte and apple crumble in Cafe Edelweiss (very Indian!), had pedicures
(I was disgusted to see I had more hard skin than Ed), Ed bought himself a pair of swanky new prescription shades and we swam, swam and swam some more. Going back to the backpacker slums will be tough.
So tomorrow we bid Rajasthan goodbye and we head to Gujarat (the birth place of Ghandi)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.058s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 17; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0341s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Brian Carroll
non-member comment
Indiana
Hi Ed and Amy, Really enjoying reading about your travels. It's bringing back a lot of memories. The entry about the camels was very funny. They’re temperamental things alright, they can go a fair pelt when they want to. Ed, I hear you’re suffering a bit from Delhi belly at the moment. Hope you’re on the path to recovery. So, is Bangkok the next city? Looking forward to reading about more adventures. All the best, Brian.