Advertisement
Geo: 24.5823, 73.6882
We were on the bus by 7:30 am. We had a four hour drive to the Jain temple at Ranakpur. Again we saw many more people on their pilgrimage, walking for hours in the hot sun. The trash along the sides of the road is unbelievable. We saw the occasional wild peacocks in fields and on fences.
Upon arriving at the Jain Temple we shared a meal with the devotees. It made us feel like we were eating in a prison mess hall! From there we headed towards the temple where we were both required to cover our knees and shoulders. Check out our lovely outfits. We had a few hours to explore the temple which very peaceful and enjoyable.
The marble Jain Temple has distinctive domes on the outside and over 1444 exquisitely carved marble pillars. The pillars are all differently carved and no two are the same. The temple was constructed in the mid 1400's AD. Jainism is a nontheistic Indian religion that believes in nonviolence to all living beings. It is one of the oldest religions in the world. It is completely vegetarian and excludes any root vegetable from their diet because tiny organisms are injured
when plants are pulled from the ground.
From the temple our bus climbed a high mountain pass on our way to Udaipur. We saw many monkeys in the trees as we drove along. On arrival to Udaipur we drove along a lakeshore as far as the bus could go because of the narrow streets. We then climbed into vintage taxis to get to our hotel, passing an elephant along the way. Our hotel was along the shore of Pichola Lake. We had a fabulous view of life across the lake from us as well as views of the old palace.
That evening we went for a sunset cruise out on the lake and while out on the boat we celebrated Margaret's birthday with a delicious cake. That evening we enjoyed dinner at the rooftop restaurant of our hotel. It was a beautiful setting with a great view of the palace lit up at night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0289s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
photolera
non-member comment
Such becoming modesty ... decorous to say the least ;-)