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Published: January 18th 2010
Holy Cow
Seeing cows wandering the streets has become 'normal' Namaste everyone,
This is the little bit of Hindi that we have picked up- luckily it can be used to say hello and goodbye making life a lot easier. Our last blog was from Pushkar, which seems like a long time ago now (just over a week). Since then we have been to Udaipur and are now in Jodhpur - going to get our overnight train in about an hour to Jaisalmer.
Well we arrived in Udaipur just as the sun was rising on the 10th January (my birthday). The journey from Pushkar was the best so far, the train was only 40 minutes late and we had comfy seats and slept for most of the journey- someone was smiling on us!
We found a lovely hostel with amazing views from the rooftop over the lake (which was full of water) and 'spalshed out' on a 400 rupee a night room (another little birthday treat). It has amazing views over Lake Pichola and we could see the Lake Palace Hotel clearly (we spent every evening wishing we could stay there but our budget could not stretch to $600).
We spend our first day wandering around Udaipur taking in
The Lake View Palace
Where we wished we were staying in Udaipur the new sights, smells and scenery. We made our way to Sunset Point to watch the sunset- was beautiful and a perfect way to spend one's birthday eve.
We then headed to a lovely little rooftop Restaurant to have dinner. We went a little bit wild and had three courses, drinks and coffee, the bill was still only 1100 rupees- We LOVE India.
Udaipur was a great place to wander around and there were many sights to take in, as well as many shops to browse. We headed to The City Palace on the second day. It was amazing, very richly decorated with stunning views over the lake and surrounding hills and city. We found a little spot inside the Palace complex to sit and look over the lake- we did this a few times, especially at sunset, and just chilled out for a while.
We went on a boat trip on the third day across the lake to Jag Mandir island, which has a VERY expensive hotel and restaurant on it, and some pretty gardens. We met a English girl on the boat trip called Rachel and spent the rest of the day exploring Udaipur with her.
We headed away from the main lake to a smaller lake called Fateh Sagar- it was good to chat to another traveller and share ideas and experiences (as well as general girlie gossip) - we are hoping to meet up again in Bangkok. That evening we also got chatting to a Canadian girl who was staying at our hostel- she was really nice and had some good tips on where to go in SE Asia.
Udaipur is a good place to shop and it took a lot of will power from us not to go too crazy and spend our precious rupees on things we don't really need- i.e A big camel leather holdall or a tailor made winter coat! We did part with our rupees to attend a cookery class however, which was so much fun.
The lady teaching us was called Shashi and she told us a lovely story of how she started her cooking classes.
She was born into the Brahmin caste which is the highest caste. People born into this caste cannot work, however she had to make money after her husband died so some travellers gave her the idea of teaching domestically challanged people
Jag Mandir Island
Another 5* hotel on an island of in Udaipur like Lu and I how to make simple Indian dishes.
We are now armed with the knowledge (and recipes) of how to make Masala Chai (Not such a good thing in my case as I will drink far too much when I get home), Pakoras, chapati, tomato, cheese and garlic naan, paratha, potato paratha, sweet paratha, vegetable Palau and aloo mattar masala to name but a few.
We spent four hours cooking all of this food with Shashi and then sat down to eat it- Shashi said we could have the class free if we ate it all- sadly failed. As we were leaving she told us we must return with our husbands in a few years, and told us we would soon get husbands as we were both 'nice girls'- hehe!
Our time in Udaipur flew by and we were sad to leave such a pretty, calming place. We got the bus to Jodhpur as there were no direct trains. We got the bus at 8am in the morning and it left on time and only took an hour longer than expected- A miracle.
After over three weeks in India we finally lost our patience with annoying
Sunset over Lake Pichoa
Perfect way to spend my birthday evening Rickshaw drivers at Jodhpur bus station and had quite a funny moment where we threw our toys out of the pram at one driver.
We asked him to take us to the Clock Tower so that we could easily walk to the hostel which we wanted to stay in- at first he said you couldn't drive there, so we told him to forget it and started to walk off. He then preceded to drive us past the Clock Tower and stop outside a hostel (not the one we wanted) where someone who worked there was 'convieniently' waiting to offer us a room. We impolitely told them to do one and stomped off (stomping was somewhat hindered by the HUGE backpacks)! Anyone watching us must have found us hilarious- we find it funny now.
We have been staying in a hostel called Yogi's Guesthouse which has been our favourite place to stay so far. It has a cool rooftop restaurant with loads of cushions to sit on- we have spent most evenings up there chatting to people, eating curry and drinking Chai.
We met a guy called Ols from Sweden on our first night in Jodhpur and spent the
next day with him seeing the sights. We hired a rickshaw (had a nice driver) and got to Mehrangarh Fort for 9am. This was a good time to go as it was not too busy and we could take our time looking around as it is a big Fort. We got the Audio Guide at this fort (it was included in the price) which was actually really good. The narrator sounded very British- we think it may even have been 'Victor Meldrew'!
After the fort we went to Jaswant Thada- which is five minutes from the fort. It is a white building- stands out against the sandstone fort and was built by one of the Maharaja's wives as a memorial for him- very romantic.
We then took in Mandore Gardens (not very inspiring) and Umaid Bhawan Palace. We all found the Palace a bit tacky and it had no history whatsoever. It was built in the thirties by the Maharaja of Jodhpur and is now a hotel- the building was desinged by a firm in London and it was decorated in the Art Deco style- lovely!
We spent the rest of the day on Yogi's rooftop and got a
little bit giggly- I blame it on the chai. We kept giggling for no reason- then could not stop laughing for ages- to the point where we were crying. Ol's found this very amusing and resinged himself to the fact that it was just what we did every so often.
The situation was not made better when a French man started talking to us- then just talking at us, telling us random facts about Rajasthan from his 30year old guide book.
Every so often he would just go really loudly 'Oh Shit' which had me in hysterics for a long time. As he was leaving I passed him on the way to order some drinks and he asked me if we could set up a dat later to go for dinner- all of us! I nodded and walked away laughing even more- needless to say Luce and I had dinner with Ol's at the restaurant in his hostel that night!
We have had a really good stay in Jodhpur and have done some really fun things. Yesterday we went on a trip to some of the Vishnoi villages and got to dress up in their traditional clothes- reminded us
of being back at Tollerton Primary and doing the school plays. We tried some kind of 'Opium water'- it was just water, and got to try pottery making. We also went and watched people making block printed materials and durrie rugs. We ended the trip with lunch at a Vishnoi families house. It tasted good and we are not ill now so all is okay!!
Last night and today have been fun- we met two girls from England last night and a guy from Argetina this morning and have spent the day with them, wandering around the alleyways and lanes of Jodhpur- which are bright blue and very pretty.
We must go now (after another VERY long blog- sorry) to get our train. We are having an amazing time, meeting loads of interesting people and seeing and doing so much fun stuff.
Hope all's well with you,
Lots of Love,
Lucy + Clarke (what ALL the Indian's call me, and think I am called)
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