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Published: August 14th 2010
Annoying Cow in Udaipur...
We know your sacred and all that, but don't take the piss...Right then!! As was mentioned at the conclusion of my last blog entry, so far I have been covering India at a pace which I consider too laborious, so the speed at which I'm on the move has now increased somewhat. At least where the Indian transport system has allowed it to!
After spending a week scrambling around the sprawling and densely populated metropolis of mighty Mumbai, dumbfounded by the hustle and bustle and all out crazy speed that life is lived there, we headed north to the northern state of Rajasthan for a little bit of quiet time! The first port of call was a little place called Udaipur, which is considered one of the most romantic cities in India. The contrast with Mumbai struck me immediately. After spending time rolling down 5-lane dual carriageways in auto-rickshaws for the past week, I was having to constantly look over my shoulder to ensure rickshaws, or any other vehicles for that matter, didn't catch me as they sped past on "roads" that really were little wider than your standard garden path. Whilst in Udaipur the main focus of what we went to explore was architecture, and some of the buildings there
are absolutely phenomenal. The most impressive in the actual town of Udaipur was the Jagdish Temple, which sits right in the centre. Constructed in the 1600's, we had to ascend up a few series of steps to get into the temple, and we arrived at a time when there was actually a service being carried out. Myself and Jean-Simon sat quietly at the back and observed as sizable crowd inside the temple went through what can only be described as rigorous and well co-ordinated chanting in respect of their deity! This was something that really helped demonsrate how important religion is as a part of everyday life in this part of the world, as this was all going on at about 1 o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon. Once we had seen the conclusion of that we wandered around outside and checked out the carvings and construction of the outside of the temple, the pictures of which, once again, will do the temple far more justice than my ramblings.
A day later we went on a boat trip to check out the Lake Palace, which funnily enough, is a palace situated in the middle of a lake. This place is
basically famous for being used in the James Bond film 'Octopussy', and also for apparently serving as a source of inspiration for the chap who had the Taj Mahal constructed, which is quite an impressive CV! In addition to this, we then traveled further outside of Udaipur with a couple of Spanish girls from our hostel to a couple of landmarks outside of Udaipur. This was a round trip that took around 6 hours in total by car, but was more than worth the journey. First of all, we headed out to Kumbalgargh Fort, which I'm sure, knowing my luck, is one of the most impressive buildings in the entire world. The only problem for us was, on the journey up to the fort, a storm hit and by the time we got there mist had covered the fort and visibility was pretty much zero! Having conceded defeat on that one, we then headed to Ranakpur to view what is considered to be one of the world's most imprtant Jain temples, which was seriously impressive. I know this for a fact because on this occasion I could actually see it. The temple is a massive structure, the central hall of
The Lake Palace...
Of Octopussy fame! which is supported by 1444 pillars, all with exquisite carvings, with no two pillars being the same. Having said that, I have quoted that fact from a book, and do not claim to have spent the entire day observing and assessing the exact intricacies of each individual pillar!
After bailing on the lovely little city of Udaipur, we suffered a laborious 20 hour coach ride out to the desert city of Jaisalmer. This city is famous for it's enormous sandstone fort that our guesthouse was conveniently situated right in front of. We went for a little wander round the fort to check it out, but the main reason we headed out here was to go camel trekking, which we did on the second day. This was undoubtedly the most challenging activity that I've undertaken since being here, but was also certainly the most rewarding. First of all we had to travel 60 km outside Jaisalmer in a Jeep in order to get to the desert that would be our home for the night. As we arrived, there was a troop of 5 camels waiting for us, 4 for the first-timers (Myself, Jean-Simon and two German girls from our guesthouse)
and one for the more experienced guides to share. As we were on our way out to the desert, I recall thinking to myself, bemoaning my usually woeful luck, that if anyone ends up with a camel that is either a) over-enthusiastic, b) overly-competitive, c) disobedient, or d) just plain simple, it's bound to be me. And wouldn't you just know it, it happened! So after 10 minutes sat atop my camel, the annoying one with all 4 pieces of the unwanted camel personality pie in equal measure, it had started a race with another camel, tried picking a fight with another camel, and tried scratching itself on every spiky tree or bush that it went past with complete disregard for yours truly. After concentrating as hard as I could not to fall off for the opening few minutes, I realised after a while that the heat was so punishing it was like being sat in an oven, and once the camel had calmed down I could focus more attention on the ridiculous amounts of pain that my arse was in from sitting on the wooden saddle. (See what I mean about this being challenging?)
