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Published: June 15th 2012
As we arrived in Udaipur, the bus pulled over to the side of the road. Outside our window we could see the slums of Udaipur and the families going about their morning routines. It's always a humbling experience watching the lives of others that are so different from your own. Little children were collecting water for their families and mothers were tending to their husbands and infants. Trash heaps were everywhere and some children were digging through them to find some worthwhile treasures. It never gets easier to see such poverty on our travels and it's really hard to ignore.
As soon as we stepped foot outside the bus we were bombarded by rickshaw drivers ready to take us to our next destination. We chose a particularly friendly one and were on our way. Bouncing around in the back of the rickshaw we peered out of the sides to take in our new surroundings. Before we knew it, the slums ended and we were zigzagging around a very touristy city. There was shop after shop and plenty of restaurants, surprisingly a lot of German bakeries! There were more white people than we had seen in about 2 weeks
in this one city. It was strange.
Our hotel was right on the main lake of the town and we had a room overlooking the water. It was a gorgeous view. My bed was in the window nook which provided great views but didn't shield from the heat at all. We soon learned that Udaipur has two daily scheduled power outages a day, 9-10 am and 3-4 pm. At 9 am, it would already be so hot that we'd wake up in our own sweat. In the evening though, the sunset was absolutely gorgeous from our room. We would sit and enjoy the view from our balcony. Large bats would come out for their night time adventures, I've never seen such large bats in my life! They were really fun to watch zoom around.
In Udaipur there is a grand palace. We spent an afternoon exploring the corridors of the palace. It was very beautiful and every corner inspired me for decorating ideas for a future home. Indian architecture is so unique and colorful, I love it. There are complex tile works and hand painted marvels all over the walls, floors, and ceilings. Every
corner has something new to admire. Times like this make me wish I had a place to call home so that I could buy things from these exotic places to use but as I'm still homeless and plan to be for a while, it wouldn't make much sense. Simplicity is always better for a home anyway.
Another day in Udaipur, we spent by taking an Indian cooking class! My friends back home would say that I'm not really the greatest cook in the world, but in the recent years I have made more of an effort to cook from scratch rather than use instant meals. It's hard when I'm on the road all the time and literally every meal I've consumed in the past 8 months has been bought not self-cooked. So to say the least, I'm out of practice but I can't wait to have a kitchen and be able to cook my own food for once. The joy of knowing exactly what is being used to cook my food and the healthiness of my meal is a small joy I'm very gladly looking forward to.
We decided to go with a Lonely
Planet recommended business to take our cooking class with, The Spice Box. It was set up on the second floor of a building. The outside seemed a bit sketchy looking (as does much in India) but the inside was a very nicely set up cooking classroom. There were mirrors all around the ceiling so that anyone in the room could get a good look at the food being cooked on the stove. The instructor was very kind and patient with us. The only thing that I didn't like about the course was that it wasn't very hands on, like the course I took in Vietnam. The instructor showed us the ingredients needed, explained what to do, and then had us stir the pan or pot. The cook in the next room (no door even to separate), would cook the food we would actually eat in the end. So with no real hands on experience, I will go home and try to remake these dishes whenever I get my hands on a stove. Wish me luck!
The dishes we learnt how to make:
<ol style="margin-left: 0.375in; direction: ltr; unicode-bidi: embed; margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"
type="1">Indian Chai Tea (Chai masala)Khadi Paneer- Khadi means an Indian WokMalai Kofta- Malie means cream and Kofta is made from potatoPaneer-cottage cheese blocksBiryani RicePalak PaneerChapati (roti)- the bread that we love… exchange the type of flour and you can make naan!Dahl- lentils
Here is a translation of food that we found on a menu once.. Found this very helpful every time we went for food.
Palak - Spinach
Mutter - Green Peas
Paneer - Cottage Cheese
Aallo - Potato
Chana - Chic Peas
Gobi - Caul Flower
Dal - Lentil
Malai - Cream
Masala - Spices
Bhindi - Lady Finger (Okra)
Begun - Eggplant
As for restaurant food here in Udaipur, we were very disappointed. Jaipur really spoilt us with delicious food and the food in Udaipur just never matched up.. Minus our own cooked
food from our cooking class, of course. Our only recommendation would be Ambrai, but only for the atmosphere. It was opposite our hotel across the water and had a great view of the palace. We went there for a "romantic" dinner for three in the evening.
Our next destination would be New Delhi so that we could head up to north India. We decided to take off our destination of Jodhpur because we just couldn't handle the hot 100+ weather anymore. The north was much more tempting with it's lure of snow capped mountains and much cooler weather. The heat just isn't worth it if there's no ocean to jump into!
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DAD
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blog comment
Very well written blog and beautiful pictures. Hope you really learned a lot about life the past 8 months of your travels. You are not completely homeless, you will always have a home with Mom & Dad wherever you are. But I understand , during your travels you are homeless, but living the life that only other people dream of. You are a lucky duck. I Love you and miss you. Let us know when you arrive safe in Germany. Always, Dad