Adventure before Dementia India 2012

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08.00 hours Monday 12 March

After a long day yesterday, today is just chill and rest around Udaipur before I leave very early tomorrow morning.

I go to the travel man who booked my car and sort my train tickets for tomorrow.

The first train will take from Udaipur to Chittorgarh. In the afternoon I will take another train To Bundi.

Chittorgarh is 2.5 hours away and Bundi is 3 hours from Chittorgarh. With a big fort to see in Chittorgarh it will be a long day.

I decide to get some stamps and my rough guide tells me there is a post office not far down the road by the lake. I wander up and down the road but cannot find the place. I bump into Ray Mears who tells me he’s been looking for an hour. I wish him luck, give in and decide to try the main office near the Clock tower. All Indian cities seem to have a clock tower. I take that the British always like to know the time during the Raj so they built the clock as high as they could get it. I found the main post office no problem. No CCTV, security glass or alarms here. Just a couple of men and a queue. There’s always a queue. The clerk is armed with a pen and stamp. He beats the pulp out of a saving book. It must be Myra Bindley’s the way he hits it.

The post Office is the only place in India that the price is the same for a westerner as an Indian a stamp is 15 rups to anywhere in the world. It probable costs 1 rup to get it out of India then the world can pay the rest.

Armed with 10 stamps I leave and a little way down the road stop have to coconut, the straw appears from nowhere, let’s nowhere is clean. Coconuts should be ok like bananas and oranges. The rule is simple:

IF YOU CANNOT PEEL IT DON’T EAT IT (Although I have learned that to eat grapes, you put them in a plastic bag pour mineral water in give it a shake and hey presto – sorted.

I go back to Raju and Vidhyas shop for a few things and her mum is on the floor picking something out a plant. There’s no English name for it so I have a taste and tale a photo and move on.

On to the very posh Ambrai Hotel (hope you can see the menu – awesome – expensive here but the same price as the Indian in Gorleston high street.) for a beer overlooking The Lake Palace very nice but expensive, but not to be a wrinkly backpacker for an hour is good.

The Lake Palace costs a fortune for a packet of matches, so only in India do the posh people and everyday life get up close and personal. The photos of the ladies doing the washing are on Hanuman Gnat just 50 yards across the water from the palace.



I am a bit hungry after the beer and stop to take a snack. The 2 round things had a green paste in them. You make a hole in them and put the gravy in. Nice.



That’s about it for the day as an early night calls it’s up at 5 for the train.



PS: I forgot to add that on my travels round the streets the amount of times you get, hello,welcome and where are you from is like all the time.

Sometimes i answer sometimes wave my hand or book.



I answered a man and said England

He Replied: "Lovely Jubbley" in that accent



Having a bit of trouble with photos this morning will try later

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Comments

[kate]

Ambrai!
Table for two needed here..........I'll go with the Mutton Sagwala and Garlic Naan

[Keep Smiling]

Mke mine the Mutton Keema Mutter
...with rice and a few cappatis. I was nearby just last week. Ate at the Lake Ghat Palace (fabulous view of the Lake Palace) - their menu included "Snakes". They did, of course, mean Snacks!!