Jodhpur Delhi Train - November 27th

This is our last full day in India (although tomorrow will be all but 20 minutes in India).  We are getting the train back to Delhi at 20:00 but before that we still have some time to spare in Jodhpur.  I had wanted to go to the Umaid Bahwan palace, the last of the Rajasthani palaces built just before Indian independence (and therefore opulent on a twentieth century scale) but apparently most of it is either a hotel that has a cover charge to enter, or the current Maharaja’s living quarters.

However I got outvoted by Dorota who wanted to go on a trip around some rural villages to the south.  This trip takes us to the Bishnoi, a small group of villages that are regarded as ultra-ecologists.  Not only do the not kill animals, they don’t cut down trees.  In fact 363 of them lost their lives 302 years ago defending a grove of trees from the woodcutters sent to get wood for the fort’s construction.  Naturally we go to see the monument marking this sacrifice.  As this is an area where animals thrive, we also get to do a little safari, and see some birds and antelope.

After that we visit a number of villages where we see different traditional crafts, milling flour, pottery, carpet weaving, being performed.  Due to our stomachs’ weakened condition we forgo the locally cooked lunch, however we are feeling better so after when we get back into town we go back to the market to the Omelette man, a world famous street food vendor who only sells very good omelette sandwiches.

The rest of the evening is spent in our hotel catching up on sorting out our photos and getting up to date with our blogs.  After dinner, where we venture back onto Indian food for the first time in 3 days, we go to the train station to board our train to Delhi.  Unlike the one from Mumbai to Goa our tourist status doesn’t see us in with other tourists (we couldn’t see any on the platform) but in with the military.  We are sharing a compartment with a man from the Air Force and the wife of an Army Captain and her 6 month old son.  He is actually a very calm child, so sleep actually is easy to achieve once we are on the move. 

Jodhpur - November 26th

The main sight in Jodhpur is hard to miss; it is the massive Mehrangarh fort on a hill which dominates all views, especially the one from our hotel, which is right underneath it.  So much so that when we leave the hotel after breakfast to go up to the fort, we find ourselves in it about 3 minutes later.  Our hotel is very conveniently located for sightseeing.

The fort itself is spectacular, more for its physical setting than its interiors, which although good, are not that different from those we have seen before in Jaipur and Udaipur.  However the forts location is amazing.  Just as it can be seen from all over town, so it gives views across the town.  What is most impressive is the way the walls rise out of sheer cliffs to make an impenetrable fortress.  The stone used in the walls was chopped away from the slopes below to make the cliffs.  The tour around the fort is quite good, as the audio tour is included in the price so you get a lot of historical background and hear from the Maharaja himself. 

The tour goes through most of the main parts of the structure, some of which also double as a museum.  The museum shop at the end of the tour is surprisingly well stocked, most of the time they haven’t been that great.  After the tour you can still walk on a portion of the ramparts and look down on the city, although the views from some of the windows in the buildings were actually better.  As well as the fort there is a temple (where unfortunately 241 people were killed in a stampede at a festival in 2008) and a cenotaph where a number of previous Maharajas are buried, o it take a large part of the day to explore it all.

As evening falls we descend the other side of the fort into the main part of the town, the market around the clock tower.  This is the usual chaos we have come to expect from markets, and in fact is so bad that we retreat into a coffee house for a drink, and then we decide to forgo eating out and watching sunset from a rooftop restaurant on this side of town, for the same experience in our own restaurant which is in a relatively calm spot.

Jodhpur - November 25th

Despite our bad experience with the bus to Udaipur we are taking a bus out of Udaipur as well.  This is not because we couldn’t book a train, but because no train goes from Udaipur to our next destination, Jodhpur.  However this time getting to the bus proved to be easier, because we organised the ticket through our hotel, so they knew exactly where to drop us.  Unlike our other bus there were also a few other tourists waiting when we arrived which made us feel a lot better.

The departure itself was actually quite punctual, we pulled off at 07:30 on the dot.  However there were the usual stops to pick up people as we left the city, but still it wasn’t that full as we left Udaipur.  The first 2 hours of the journey were back up the same road we had come down the previous trip, but in the daylight we seemed to make a lot better time than we previously had.  However we had to turn off the main road to cut across country to another main road, and that is when the road ran out.  It was pretty bumpy, although not the worst bus journey I’ve ever had.  This section, although maybe only 60-70km took almost 2 ½ hours.  Finally we reached the other main road, and again proceeded at a decent pace, except now I was suffering from another occurrence of Delhi belly and I was counting down the kilometres to Jodhpur.  Amazingly this bus arrived dead on time at 14:00 in Jodhpur.

When we go to Jodhpur we were treated to the sight of the tuk-tuk drivers actually fighting over who gets to pick up the tourists from the bus.  It was a bit scary, but then out of the blue appears a guy with Dorota’s name on the back of a business card from the hotel we had booked.  They had sent a tuk-tuk driver to pick us up, and I don’t think we were ever so grateful.

Between the drive, and the lack of sleep due to our illnesses last night, we were so tired we just crashed in the hotel when we arrived.  We even stayed in for dinner that evening, although it has to be said that alone was doing one of the things to do in Jodhpur, looking up at the fort from a hotel rooftop restaurant.

Udaipur - November 24th

I am still feeling the effects of the Delhi Belly this morning, but it appears to be receding.  After a plain breakfast of omelette and toast we return to the city palace to do some more sightseeing.  However on the way we stop for a Diet Coke and coffee at a nice coffee shop, and we get talking to an English lady who has lived here for 22 years.  We learn 3 things, first the electricity outage will be from 11:00 until 14:00 today, second there was a riot in the centre of town two days previously (right where we had been doing some shopping earlier) and third, where to get the best thalis in town.

