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Published: March 8th 2007
21 February -- Met up with Kris again in Mumbai, after a several hour delay due to my plane being cancelled from Colombo. Marc headed up via Chennai and joined us in Mumbai the next morning for a train to Udaipur, Rajastan. Another night train! We learned how to play Hindi Gin Rummy with some chaps in our carriage and arrived Udaipur early the next morning. We were now in Rajastan, the royal state where saris are brightly coloured, jewellery is loud and gold and streets are narrow and filled with (what else?) people, cows and rickshaws.
The city is laid out beautifully, with the City palace perched up high on the hill, overlooking a gorgeous lake with the Lake Palace Hotel in the centre, seemingly floating on water. Our rickshaw driver directed us to a gorgeous guesthouse overlooking the city and the lake, with stain glass windows, velvety cushions and a breathtaking view. We spent a few days roaming the city, looking at jewellery and art, took a boat tour on the lake and just took in the colours and sounds of the city. We went to a traditional Rajastani dance performance, where women twirled with firey pots on
their heads and played traditional music. We also saw a traditional puppet show, where a marionette artist makes puppets dance to the music. The show ended with an older Rajastani woman dancing in bare feet on broken glass with 10 clay pots on her head. Truly an art of balance and unbelievable to see.
We headed in a taxi up to the ancient fort palaces of Kumbalgargh and Ranakpur to see the intricately carved Jain temple. Flawless marble is delicately carved into lattice and intricate, elegant doorways and forests of columns. It was like walking inside a beautiful incense box. We arrived Jodphur, the Blue City, in the evening of 26 February, found a guest house and went for dinner at an eccentric Indian's guesthouse in a 600-year old building. Turns out Adrian Brody and Owen Wilson stayed here in December while shooting a film, and he had the pictures to prove it.
Jodphur is the Blue City because many Brahman (the highest caste) lived their and painted their houses blue, which eventually became a trend as the blue paint is also thought to ward off bugs. The city looks like it's been trapped in time, with winding
streets and block-shaped buildings spilling down from the palace. The markets were lively and showcased scarves, textiles and trinkets from Rajasthan.
We met a lovely Australian women Denise, who had been staying in the guesthouse, and went with her to the monkey temple about 10 KM outside of town. The temple is hewn out of a large stone (nobody knows when it was built) and every afternoon hundreds of monkeys come to be fed carrots and bananas by devotees (and tourists). We were the only ones there, however, with our measely bags of 15 carrots and a bunch of bananas. Didn't realise there would be so many monkeys. Thankfully some locals came with huge bags of carrots and we just walked around handing them out to the monkeys. It was a great sunset...
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Rajasthan sunrise
Katharine Yares
non-member comment
Jen's trip of a lifetime in INDIA
Dear Jen, I have been reading and looking at your blog and also telephone messages from your Mother from you over there half way around the world on the subcontinent of India. More power to you. Enjoy! Enjoy! This is a trip of a lifetime so go for it. Chill out. your neighbor back here, with her Collie SISU in snowy WIsconsin. Lucky you on the beach Katharine Yares With luck and plenty of good luck to you.!!!!