Udaipur

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By the time we boarded the train from Jaipur to Udaipur it was long since dark and our sleeper carriage crowded with locals. I´ve met a real mix of people whilst travelling by rail here - mostly locals, some on their way home, others on business trips, some chatty, others not - but the group we shared this journey with was by far the friendliest. We later discovered that they were two families also going to Udaipur on holiday (and very excited about it they were too) but at the time, with 12 of us squeezed into seats for 9, my heart sank when the women in the group started to unpack a small feast. It seemed any chance of sleep was a long way off. But then the first person they handed food to was me - I wasn´t sure whether I should eat it or pass the plate along, but it soon became clear that I was expected to eat, my plate being refilled each time I cleared it until I insisted on no more. And that homemade food eaten in a cramped, dirty, smelly railway carriage was one of the best meals I had in India.

Udaipur was one of my favourite stops in Rajasthan even though we did less sightseeing than elsewhere and the touristy things we did do in the city, the palace and a boat trip on the lake, were pretty disappointing. But the city was smaller than others we´d been to and was set in a stunning location around a lake and against a backdrop of hills. Much of our time was spent wondering through the rather touristy old part of town, where narrow winding streets meant you could easily escape hassling rickshaw drivers and the walls were painted with colourful murals of elephants, horses and more. It was also where we found an amazing (not-very-German) ´German Bakery´ that sold fantastic cakes and coffee. And lastly it was where we had one of those really random encounters that always seem to happen to someone else. Walking down a narrow alleyway in search of somewhere, anywhere in fact, that was doing something special for New Years Eve (apart from the hotel that was doing an 80´s night and which we´d already discounted on the basis that it was, well, 80s) we bumped into an ex work colleague of Renee and his girlfriend! A few seconds later we would have missed them completely but as it was we ended up hanging out with them both for New Years (where we did eventually end up at the 80s night) and much of the rest of our stay in town.

Easily the most fun we had here was a cooking lesson - needless to say anyone who comes for dinner when I eventually get back to London will be served up curry! The guy who ran the class was well practised with his jokes but he soon had the 7 of us laughing along anyway. Although more demonstration than ´doing´ we all had a turn at cooking a dish and chapattis (the latter might need some more practise though - mine ended up rather more square than round but they tasted OK). Then finally when we´d long since been salivating at the smell of all the food we got to eat and eat and eat and eat and... discovered that it is possible to eat too much curry!

As good as the cooking course was the highlight of our stay in Udaipur had to be the day we hired a car and headed out to the fort at Kumbhalgarh and the Jain Temple at Ranakpur. We spent a lot of time driving that day and if I could do anything differently it would have been to stay overnight near the fort just to have more time to enjoy it. Most of the sites we´d visited in Rajasthan had either been in or very close to a big city and whilst we´d enjoyed them they were also memorable to varying degrees for the noise, pollution and crowds that we found. Standing at the top of the fort at Kumbhalgarh we looked out on, well, nothing - just rolling dry hills, with some of the 36km of stone outer walls snaking over the top of them into the distance. There was no town at the base of it, no honking rickshaws and no one trying to sell us souvenirs. Built in the 15th century the fort sits high on a hilltop and walking up to it through various gateways linked by zig zagging walls it seemed quite imposing. In fact its walls proved almost impregnable, the fort only falling once in its history and even then just for a short while - the front walls are fifteen feet thick, wide enough to allow six mounted guards to ride abreast.

That day we also visited the Jain Temple at Ranakpur - dated to somewhere between the late 14th and mid-15th century its built of white marble with hundreds of supporting pillars. Each pillar is intricately carved and all are different, but the decoration doesn´t end there - the ceilings were amazingly detailed whilst outside decorative domes rose from the roof. Inside it was cool and peaceful with open spaces allowing sunlight to filter through the shadows whilst Jain pilgrims dressed in white prayed quietly at the central alter.

Udaipur was also where I left Renee, or rather where she left me - back on a plane to Delhi and then London. For me it was the only overnight bus I was to take in India... and one that reminded me exactly why I don´t do sleeper buses! Next up onion turbans and slums - Bundi to Mumbai.

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Comments

[aashish]

Pictures
Pictures taken by you are awesome. Seems that you guys are professional photographers. I live in rajasthan but never seen these places so wonderfully captured on camera before.

[piyush katariya]

thnx of describing my Ondia so worthly......... so are such a good photographer................. .............each photo tells a history.................