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Published: February 24th 2013
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Lindsay and Sam joined Holly and I in Varanasi and the plan was for us all to travel to Udaipur together. Holly and I had already booked our train tickets, but when Lindsay & Sam tried to book on the same trains as us they were mostly full already, so they followed us by a day. And while Holly and I were travelling in second or third class, Lindsay and Sam were mostly travelling in the dreaded 'sleeper class' (which is something of a misnomer, as apparently little sleeping is managed in the crampt, hot carriages).
First up, Holly and I took an overnight train to Jodhpur. We nearly missed our stop as we were unexpectedly on time and still asleep when we rolled in. Jodhpur has a fort, a palace and many bazaars, and we spent our first day wandering through the markets. Holly evidently felt the
five pairs of shoes she was travelling with were insufficient so bought a sixth pair. Yes, six.
The next day Lindsay and Sam caught us up and we went to the palace. It was very grand, as anticipated, but the unexpected highlight of the morning was finding Hob-nobs in
the palace café afterwards. We next went on a fairly verbose audio tour of the fort. From the fort we had a great view over the town and could see why Jodhpur is known as the Blue City. Hundreds, if not thousands of the houses and shops below were painted in various shades of blue. Apparently it's because of the abundance of local indigo dye which had insect repelling qualities.
Next stop was Jaisalmer. If Jodhpur is the Blue City, then Jaisalmer is know as the Golden City as virtually every building is built from local yellow sandstone. Jaisalmer is also centred around a fort which we explored briefly and worked our way through the shops and stalls inside but we were feeling a little fort-fatigued by this point. The fort is undeniably impressive though, and it was disappointing to learn that it is crumbling to the ground as waste drainage from inside the fort seeps into the wall foundations.
People from Jaisalmer were disarmingly friendly. We had developed a guardedness towards overfriendly people approaching us in the street as it inevitably led to them wanting us to take a tour with them or visit their brother's shop
or stay at their uncle's hotel. In Jaisalmer people came up just to say hello and ask how we were. We met the local cricket captain, several schoolchildren and countless other affable folk walking around town.
Jaisalmer is situated on the edge of the Great Thar Desert, and it was here we headed next on a camel safari. After getting out into the desert by jeep we met our animal companions for the next two days. Camels are unexpectedly huge and their faces look like a weird giraffe-kangaroo cross. No part of camel riding could really be described as comfortable but it's quite an experience. We rode for about five hours through scrubland until we reached the sandy dunes where we would sleep for the night. Upon arrival a man selling cold beer found us which was very refreshing although not conducive to the impression of being far from civilisation deep in the desert. We ate and drank and sang around a fire then slept under a more extensive blanket of stars that I can remember ever having seen.
In the morning we jumped back onto the camels and headed back to town. With their constant incontinence, gurgling
and farting, camels are hard animals to love, but after a couple of days together I had real affection for my camel. Probably because he'd just carried me many kilometres through arid desert.
Indians love their moustaches. More men sport them than are clean shaven or bearded, and we met a man at Jodhpur palace who had a moustache so good it would have been rude to not have asked for a photograph. Whilst waiting for our next train I got a haircut and shave. I laid back and shut my eyes for the shave and when I sat back up by barber had left my upper lip untouched. Obviously if you don't want a moustache you have to be more specific. I got him to remove the moustache and afterwards he slapped my face around with some white cream. I
think it was a massage, but I'm sure he was more enthusiastic than he was with the moustached chap before me.
An overnight train and day bus later we arrived in Udaipur.
Udaipur is beautiful. The town is set between the Aravalli hills and the glassy still waters of Lake Pichola, from which the iconic Lake
Palace Hotel (of Octopussy fame) emerges. Our hotel was full of character – all daybeds in the sun, ornate alcoves set into the walls and stained glass windows behind wooden shutters. Even the bathroom was as pleasant as any we'd had in India, which was just as well as I spent much of the first few days inside with a stomach bug.
Said to be the most romantic city in India, if not the world, Udaipur is an appropriate place to spend valentines day. Holly woke me with breakfast in bed, then in the evening we found a luxury hotel to spend at entire day's budget dining and wining at.
The next day was our last full day with Lindsay and Sam before they returned north and Holly and I continued south to Mumbai. We all had dinner at a place called Savage Garden then stocked up on beer and wine and headed back to our hotel to drink on our daybeds. A few hours later we went out in search of clandestine alcohol and found a rooftop restaurant which served off-menu beers. We were hungry but the kitchen had just shut. Undeterred, Sam volunteered to go down
and make our food herself. The manager was later impressed enough to invite Sam to a cook-off with his regular chef.
The following day we fed our hangovers with chocolate balls from the hotel bakery and watched David Attenborough documentaries before Holly and I left for the train station. It's been fantastic travelling with Lindsay and Sam but for the last leg Holly and I travel on our own.
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