The best place on Earth - Udaipur, Rajashtan

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Woah! Another day of travelling.

We (Rob and I) left Bombay for Udaipur on the 18th Dec 2010. There wasn't any direct trains to Udaipur City Railway Station; we have to take a seater train to Ahmedabad, and take a connecting train an hour later to Udaipur City Railway Station. Rob checked out earlier on that day, and he said that most likely he'll see me at Mumbai Central Station.

I reach Mumbai Central half an hour earlier before our train departs. I saw Rob sitting somewhere near platform one, and since there's some spare time to kill, we went out for chai. We walked outside the train station, and went to a local chai stall for chai. Shortly, we realised that we are left with 10 minutes, quickly paid for our chais and rush back to the train station.

Unfortunately both of us are placed in a different cabin. It was a seater train, so I went to look around for mine and found out that there was someone who sat on my seat. There was this Israeli guy who took my seat, but I wasn't really aware until when I showed my train ticket to the conductor. I mistook the cabin number for my seat number! How embarassing, but it was all good when an Indian family requested that they took one of their member's seat, and they have mine, right after the Israeli guy changed his seat next to his friend. I said ok, and it was all fine.

I sat next to an Indian lady, forgot her name though. She's from Bombay, and we talked for awhile, and she even introduced her mum to me. We talked about our families, and I even took a crash course on the Maharastri language (a Maharastra dialect). She even offered food to me, and I politely accepted their offer. They were on their way to Vadodara, while I'm on the way to Ahmedabad. It was pretty warm in the day but as soon as it reaches Gujarat state, temperature dropped till less than 18 degrees, which is definitely cold for me because I only experience warm climate back at home! Thank God I did bring in some winter clothing, like few sweaters and shawl so it's kinda enough to keep me warm. The train arrived Ahmedabad station around 10.00PM. The thing about Indian trains; they are never on time!

Remember the Israeli guy who took my seat? Well, I saw them back then in Bombay; we stayed in the same dorm in Salvation Army Red Shield House. Forgot the other guy's name though.. there were two of them. Yoav and something.. Well my bad. I'm really bad at remembering names! They asked if I'm interested to stick around with them together, and I told them it's fine with me. I decided to get chai first, and walk out of the train station for cigarette. We talk for awhile, and I must say Israelis are really cool people! And gorgeous too.

We went to Platform 11 and wait for our train, it's suppose to depart at 11pm. I actually got a AC2 ticket to Udaipur City, seems strange because it's AC, and it's bloody freezing here! I wonder if they gonna blast the AC out in the cabin. Unfortunately, Yoav and his friend are in the sleeper class, so no chance of stick around together. I guess I'll just see them in Udaipur City.

Got onto my car, and guess who I saw? Rob! Hahaha initially I tried looking for him and was hoping that he wouldn't get loss. It wasn't for long that the train conductor asked if it's ok for me to shift to another cabin. Well, another one! I looked at Rob, and I asked him if he's ok with that, anyway we're still going to the same city. He's ok with that, and I went to the next berth. I was greeted by a French lady, Louise. I was surprised because she has black hair and green eyes, typical Indian/Kashmiri. We chatted for awhile, and she have been to India for couple of times, and said that she really love Udaipur. I was really excited to get my ass to Udaipur; people recommend me to go there instead of Jodhpur. Strange.

It was about 8-9 hours of train ride from Ahmedabad to Udaipur. Thank God it was an overnight train. It was freezing inside the cabin; they blast out the AC! What the fucking fuck! I was shivering like mad, and had to put on my thick bomber jacket, trying to get some sleep. Eventually, I dozed off, and woke up around 8am. The train is reaching Udaipur City in 5 minutes. I quickly packed my stuff and got off the train after that. Outside, I saw Rob looking around, waiting for me. We decided to hang around the train station for awhile, and he suggested that we walk to the Lal Ghat instead of taking a rickshaw. I'm pretty fine with that, and it's no big deal, given that I used to carry 25 - 30kg of load, with rifle and life bearing vest with helmet and march 32km for 6 hours; yeah, National Service is mandatory for Singaporean male citizens.

It was really cold in Udaipur; thank goodness the walk actually did warm me up. We decided to check into Lal Ghat Guesthouse, and took the dorm beds. The guesthouse is really strategically located very well; it's by the lake, and diagonally we have the view of the Taj Lake Palace. It's like a picture perfect holiday snapshot. We ordered breakfast, and had hot lemon ginger with honey. Such bliss on this cold weather!

I didn't do much in Udaipur, in fact, I don't really like it here. It seems that Udaipur is a holiday city and too touristy. I decided to stay here for 3 days, to recover from the tiredness of travelling, and opt for Bundi instead of Jodhpur. I made plans to celebrate Christmas and New Year's Eve in Pushkar with some nasty bhang lassi! LOL. Rob, decided to check out Jaisalmer, thus we went through our separate ways. 😞

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Photos

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Holy CCTV?