Incredible India! (part 3)

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After about 16 hours in the sleeper-bus I finally reached Udaipurin the state of Rajasthan, the state of palaces, forts and Royals! Udaipur is home to about half a million people and I stayed in the old city which lies at the shores of Lake Pichola. I was very tired after my arrival in the morning, so I checked in and had a long nap. I woke up in the afternoon and went for a walk in the area immediately around my guesthouse. I went first to take a look at Gangaur Ghat (Ghats are staircases down the water) and had my first view of Lake Pichola. I crossed a bridge and wandered around the other side of town and then I came back and went to the Jagdish Temple, dedicated to a Hindu god called Vishnu. The stairs were pretty steep and once you reach the entrance, you have to take off your shoes and photos were not allowed inside the temple itself. It’s not a big temple but it’s completely decorated with carvings of small elephants, horses and statues...it’s just amazing to see so much detail on the building. I continued towards the City Palace which was built in mid-16th century by Uday Singh II, a former Rajasthani Royal. It’s quite a big premises consisting of small palaces, gardens and a museum and it looks like a big fort from the outside. I did not go into the museum, but walked outside instead. I walked all the way further to the pier, where you can board small boats for a ride on Lake Pichola. It wasn’t a long ride but it was worth the different views of the city you wouldn’t get otherwise. The boat stopped at Jag Mandir Palace which was built on an island in the middle of the lake and used to be like a vacation island for the Royal family back in the day. Today it’s an up-class, posh hotel and restaurant. After checking it out for about half an hour, I hopped on the boat back to the pier.

The next day I slept in a little and then it was time to do some shopping. Yes, shopping! I am not a shopping type but I wanted to buy special clothes for the Holi celebration the next day (6 March). I asked around and they led me to this particular street where I immediately found what I was looking for. After this I continued towards the clock-tower (Ghanta Ghar) and then to the Bada Bazaar which was a pretty busy area with many businesses, mostly clothing shops and tailors. Most of the streets in the old city are narrow but everyone and everything tries to squeeze in: Cars, auto-rickshaws, pedestrians, scooters and cows! Don’t ask me how, but somehow they all manage to pass through! Several cows wander around the streets here and chances are big that you WILL step into cow poop at least once. They say it means good luck, so it didn’t bother me when I stepped into it. After wandering around the the Bada Bazaar I continued by foot towards Udaipur Ropeway, where I took a cable car up a hill. Karni Mata temple is located on the top and from here I was able to see how much bigger Udaipur really is, since the city extends quite further than the old city. The most beautiful view was obviously the one towards the Lake Pichola with the majestic City Palace. I stayed here until sunset, when I saw the sun reflecting in the lake and slowly disappearing behind the hills in the southwest. I took some stunning pictures of the sunset above the lake and the old city. I liked the fact that it wasn’t busy up the hill. There were just a few tourists and locals (about 10 people in total) which made the whole sunset very peaceful and quiet, except for some light city noise reaching the top from the east. Once it was dark I took out my little tripod to snap some shots of the city again before going back down the hill. In the evening there was the Holika Dahan (Bonfire), which is celebrated the night before Holi. There were a lot of people in front of Jagdish Temple and there was a stage with some people performing. In the middle of the street there was a tall tree-branch with many small fire-crackers attached to it and firewood on the bottom. Just after 10pm they lit a fire-cracker carpet (pagara in Curaçao) in one of the adjacent streets and then the branch was put on fire. The branch symbolizes the devil and it’s burned down in order to burn all the evil away. Holi is the time for everyone to celebrate love and positivism, to put negative things of the past behind them and to restore broken relationships with family and friends.