However this would soon
Me chilling...
On a solid marble bed of course. Comfy!! prove to all be worth it. Once we had arrived, our guides made us a cup of refreshing chai, and also cooked us a meal on an open fire as the sun went down. The whole idea behind it was to get an awesome view of the night sky which would undoubtedly be astonishing to look at out here. So obviously, about 9 o'clock, the sky clouded over so you couldn't see anything, and it stared raining. After sheltering under some plastic sheeting for 20 minutes, the storm passed over us but continued in the foreground, so for about an hour and a half we had a front row seat to an awesome fork lightening storm right in front of us, where you could constantly see the lightening crashing down from the sky. I recall thinking to myself watching it, that is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. This opinion however would last no more than two hours, as my luck finally changed (it had to after the day I'd had!!) and the sky eventually cleared. What we were greeted with once this happened was possibly the most beautiful sight I have ever witnessed. I could not actually
Carvings inside Jain Temple @ Ranakpur
I could do that with a bit of practice I reckon... believe just how many stars were visible. If you look up at the sky on a clear night in North West England you'd be lucky to see more than 30 different stars, out there you could literally see entire galaxies. So many were visible that it actually looked like it had started to snow. In addition to this every 10-15 minutes you would see a shooting star swoosh across the night sky! I tried to take pictures to show you all this but my camera just wasn't powerful enough and they simply didn't come out properly!
After all this caper, I moved on from Jaisalmer alone and headed to Jodhpur. In all honesty, out of the three cities that I have visited on this part of my trip, Jodhpur was the one I was least impressed with. Jaisalmer is referred to as 'The Golden City' due to the fact that it is built from sandstone, and I was aware that Jodhpur was called 'The Blue City'. I assumed this was because it was built from a blue coloured stone. Turns out someone just went mental with a few rollers and some indigo paint. The place did have a lot
of character though, the streets in the old part of the city where I stayed are even smaller and tighter than those in Udaipur, I ventured out on 5 separate occasions and got lost every single time! Seriously annoying but all part of the challenge! I checked out Mehrangarh Fort which sits at the top of the city, it was not as impressive as the other buildings I have seen but there is a lot of interesting history behind it, which I know because you get given an audio guide when you enter which explains the detail behind everything you are looking at, something which would be a welcome addition to some of the other landmarks I have visited!
Anyway time to wrap it up now, I can't believe the amount I've just written and those of you with the matchsticks in your eyes still reading this final paragraph quite frankly deserve a medal!! I travel on from this point forth to visit a few other towns and cities in this area so I will let you get back to you're lives for now and will update you again in a week or so's time!!!
Enjoy yourselves in
the meantime, Ciao for now!!!
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Mum
non-member comment
Desert rat!!
Hi Ryan - fab to read the latest instalment of your blog - ive got everyone at work following too so i dont know if you will get any comments from them. Took it to show Nan yesterday and she was amazed - she told me what to type on her little comment - all her words. All is ok here - weather not been too bad this weekend but dont know how long that will last. Licorice is missing Purdey - I know they didnt always see eye to eye but she keeps looking for her - outside and in. It must be lonely for her cos they were always together werent they? What amazing things you are doing and seeing arent you - keep on telling us about them cos we are loving it. Take care - lots of love from Mum xx