Paradise Lost

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Today we are in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the state of Gujarat, western India. It's a very unpleasant place and one which we cannot wait to leave, in 3 hours time on an express train to Mumbai....

A week ago, we arrived in Udaipur after the bus ride from hell. 14 hours is a long time on a bus where we didn't have the foresight to book a sleeper cabin. The seats were broken in the laid back position, really not very comfortable for a long period of time. It was hot but not too bad because it was 4pm and Jaisalmer cools down quickly in the evening. By 11:00pm we're were at the edge of our sanity and were 'looking forward' to a night in these seats. At the rest stop, one of the guys in charge on the bus offered us a sleeper that had become available for 100 rupees each (roughly one pound twenty) which we snapped up, thinking we'd get a good night's sleep up top. How wrong this was. The roads after this stop seemed to be nothing more than a dirt track, or so it felt, as the bus was jerking and bouncing constantly. It was like trying to sleep inside a tumble dryer. i have officially named it as the most traumatic night of my life!!
We arrived in Udaipur at 6am, went straight to our hotel and slept! But not before we'd been to the rooftop and seen the city around us. Udaipur is a beautiful place, a city of lakes and surrounded by rolling mountains.
We immediately loved it, it was like any other part of India that we'd been to or through. After a nap, we made our way to Cafe Edelweiss around the corner (this was to become our starting point every day..) for some German bakery cuisine, which was amazing! Then at the bottom of the hill that the cafe was on was a small area on the lakeside from where you could see the fabulous lake palace, and where local women were doing their washing and bathing. We walked back into the old town, and then further on to a ridge just south of the centre where a cable car took us up to a beautiful viewpoint over the whole city. It was absolutely breathtaking! we spent quite a long time just sitting up there with a cold bottle of Limca just taking the view in!
That evening we went to a beautiful lakeside restaurant (rec. by lonely planet..), with great views back across the lake of the city palace and the lake palace, with the lights broken up by thousands of giant bats flying around! The food was excellent and the Mojito i had was damn good and although not cheap this place was worth it, except Rhian getting guano (look it up..) all over her from the trees above...
The next day we were up early and after some omelettes at Edelweiss to celebrate Easter, we headed to the massive city palace which houses several museums, a hotel, boat rides to the island, swimming pools, restaurants, local craft shops and a school! we wandered around and took some cool pictures before having lunch in a small cafe just outside the palace walls. In the afternoon we went to Fateh Sagar Lake, a man made wonder built in the 17th century by the Maharajah of the time. We got a boat to the small Nehru Island in the centre, which was a beautiful garden with fountains (that weren't on but we imagined) and pagodas and real tranquility. A few arty photos and an ice cream later we were back on the boat and then headed back to our hotel for a chill before dinner. I ended up watching the IPL game with the hotel staff which was an experience as they love the game and get rather animated throughout. This may have been something to do with the money they had on the winner but anyway...
We spent the last day just wandering around the town, just relaxing in this city that should be in the Alps, not 150 miles from the desert!!
A bus ride the next morning took us to Mt Abu, via a long winding mountain road, never more than 2 metres from a sheer drop. The drivers are maniacs, 40mph the whole way with apex bends and blind corners shielding the buses coming the other way.. Mt Abu, 1200m above the plains of Rajasthan is a popular destination for the people of Gujarat looking to get away from the heat of the summer. It was a strange experience for us, in as much as we were generally ignored by the shopkeepers as they already had plenty of attention from the Indian tourists so didn't need our wallets! We arranged to do a half day trek in the local wildlife sanctuary with a guy called Charles, who is the least Indian Indian that we are likely to meet. He readily admits that he doesn't feel in touch with his country and is a firm believer that he has a greater calling yet to be bestowed upon him. His English and grasp of all its nuances was astounding and hilarious at the same time, a great character!! The trek itself, starting at 6am, was a fantastic ramble through the forests which became a big ol' climb up to the 2nd highest point in Rajasthan, 1380m above sea level, with views that took our breath away!! The noises of the forest were deafening at times, this was not the India that we realised even existed, but we loved it!

Anyway, now we're in Ahmedabad which is the complete opposite of the whole of our last week, a crazy, noisy city! Mumbai-bound in 2 hours, see you there!

G&R
xx

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