The next day it was Holi and it felt like celebrating New Year! During Holi people throw dry, colourful powder or they just put it on each other’s faces, head and clothes. Colourful water is also used. I put my “new” clothes on, including a scarf which I used to cover my head and I went outside. My camera was safely within a plastic bag in my pocket to protect it from getting wet or damaged by powder. I was walking for just 30 seconds when the first people came to me and said “Happy Holi” and they put powder on both sides of my faces and then hugged me. This kept happening several times and I ended up with colourful clothes and face. I bought a small bag of green powder myself and I was applying it to other people’s faces too, while wishing them Happy Holi and hugging them. A lot of people took pictures with me and many were saying that I look like Chris Gayle, a cricketer from Jamaica. So I was like a celebrity for the day as I was getting a lot of attention everywhere! At Gangaur Ghat I hung out with some locals for quite some time and, of course, they were very interested in where I was from etc. Many people were bathing in Lake Pichola here, including a tourist. I know myself and there is no way I would have entered that water, even though it wasn't really dirty! Holi was really fun, everyone was smiling and seemed very happy and positive. I loved the atmosphere in Udaipur during Holi and it was an experience to never forget!



After Udaipur I took the bus towards the northwest to Jodhpur. I immediately noticed that the city was much busier compared to Udaipur, and much dirtier too. The city has about 1.5 million people and is known as the “Blue City”. I arrived early afternoon and decided not to do too much for that day. I walked to the old city and the Sardar Market. The traffic was horrendous but I made it safely there. The entry to the market is through a big gate and inside there is a clock tower (Ghanta Ghar) right in the middle. On the background you could see the huge Mehrangarh Fort on the hill. The market was very busy and even on the narrow paths of the market, scooters are passing and constantly honking. I bought some fruits at the market, wandered around a bit before heading back to my guesthouse. The next day I hired a driver and his auto-rickshaw to bring me to the main sites around the city, which are easy to visit in one day. As always, I had to bargain hard to get a reasonable price. These guys ALWAYS start with a very high price and sometimes I don’t even bother and I just walk away instead. This driver started with 700 and I got it down to 450 Rupees! The first stop was at the huge Mehrangarh Fort. Built in the 15th century, this fort is the largest in the state of Rajasthan. I was really impressed by this massive, gigantic and tall fort surrounded by thick walls! Inside the fort there is a palace where the Royals (Maharaja’s) used to live. There are also some small temples and a museum. Some of the halls looked really beautiful, completely decorated on the walls and the roof with little mirrors, coloured glass, paintings etc. From the fort there are many different views over the city and it’s from here that I got to see the “Blue City”. The majority of the houses around are coloured in blue and the view is spectacular and unique! Just next to Mehrangarh Fort I made a quick visit to Jaswant Thada, a small but beautiful palace made out of marble. It was built at the end of the 20th century by the Maharaja Sardar Singh in memory of his father. My last stop was at the Umaid Bhawan Palace. It’s a beautiful building but you could clearly see that it’s much newer. It was completed in the 1940’s by the Royal Family, the Maharaja of Jodhpur. They still live here and the half of the building was converted into a very posh hotel. One smaller part is open to visitors and it’s like a small museum displaying some pictures of the Royals, old furniture and some paintings. I did not find it very interesting at all.



While travelling, as always, you meet a lot of people and it was no different this time. In Udaipur I met a lovely Chilean couple, Victor and Pamela, who quit their jobs 3 months after they got married to go on a one-year trip around the world. At Mehrangarh Fort I met Kamil, who asked me to take a picture of him and his friends and then he asked where I was from etc., the usual stuff. When I said I’m a teacher, he told me that he manages an institute of spoken English and I was invited to attend a class the next day. So I went there and introduced myself to the students, most of them ranging between 16 and 30 years old. More about this in the next blog, since Kamil arranged for me to visit the same institute in the next city I visited.
At the guesthouse in Jodhpur I met a Dutch guy (Nick) and also two Dutch girls (Selma and Laura), who I met and spent two days with in the next city I visited. Very nice people and really fun to hang out with!



More from India in the next blog!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Part 3 Incredible
You seem to really enjoy India. Glad you met Victor and Pamela and eager to hear more about the school.