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Published: December 11th 2013
5th December
Various bits of Sal's body were operating after the massage and we set off for Udaipur Palace. Clearing up was in progress after the previous days ring ceremony, we followed our guide around, up and down stairs and a variety of rooms most of them very beautiful, beautiful was his favourite word and only adjective. Pete was official photographer as we had to pay for each camera. Our guide was called Sunny which was a godsend for Pete as he had 100% forgotten every persons name that we had come into contact with and had therefore called them Bob...sat well for most Indians!! We met up with Mr Harinder and our very comfortable mini van and hit the road for our journey to Jojowar. It was a long journey with a couple of breaks which was fine as there was so much to look at out of the window. Getting out of Udaipur was the usual mix of people, traffic, noise and cows added to which was a wedding ceremony procession. Sunny had told us about his wedding with 4000+ guests and most Indian men call their wedding day their lottery day as it isn't until this moment
that the veil is lifted and they see who their parents have arranged for them to spend their lives with, he said he had a lucky lottery day.
Once out of town the rural area and countryside was full of people scratching a living from a few animals or the small pieces of land, women seemed to be the main land workers and loads of them walking along the roadside with pots, bowls and bundles of twigs or cotton balanced on their head. The road was rough and mostly single carriageway which was pretty scary with something hammering towards you...... Nerves of steel required to drive here ...... But, in fact most people are very polite. The horn is used to let someone know you are there as much as anything and generally they will pull over and let you pass and when something is coming on the other side of the road, you both sort of pull over though you should read pull over for pull off on to bumpy dirt tracks that run beside the bit of Tarmac. Every now and again, particularly where a river has flooded at some point the road has just
disappeared and there are huge potholes, we saw a tree growing out of one!
Every now and then a small village pops up, with these tiny shops that are everywhere, literally having a frontage of about 10 feet with the owner maybe behind a counter or sitting or squatting at the front, making a living out of whatever he might have to sell or maybe selling food. All of these towns are lively and busy, lots of people going about their business and the ladies dressed so colourfully, just fascinating to watch.
We were running late so Mr Harinder had his foot down and absolutely nobody overtook us, his hand was on the horn 50% of the time and his foot was to the floor! We get the feeling this wasn't just because we were running late but his style of driving anyway. We didn't hit anything, god knows how!
Our first stop was at Kumbhalgarh fort, an enormous and impressive structure built in the middle of nowhere and once we had climbed up, there were some good views as well.
A very important subject in India is
toilets, particularly when you are travelling like we are! Public ones are generally not for the faint hearted and not to be gone near but the ones at the fort looked ok and the young man collecting the 2 rupees entrance fee said they were clean, he was right but the ladies was a squatty, not an easy operation.
From here Mr Harinder was pressed for time to get us to Ranakpur, which suited him fine as he only had 2 modes, stop and go fast! Here was the most exquisite Jain temple, this is the equivalent of Mecca for people who follow the Jain religion. We were met by the guide, who told us he was a priest here too but the priest family who are in charge had been here for 8 generations. He was an interesting chap and had amazing eyes, they were purple. The building dates from 15th century and is quite amazing as it contains 1144 columns, each individually carved from marble with 5 domes, each made out of a single piece of marble and as we walked round they became more delicately and intricately carved, it really was very special to
see.
Late afternoon we stopped at a hotel in the middle of nowhere which was lucky to find as there were, virtually no places to stop on the road, we just wanted a snack and some coffee so ordered 8 pakora, thinking a couple of those each would do us until dinner later, turned out we had ordered 8 each which turned into about 14 each with a dish of chilli sauce and some ketchup and some chunky chat masala which was a powdery spice and tasted good - we loved the name! We ate them all and they were lovely. We had become more concerned about our next stop as the day went on, as when we said we needed a bank, Mr Harinder said there weren't any and no ATMs either, he warned us about the town and that we should buy nothing. So, when we pulled into the courtyard of this splendid building, we all looked a bit relieved and it turned out to be the old Marharajas home or local king as they are known today. They gave us some lovely juice and hot towels to refresh and then off through the impressive
grounds to our room, followed by a couple of lads carrying our heavy bags one by the handle and one on their shoulders, we were on the first floor and the open stairs were steep so it was as much as we could do to haul ourselves up never mind the bags too. Apparently, according to Pete, both of them were called Bob!
