Ballroom dancing at breakfast

Asia » India » Rajasthan » Mount Abu
December 9th 2011

Published: December 9th 2011

Edit Blog Post

mad dog mo

Photo 2

So, currently enjoying the peace and quiet of an internet cafe in a very strange place, Mount Abu. It's an Indian honeymoon spot, and the only way it can be described is like Eurodisney of the 1950s. There's a lake with old-fashioned pedalos, where coy newly- marrieds hit the water together. The average age of the newly-weds is around 22 I would guess, and I suspect many are arranged marriages, as the couples shift awkardly in each others presence, in fact some look like theyre grimacing as they walk along holding hands!!The girls have a fashion of sandals with socks, while the guys are wearing trousers which are just a little too tight and short! For some reason we are subjects if curiosity and will probably appear in far too many honeymoon photos!! I am getting the staring and giggling treatment from both sexes while Frank is virtualy ignored.

Over breakfast 3 young men were staring at me- i couldnt decide if it was fascination or dislike of weterners. Long story short- they eventually came over to chat, virtually ignored Frank, guessed I was 27 years old ( bless them!), wanted to know everything about me, my country, my life.

sikh festival

They then wanted to be Facebook friends which is not unusual over here..the other evening I had a complete stranger walk over to me and hand me his Facebook address.It got more bizarre though, the next moment they wanted pictures of me dancing with them ( this is at a restaurant over breakfast!!).. to which I embarrassingly obliged . They then found out we were travelling to Ahmedabad ( next stop) on the same day as them and wanted to travel with us. When we said we were travelling by train they asked us to cancel our arrangements and travel with them. When we declined they asked us why we would not cancel. This is three 21 year old boys after a 15 minute conversation!!!

All is mot perfect in Mount Abu, however, as there is a lot of rural poverty locally and early morning young men walk up from the countryside, wrapped in blanket/shawls and filthy clothes to try to get labouring work. Its probably the biggest poverty in India I've seen, and apparently wandering only a mile out of town at the wrong time of day can result in muggings or murder....I guess we are just seen

Photo 12

banana scrum

as super-rich.

We came here via Delhi, Rishikesh and Udaipur.

In Delhi, we unexpectedly came across a sikh carnival. Lots of bands and parades,and as usual, we ( or I more like) were the focus of attention with everybody wanting photos taken. Bananas were being handed out and there was scrum to get them. Hilariously, the players were grabbing bananas and storing them in their tombone/tubas and then trying to play with fruit stuffed in them!!

Udaipur was the scene of the James Bond film Octopussy ; everybody and his brother was showing it nightly. Will post more about Rishikesh etc later but for now am uploading photos!!

Additional photos below

Photos: 20, Displayed: 20