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Published: January 12th 2009
It’s been two weeks since we last updated (we've been a bit preoccupied with all this travelling lark!), so there's a lot to catch up on. We left you last in Mt.Abu, and 5 cities have been and gone since then, but we'll keep this chronological.
The 27th of December was another day of train delays and we arrived late in Jodhpur and went straight to bed. The following morning we headed for Jodhpur's biggest attraction - the huge Meharangagh Fort - perched 125 metres atop a hill, overlooking the rest of the city. On the advice of the Bible (A.K.A The Lonely Planet) we put our guided tour prejudices to one side and splashed out on the audio tour. It really was worth it, and we spent a good couple of hours wandering around the fort, taking in the sights and listening to the commentary and royal interviews. The rest of the day was dedicated to very important activities such as sitting in rooftop restaurants and enjoying lots of food and sun - this is supposed to be a holiday after all!
Next morning we starting by visiting the 'Jaswant Thada', a big, white marble mausoleum - rather optimistically described as Jodhpurs Taj Mahal - and then made our way to the central gardens. These 'gardens' turned out to be quite dirty and overgrown, and we were hassled a lot by the local children, so our time there was short. Next on the days itinerary was the Royal Palace, a 10 minute rickshaw ride to the outskirts of town, and inconveniently closed for the Maharaja's birthday. Luckily the nearby alcohol shop wasn’t closed, but was reasonably-priced and well-stocked, so we purchased some essentials and slipped them in to the many plain mixers ordered with dinner that night - not a completely wasted day!
Apart from the fort there's not much to do in Jodhpur, and its too busy and dirty to just relax, so we decided to head for nearby Kailana lake (10km away) on our last full day in town. We negotiated a reasonable price with a rickshaw driver, and arranged for him to pick us up again 4 hours later. However, only after he'd dropped us off did it become apparent that we were still 2km from the lake. Slightly annoying (especially as we were being picked up from the same spot later), but we made the most of the sunny walk. A few minutes later we arrived at the most glorious body of water, like something out of a fairytale, bustling with joyful activity and an endless variety of activities and entertainments. Only joking - there was nothing there except 4 overpriced pedalos (with a big queue) and an ice cream man. Jodhpur's fort is impressive, but the rest is pants.
We were in Jaisalmer by lunchtime on New Years Eve, and instantly knew that we’d enjoy our time here more. It’s a much smaller place than Jodhpur, with a completely different vibe - everyone is a lot friendlier, and it’s impossible to get lost! The afternoon was spent browsing the market, until we stumbled upon a very cheap fixed price clothes shop. We purchased a couple of tops each, and were about to leave when the owner (a very excitable young man) asked us to sit with him a while and talk about our 'culture'. As it turned out (and not entirely unexpectedly) he just wanted to talk about sex - 6 months previously he had witnessed a Western couple having some hanky-panky out in the desert, and he hadn't been able to talk to anyone about it since. What followed was a very funny conversation about the birds and the bees, and Western attitudes on the subject. He had a lot of questions (ask us when we get back!) and sat open-mouthed during our mostly truthful answers - it felt like having the 'conversation' with your curious, young offspring (only with a fully grown, unrelated, slightly odd, Indian man instead). After about half an hour, before it got too uncomfortable, we made our excuses, and promised to return with a real-life condom the next day! (We actually figured out a new route into town so we wouldn't have to pass his shop again). The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the fort, which is very different to Jodhpurs; more like an extension of the city with lots of people living and working inside. We also booked a table at a little Italian place for our New Years Eve meal later that night.
On arrival later that evening we found the restaurant completely empty, but still with a reserved card on the table for us (a very nice gesture!). The meal was delicious, and we had a great time in our private restaurant with two waiters each - they were even kind enough to let us return to pay some of the bill the next day. After dinner, we needed to find somewhere suitable to see in the New Year. There were a lot of posters advertising a celebration just out of town, so we headed there first. Initially an astronomical entry fee was requested, but as we began walking away, they quartered the price and literally begged us to come inside. We stayed for a while, but we seemed to be the oldest people there (so no bar!) and there were no other Westerners - not necessarily a problem but it meant we attracted a lot of unwanted attention - so we snuck out just before midnight. We were about to give up on finding anywhere special to celebrate the new year, and just head back to our room, when we heard loud music coming from a very exclusive hotel/former royal residence on the outskirts of town. Not actually expecting to get in (apparently there was meant to be a 3000 rupee/50 quid entry fee) we decided to try our luck by walking up to the gates. But the guard just smiled sweetly and let us straight in and round the back to the party where we were treated to a roaring open fire, bopping dance floor, a great midnight firework display, and most amazingly.... a free bar. So, this was how we ended up seeing in the New Year - filled up on free booze after gatecrashing a party in a palace - one we'll remember for a while!
After a little recovery period we spent new years day enjoying more pedalo-lake action, visited a couple of Jaisalmers small culture museums, and booked a 3 day camel safari to start two days later. On New Years Boxing Day (it might catch on!) we hired a couple of bicycles and spent a good 5 hours cycling a 35km circuit (we didn't realise how far this is until about half way through!) around the surrounding desert. There were lots of temples, villages and other interesting sights to see along the way, and it was a very pleasant, if slightly exhausting, way to spend the day.
