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Published: March 18th 2007
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First of all, the beautiful places. After Jaisalmer, we moved to Jodhpur - the Blue city (by the way, on our travels we've been to the Golden city, the Blue city, the White city, but we're skipping the Pink city cos it sounds dumb). Jodhpur is absolutely loomed over by a massive fort (most places have forts in Ragasthan, they look naked now if they don't) and most of the buildings in the city are blue. Makes for a pretty impressive place - Liz Hurley got married on top of the fort two days before we got there.
We went to Udaipur next - a marble white city filled with the most lush looking hotels and palaces (and palaces that ARE hotels) all placed around a lake. In some $$$$$ cases these hotels are in the MIDDLE of the lake, on their OWN island, eg the Lake palace, yes, which used to be a palace. We spent a good few luxury days here on a spiddly budget by staying in a crappy hotel but eating at the top 3 'romantic' restaurants in the city. The views and atmosphere at all of these places was amazing, and the most we paid
Man in Doorway
In Mehiringah, the fort in Jodpur was about $6 each. Speaking of romantic, we were asking a couple of girls if they liked Udaipur before we went there and they said, well, not really... its a bit too romantic. So we rolled up our sleeves and got ready to muck in right well once we got there. We knew what was expected of us. But we had no idea that the city would provide so well for us - get this: sunsets, hills, travelling birds, white buildings, fog in the morning, pigeons, rooftop restaurants, palaces, lake, fireworks every night...
We took a rickshaw up to the hill far above the city where you get the best sunset view. Fantastic. Careful to meet our Rickshaw driver on time for the trip down, we were left waiting for about 10 mins for him to appear. He came back all gangly with glee, showing us some money and telling us he'd made it on the cards! So thats what all the rickshaw drivers do up the hill while they wait for the foreigners to soak up the sunset - they know they've made at least 150 rupeees for the rickshaw trip, and they gamble it all away on
top of the hill in the abandoned palace. We were happy for our driver, and were pleased we'd been able to make his luck happen for him.
Then, time to leave Udaipur, so it was off to the bus station to have our arms yanked by beggars for the half hour before our bus left. What a country - one extreme to the other. I'm reading A Fine Balance at the moment, and everything in the book is relevant, from the milk scum on top of a cup of chai, Beedis, beggars on rolller platforms, stray dogs, tailors, and you get the feeling that India hasn't changed all that much since the book was set in the 1970s. Rapid modernisation my foot. A visit to the bank is like a visit to the stone age - all the computers are exactly like the ones I experimented with 'computer programming' on at primary school. All the signs in the streets are handpainted on stone walls, and the soft drinks come in old-school glass bottles. We ordered a 'fresh lime soda' from one of the aforementioned romantic restaurants, and out came a glass with fresh lime juice in the bottom of
it, a groovy old bottle of soda, a little pot of honey and a salt shaker for us to make our own concoction. Most thrilling.
Seeing as Xavier got his pants ripped during the camel ride (camels have no regard for what is on top of them whilst going through shrubs) he took them to a tailors to get fixed. No problem. After having a sunset beer that night he trundled off to collect them and came back with a funny look on his face. Apparently instead of merely sewing up the damage, his pants had come back with a patch over the rip - with a picture of two little fish swimming. I couldn't stop giggling at the thought that these Indian tailors had thought they would be doing Xavier a favour by putting a little picture of some fish on the knee of his pants. He'd told them could they please take it off as he liked it plain, but between giggles I said to him that he should have kept it as possibly the best souvineer from India he could hope for. So he was struck with indecision about whether to go back and request the
fish again, me in hysterics. Ah funny.
We had a good night after we left Udaipur in a place called Ajmer - a horrible place really, but we'd arrived late and what did we discover but that we could order ROOM SERVICE in our hotel, the first world cup NZ cricket match was on the telly, and, after requesting a beer from our room service guy, he brings it up in his pockets having surrepticiously purchased it for us across the road from our hotel. So we ate curry and drank beer in bed watching the cricket.
We're in Pushkar now - a little town equal parts fully realised hippy and Indian. When we arrived we were given flowers by Indian men, told that we should go to the lake to throw the flowers in for good luck. Later later we told them, can we please just find a guesthouse first and put our bags down? After finding the guesthouse that was recommended by Meredith (thanks heaps! Its a haven, feels like its in the middle of the country and also doesn't feel guesthousey at all which is really refreshing) we took a stroll down to the lake.
Lion
From a maharajah's carriage in Jodpur Shoes aren't allowed within 40 metres of the lake steps, and as we were removing our shoes we were offered more flowers by a couple of men, who then insisted on accompanying us to the lakeside to throw them in. I went to sit beside Xavier but was told, no, no "Men and Women separate". Then I went to throw my bloody flower in and be done with it but was told "No no that is not the way," followed by lengthy instructions for what to do. I stood up, not into it one bit, as I was only here to have a look at the lake and not to be told what to do by a complete stranger. He tried to reason with me... "I am a holy man, this is for good luck, I am not a guide!". As I reasoned with him that I was not a holy woman (that didn't go down well) he said I had to be silent as it was disrespectful. I stalked off saying over my shoulder "Come on Xav", only to wait 10mins at the top of the steps for Xavier to finish his little ceremony. Obviously he's a bit more
accepting than I am. Having bought good luck for both of our families and a little red and yellow wrist bracelet for 20 rupees, he came back very happy (I think because I keep telling him that men wearing bracelets isn't cool but he's always wanted one...)
And now the animals. Monkeys in temples, monkeys on roofs, monkeys teasing the dogs from the walls around our guesthouse, monkeys climbing past us to the top of the sunset hill at the peak of the sunset (we were told they would do this). Elephants lumbering down the alleyways in Udaipur. Pigeons being startled and swooping in huge numbers around the buildings to settle again in the little holes in the forts. Pigs - tatty big boars really - in the streets. Cows - being stroked and patted by blissed out drongos in Pushkar. Snakes being charmed by gnarly old men. Squirrels being shy and cheeky and sweet while we have breakfast on a rooftop. Travelling birds making their way across the sky in V's.
STILL having a good time.
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