A bit more of Rajasthan

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So...In my previous post I mentioned our night train from Jaipur to Udaipur... Now as much as I said we 'Flashpacked' our way around India, my husband insisted we get a night train- 'it will be a laugh'. His definition of a laugh and my definition of a laugh at that point seemed to be somewhat different. So, feeling a little flash, I booked us 2 first class tickets hoping for a night of R&R on the Indian railway tracks..... How wrong could I have been? So firstly, we bowled up at Jaipur railway station to find our train was going to be 4 hours latg. No biggie- living in Kingston and dealing with South Western railway every week has meant I can cope with delays...but there is a difference between a delay on a cold, drizzly London platform with a costa coffee in hand and a baking hot Jaipur railway station with not much to offer aside from a rather dubious looking sweet kiosk and a stinking mucky public toilet. In spite of this, it was very enjoyable. We made friend with a group of local kids who were also waiting on the train and in spite of the language barrier, we had loads of fun. Then...oh yes, then our train arrived.....

The first thing to note is 1st class in India is not like first class at home...or second class, or anything I have ever seen before! It is dirty, cramped and smelly and everyone is all in together. My images of a private carriage such as one on the orient express melted like an icecream on a Delhi pavement...

The second thing is that these trains are built for indian people, and they aren't known for their excessive stature. The 'beds' were designed to fit an average, not a pair of 6ft1 and 6ft5 giants!As we weaved our way through the stinking and cramped carriages we found our teeny weeny beds for the night. These padded shelves protruded from the wall at a height of about 5 foot and so that Jamses feet were sticking out into the walkway as were my bent knees, which added even more that what was already a pretty grim trip.

The third thing to note is dehydration may be the key to surviving a night train in India...or no matter how grotty the toilets in the station are they cannot get worse than what awaits on the train. So off we took and I decided to use the facilities. Located at the rear of a carriage was a small 'hallway' flanked by open doors. Once you have overcome getting from the safety of the carriage to the actual toilet and not been sucked out the door of a train hurtling across the indian countryside at gadzillion miles per hour, the 'lavatory' awaits. This was a hole in the floor jobby with gallons of pee and loads of poo sloshing about in perfect rhythm with the train drumming along on the tracks. Suddenly the festering urine hole in the Jaipur station seemed like a far greater option- at least the contents were stationary and weren't going to slosh all over my fabric Toms. Still, a lesson learned! I decided it would be good practice for my bladder to hold on it, so again risking life and limb I made my way back to my wee 'bed' for the night.

After a night of fitful sleep (where I was only woken once by a lovely chap who asked how much money I make in a year), we arrived, feeling groggy and filthy, in Udaipur. Stepping from the dark, dim train into daylight, we expected more dirt and grime, but we were met by beaming ladies nodding their heads and greeting us with 'Namaste'. As we made our way through the relatively clean streets to our hotel, we were amazed at how peaceful and tranquil this city was in comparison to the hustle and bustle of the golden triangle. Set in among hills and lakes, Udaipur is beautiful! Known as the lake city or 'the Venice of the east', Udaipur is a maze of pretty honey coloured building adorned with multicoloured fabrics which populate the shores of a beautiful lake creating a stunning panorama of Indian architeture/ This is in turn dappled with a number a small islands which have made home to several buildings and palaces. We stayed a mere 24 hours in this pretty little city but enjoyed the beautiful temple, where were strewn with garlands of the most beautifully scented orange blossom, visited the impressive city palace- well worth a visit to enjoy the beautiful ornate buildings and pretty grounds, as well as Ben Kingsleys spectacles from his role in Gandhi! Following this, we took a slightly rainly boat trip on Lake Pichhola, where we visited the lake palace and had drinks on one of the pretty islands. We strolled the honey coloured streets (trying to avoid a potentially rabid dog!) and and enjoyed viewing the other side of the lake from the shores.