We were picked up from our hotel at 7.30am the next morning and driven out into the desert to begin the camel safari. There were 8 people in our group - the two of us, another British couple, a pair from Canada, and the two camel drivers. By 10.30am we had mounted our camels and began to move further in to the desert. In total we spent two full days and nights in the desert - approx 5 hours riding the camels each day, with stops at small villages and extended lunch breaks to escape the midday sun, and spent both nights sleeping on sand dunes, under the stars, with just a mattress and blankets. It was a really amazing adventure, the camel drivers cooked all our meals from scratch on open fires, the scenery was incredible, and the bright stars in the night sky were just breathtaking. However, riding a camel is not the most comfortable mode of transport (James’ testicles still haven’t fully recovered!) and the nights were very cold, so were happy to return to civilization on the third day.
By the time we got back to Jaisalmer there wasn’t long until our pre-booked bus to Pushkar, so we decided to have a long-overdue shower and then just chill out in an internet café. After sitting in this internet place for a few minutes the owner casually remarked that he recognized us from the newspaper. Initially we assumed he’d made a mistake and laughed it off, but he insisted and said there had been a photo of us on bicycles in the local paper a couple of days ago. This got our attention, as we’d done our cycle excursion the day before starting the camel safari. Unfortunately this guy didn’t have a copy of the paper, and after asking a few places with no luck (but plenty of other people saying they recognized us too!) it was nearly time for the bus to leave and we’d just about given up. Then, the very last place we tried came up trumps, and, sure enough, page number 2: big, unflattering picture and accompanying story! We’re still not really sure what it says - it’s a local Hindi paper, so not a word of English - but we shall still treasure the copy we have, and always remember our Indian claim to fame!
With the celebrity status secured, we boarded the sleeper bus to Pushkar. Pushkar is the smallest place we’ve been so far, with a population just under 20K, all crammed around a holy lake (almost as filthy as the Ganges, but still functioning as a bathing and watering hole for most of the locals :-s ). It’s almost as popular with Western tourists as it is with pilgrims, and there isn’t really anything to do (if you’re not in to the whole lake drinking thing). But there is a really chilled-out and relaxing feel to the place, so we spent our first day doing lots of sitting in the sun, eating and drinking, with a little wandering about and shopping thrown in for good measure. Feeling a little guilty about this inactivity the following morning we forced ourselves to climb up to a hilltop temple before breakfast. On returning to the town centre we found a nice looking restaurant called Laura’s Café. The place was empty, but really welcoming and homely - set on three themed floors with a TV lounge downstairs - plus the food was incredible. We got chatting to Laura, the Canadian owner, and ended up spending the majority of the day there - more eating, drinking and sun-soaking and completely un-Indian things like playing chess, and watching a film in the evening while enjoying real coffee and freshly-baked apple pie! We didn’t do much else again (apart from failed attempts at swimming and yoga ) but still had a great time. On our last day in Pushkar we returned to the yoga place for the morning class, and spent an hour in some crazy positions - we both really enjoyed it and hope to attend a few more lessons. Then, a final trip to Laura’s for more tasty food and a final goodbye, before catching the bus to Bundi.
We arrived in Bundi late in the evening on the 8th January; too late for sightseeing, but we headed straight to the hillside palace and fort the next morning. As you’ve probably noticed, we’ve seen our fair share of forts and palaces since arriving in India, but these two may be our favourites. They were both really run-down, completely overgrown and inhabitated by hundreds of monkeys, but this just created a ‘lost-city’ vibe, and it was a real treat to have no barriers/guards stopping you going in certain rooms, and we were allowed to ramble around freely. The fact that there weren’t many other tourists only added to the atmosphere, and we wandered about with the monkeys for most of the day. Our time in Bundi was limited to only 2 full days, and we hired bicycles to explore the surrounding area on the second day. As it turned out, we just ended up getting quite lost and it was incredibly misty so we didn’t see much, but it was still good to get some exercise in the fresh air.
And that brings us too yesterday! We caught the early train to Chittaurgarh, and were very impressed by the minimal 1 hour delay. The only thing of note here is another fort, which may sound like a wasted trip after all the other forts we’ve visited, but this is the biggest in Rajasthan - covering an area of 14sq km on top of a 180m high hill. It really is an impressive and intimidating structure, although we didn’t get the full effect on the approach as today is even mistier and colder than yesterday (we’re having a cold snap in India too - it was -1 in Mt Abu a couple of days ago!). Fortunately the weather cleared up in the afternoon, and we had another fun-filled day of fort exploring; visiting temples, feeding monkeys, climbing watchtowers and looking over the city seemingly miles below. This is a close rival to Bundi in the favourite fort stakes!
It’s very difficult to communicate the look and feel of all these places with just words, so we’ll attempt to upload another photo blog in the next couple of days. But, hopefully this lengthy entry has bought you fully up to speed. We don’t have long left in India now; today we’re having another few hours in Udaipur, and tomorrow a day in Ahmedabad, just to break up our long journey to Diu (a small island just off the coast of Gujarat), which is where we’re planning on staying and lazing about on the beach until our flight from Mumbai to Bangkok on the 19th. But we should have time for another blog before then!
Hope you’re all well and sticking religiously to those new years’ resolutions. Lots of love x
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Emily Tennet
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Hey Guys, glad you celebrated the new year in style, love the fact that you gatecrashed a party too lol! The ride into the desert sounds amazing and i cant wait to see your next load of pics!! Love to you both Em xxx