6th December
Next day the hotel had arranged two events for us, one was a train ride, which was very good but even better than that was getting to the train. The hotel was still the home of the local king, since independence, he had no power though this one did a lot for the community. In the kings possession were several vehicles and we had this old Chevrolet which had the roof removed and sat about 10 people. Off we went through the narrow, busy streets of Jojowar with people all smiling and waving and loads of gorgeous smiley kids running alongside shouting Hi, and us, making our progress, looking like a cross between royalty and the Beverley Hillbillies! It was fabulous, we drove through the countryside, seeing monkeys, wild boar and
loads of peacocks and then climbing up high to the train station in the mountains. The station was like a museum and the signal box was just a couple of levers but trains travel through here regularly. Ours was over an hour late and absolutely packed, though not on the roof (!) but we seemed to have most of a carriage to ourselves, so maybe they reserved it, off we chugged for the next hour travelling down through the mountains and valleys, looking out for panther which were supposed to be roaming wild here. Every now and again, we stopped for a brake check, not sure what that meant but, as soon as we stopped, loads of monkeys arrived as they knew food would be around. The guy from the hotel travelling with us, called Ugem or Bob to his friends, gave us biscuits, Sal ate hers not realising it was for the monkeys, the second time we stopped, the monkeys were much braver and jumped up to the open windows so were about 6inches away from us, they looked a bit mean and would stare you out, Pete and Col took photos, Jane and Sal squeeled!
In the afternoon, the owner who we are presuming is the king took us out in the jeep, there was a bit of an ulterior motive which we didn't know about and we wish we had. He does a lot to support projects in the local villages, the first place he took us to was an orphanage for boys run on a shoestring and the man running it also takes in abandoned animals, cows/goats no longer producing milk, sick and injured dogs, so a very good man and we would have donated more had we had more money on us and we had known what to expect, one of the little boys sang twinkle twinkle little star...ahhhhh. We were then going to a local village and he was telling us what he had done here and what he intended to do. We were quite stunned how clean it all was, all the towns are pretty filthy but this was the opposite, all kept beautifully. We were taken into the yard of a family who have a cow with its calf which was 2 days old, a camel and whilst we were there the goats were herded in from their days
wandering and there must have been about 40 of them. Lovely man with a distinctive yellow turban but we were unsure of what we should or shouldn't have been doing there but guessed more money was required but with the absence of a bank, we were a bit embarrassed and certainly didn't make the most of the opportunity. We then went on to a farm. Again, all very well kept. In the jeep was tea and biscuits for us which was served to us. Their home was tiny as they all are, so during the day the cots as they all them, bed frames we would say and dragged outside, so these were pulled over for us to sit on. The kids were fascinated by us and we were fascinated by them, they are all gorgeous with huge smiles and seem so happy. It was getting dark and the women were starting to cook, big pots on an open fire, lots of veg and spices being prepared and happy for us to watch but carefully covering their faces, as all ladies do when Col and Pete came close. It was all really interesting and a great opportunity to see people
and places that we would not see otherwise as it wasn't staged. It was a shame that we didn't know that money was expected. We gave him what we had but he didn't look too impressed.