That evening, we ventured high up on the hills for dinner, and en route, my husband was 'accosted' by a group of children who wanted to play volleyball with him. It would have been rude not to, so for 10 minutes he played with these children and had loads of fun. They didn't exchange a word but I suppose in sport there is no language barrier!!! After much searching, we ate dinner in a charming restaurant with spectacular views of the city, and watched the shimmering lights of Udaipur mirrored on the lake. As we made our way back to the hotel, Wwe noticed there was a bit of a street party going on,and all of a sudden we came upon a fabulous celebration- as a local had told us, it was the festival of Ganesh, and this was the penultimate night. We watched as school kids performed dances and sang songs, as the locals enjoyed the celebrations. We retired to the rooftop bar of the hotel for a few drinks where we were treated to a show (albeit mediocre) of fireworks exploding over the city.

The following morning we again rose early to prepare for the 400km drive to Jodhpur via Ranakpur temple. Again, we hired a driver for this (which was about £50/£60) and set off early. I had wanted to visit Ranakpur temple after hearing my friend talk about how amazing. Ranakpur is regarded as the finest Jain temple and one the the greatest religious sites in India. Boasting over 100 domes, and over 1400 pillars, Ranakpur temple was beautiful, impressive and breathtaking. Again, there was no hassle at all, and we peacefully wandered through the pillars and admired every inch in all of its glory. The only people we encountered were monks engaging in spiritual worship. Like many of the sights in India, words fail to do it justice! From there, our driver suggested we visit Kumbhalgarh fort, a colossal, imposing fort which has, in the same year as our visit, been declared and UNSECO world heritage site. This was fascinating as radiating from the fort were miles and miles of walls that penetrated the tumbling countryside (the second longest wall in the world next to the great wall of China!), and also as we got 'mugged' by a number of monkeys which plagued us for our fruit and nut mix- very entertaining- if a monkey decides it is theirs, it is theirs!!

From there we progressed our mammoth trip to Jodhpur, which suddenly came to a standstill. The town we were passing through had been closed off to accommodate the final day of the Ganesh festival. Hordes of brightly dressed people, some with pinky orange paint on their bodies, made their way to the river, carrying several colourful, ornate effigies of Ganesh. We sat and watched from the car as they brought these statues to the river and released these along with a mass of flowers. It was so special to see these items of worship float off into the distance. We eventually made it to Jodhpur after dark where we met the last few moments of their Ganesh celebrations. We had made the decision to book into a 'homestay', where someone will rent out a room in their house. We went for a very highly rated one but this was located in among a labyrinth of teeny streets, so we had to go in by foot and find it. We eventually came to this shabby but grand house and were greeted by the most beautiful and kind lady who welcomed us to her home. It was stunning, the hallway was composed of carved dark wood, mosiacs and swathes of deep, rick fabric drapes. Our room was divine- a beautiful ornate dark wood four poster bed and a huge inside swing. It was simply exquisite. We made our way into the town centre and on looking around we realised we were the only western people in the city at that time. We also noted when we were trying to find a restaurant that either the part of the city we were in had no restaurants, or there very very few in Jodhpur- a tourist trap it is not! We eventually found a hotel serving food and on trying to get a TukTuk home, we found there were none of those either! it was so quiet!

Jodhpur is such an interesting city, known as the blue city thanks to its blue painted buildings, we were told each shade of blue depicting a particular caste, this idea though is of great debate. The city itself is another maze of grand, ornate old building veiled with a filigree facade that are now run down, shabby and dusty. What is quite wonderful is on exploring the city we encountered a couple of painted elephants delivering herbs to temples, a beautiful site, and a lot of small places of worship as we ventured through the winding streets. In start contrast to this, as we explored this vibrant city, we happened upon, or more like a small naked child happened upon us, who squatted in the street and expelled the most noxious, dysenteric diarrhea I have ever seen (and I have seen it all!!). Grim. But she stood up, ignoring us, and took off to carry on playing! Diarrhea does happen, I suppose!

This brought us to the end of our wee visit of Rajasthan, where we gave a sad farewell to this beautiful part of the country and headed for a beachy break in Goa....

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