7th December
Our itinerary said it was a 4 hour drive to Jodhpur, where the trousers come from. Mr Harinder did it in about 3! It was fascinating for us again, driving through the countryside and small villages. The road to begin with was in poor condition and non existent in several places and if there was a big hole a small detour had been made through the field. Lots of ladies carrying out road repairs, though when we got to some major road construction it was generally men that were working there but when it was building work, it was a mix of men and women with women carrying large bowls of concrete on their heads. On the road you pass every type of vehicle, horse drawn, camel drawn, tractors pulling trailers full of wood, bricks, crops and often just stuffed with people, bikes, motorbikes, tuk tuks, cars and trucks of all shapes and sizes, with all sorts of
loads often bulging off the sides sometimes with several people on top. The motorbikes will have 1,2,3,4,5 even 6 people on one bike, there is often a child or two wedged behind Dad on the front and Mum riding side saddle on the back, god knows how they stay on. We saw one with two goats on the passengers lap!1k
We were staying in the old town of Jodphur and our little bus had to drop us outside of the old town. We got off the bus and it was a complete assault on all your senses, we were surrounded by people trying to sell something, trying to take us somewhere or just begging. Animals, cows, buffalo, horses, dogs everywhere, smells of spices, cooking and unpleasant smells and noise, NOISE, there is always noise. Pete hated it and wanted to get back on the bus!
Our hotel was a Haveli, an old noble house, again it was lovely and our rooms were outstanding, they really did make you say WOW! And Col and Sals had a huge amount of gold leaf which made it even more wow!!!
We thought a snack
for lunch would be good, the restaurant was on the second floor, however, like so many other places, the steps were so steep it was like going to the 4 th floor, phew. Fortified and feeling brave we decided to get out there amongst it, plus Sal has managed to catch a cold, beautiful weather, sun shining and blue sky and Sal is snotty :-(. We needed a pharmacy. We stuck out like a sore thumb, there are very few tourists here at this time of year and every con man in the market wanted to take us somewhere, but we were growing in confidence and laughed them all off. So much to see, you just wanted to stand and watch life pass by you. We loved it, Pete was gaining confidence and enjoyed it in the end. There was anything and everything to buy plus antibiotics and strepsils! Two very pretty ladies walked by, smiled and said hello, we said hello and took their photo and one of them got hold of Sal's hands and kissed them both... Odd!
We clambered back up Everest aka the stairs and had a lovely dinner with a lovely waiter
looking after us, Ummed was his name, Pete is improving and remembered his name.
8th December
We had a guide this morning, Treboram and we went to the area of the Brahmins and the blue city. They still have casts here though wrap it up in different paper these days and the Brahmins are the worshippers. This is a new tour by a new young company and it was something else...... we walked for about 3 hours through areas that tourists would never usually go to, again an assault on all your senses, the rubbish and filth everywhere is something we find hard to deal with, dogs in various states of awfulness and a couple with little puppies, somehow though, there is a food chain and the cows certainly know which houses to go to to be fed. It was a fascinating morning, he took us into a couple of private Hindu temples which had been in the family for generations and another which was only for the family, a tiny viewing hole which was in fact the drain, was the only opportunity of other people seeing in. He told us lots about various gods as
had other guides but there are so many it's hard to keep track.
Almost as soon as we set off on the walk, Col broke the golden rule of look where you are going and where you are stepping and found the biggest slushiest cow pat.... Good luck is coming his way by the dollop full! 99% of these tightly packed in houses have no running water so there are pumps which we did flip flop washing in!
We were looking at a lake which is used for ceremonies, beside us was a tree and the usual cow or two mooching about, the next thing, thwack, a sandal comes out of the tree aimed at the cow we think, followed by another...... There were monkeys in the tree who must have pinched sandals from where they are left on doorsteps and were lobbing them at the cows!
In the afternoon we visited the enormous Mehrangarh fort which is an amazing structure high up and dominating the town followed by the Marharajas Memorial Temple (which Pete had misheard as a memory temple and was keen to go to help with his remembering of Peoples
names!) and then the new city palace.
Loving every minute of this amazing holiday, what an experience!
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Monica
non-member comment
Hillbillies and cow pats!
Dear Sally, really enjoying the blog, it transports me there for a couple of minutes, you describe it all so well, really! Hope you continue to enjoy every moment and that you can avoid the Delhi belly! love Monica AKA Bob