Incorporating this last piece of information into our plans we walk through the city palace grounds (being carefully stewarded by attendants around the luxury hotels – we are riff raff in comparison) to see the Maharaja’s classic car collection.  It does take a bit of finding, the walk is not well signposted, but as we know most tourists either get a tuk-tuk here or are chauffeured in their private jeeps/buses.  The collection itself is not brilliant, but it does have a few classics, including one that was used in Octopussy.

After this we go to the restaurant for the thali.  A thali is basically an Indian all you can eat with many different dishes.  This one is very good, but as we are in a place only Indians usually venture, it is also very hot.  Still we eat a fair amount, and it is very good value.

However almost immediately we get back to our hotel we begin to feel the effects of the thali.  While it may be good for the locals and 22 year expats, for us it is a bit too much, and so we are confined to bed again.  In total we have spent a high proportion of our time in Udaipur in bed (or on the toilet) but to be honest after the previous week and a half of travel and sightseeing, having a few days rest is not necessarily a bad thing.

Udaipur - November 23rd

Today for the first time we have had the appearance of the dreaded Delhi belly.  Dorota has actually had a cold for a couple of days due mostly to the change to the dry climate of Rajasthan, but today I have definitely come down with Delhi belly.  The day started normally enough, with breakfast in our restaurant terrace, but it wasn’t too long before the stomach cramps appeared (and all ensuing consequences, I will leave out the gory details).

Nonetheless I still felt well enough to continue with our plan which was to go for a quick walk to the second lake in Udaipur, which is one that not many tourists get to.  It turns out that the map we have isn’t to scale, and so it is further than it looks.  Also not helping is the fact that any locals we ask don’t seem to know where it is even though it is a giant lake about 5 minutes away from where they are standing.  Still we get there, look around, and leave somewhat unimpressed.  Our real reason for this walk is that we are waiting for the electricity to come back on in Udaipur, it is off from 08:00 to 11:00 each morning due to power generation supply issues, so we can use the internet (to finalise our Vietnam trip details).

In the afternoon we pay a visit to the City Palace museum, another of the many palaces we are visiting this week.  This one is slightly better organised with a one way system and plenty of stewards, as the local Maharaja himself still runs the whole complex.  It is a bit feudal, although no more so than a stately home in England, but it works and is worth the money (even the camera charge).  However I begin to fell unwell again as we finish, so we don’t go to see sunset from the palace grounds.

After I sleep a little we go for the highlight of an Udaipur visit, the Octopussy film show.  Most restaurants will play this every night, because it is the film that put Udaipur on the map.  90% of the film’s Indian scenes were filmed here, and so everybody who comes here has to watch it, whether you’ve never seen it (like Dorota) or have many times (like me), as there are extra things to notice now you’ve seen the sights yourself.

Udaipur - November 22nd

Because of our late arrival last night we sleep on a bit today and also have a late start.  Even at that late hour last night I think we were able to appreciate the view we had of the lake, but only in the daylight can we really see what a view we have.  Udaipur is built around a man-made lake and has two islands in it with palaces (now hotels).  From our hotel room we have a view of both these islands, and the much bigger city palace (also partially hotels) which stretches along the opposite side of the lake.  We really are in our friend Karl Pilkington’s territory, the view from our cheap room of their hotels has to be better than the view of our cheap hotel from their rooms.

After breakfast we go for an explore of Udaipur.  In truth it doesn’t take too long, because unlike other cities we have visited the tourist area is actually quite compact, with all the main sights and the touristy shops, restaurants and hotels all within 10 minutes’ walk of each other.   By lunchtime we have covered most of the main streets, and we go for a lunch in a little local place overlooking the footbridge that joins the two sides of the lake.

After that we are still taking the afternoon easy.  Our room is set up to make it easy to just sit and read or look out at the passing traffic over the footbridge (which does consist of a lot of cows).  In order to get a good view of sunset we go for the Lonely Planet’s recommended rooftop restaurant overlooking the lake.  This is beautiful, but expensive, my Kingfisher beer costs almost the same as back in London.

Our evening finishes with some Rajasthani folklore dancing.  Those who know me will know I normally avoid these shows like the plague, but after getting out of some in the Balkans, I have to give in this time.  It was a bit strange, a lot of women dancing around with things balanced on their heads, as the dances are all based on household chores.  Unfortunately I found this to be a bit reflective of some of the sexism I have noticed during our trip.  Even the puppetry had the female characters portrayed in a pretty bad light.

Udaipur - November 21st

Today we are getting a bus to Udaipur, which is an eight hour journey away.   Originally we were supposed to be getting a train, but in all the hassle at Delhi station this was the one train we couldn’t get a reservation for.  So instead we are getting a private bus.  Private busses are supposed to be faster and more comfortable than state busses, but they do have reliability issues.

The timing of our trip is supposed to be the bus leaving at 13:30 and arriving in Udaipur at 22:00, giving us a leisurely morning to pack and do some more internet.  The place from where the bus is leaving is a bit out of the way, vaguely described as opposite Sun and Moon tower, but the drop off organised by our hotel finds it, and there is a bus from our bus company there.  However there is no driver.  This is at 13:00, so by 13:15 we decide to call the company to find out what’s happening.  This is where they then tell us that we should go to opposite some cinema for the pick-up.

So now we are in a frantic rickshaw dash to get our bus.  We get to the place they told us to go to only to find no bus.  After another phone call, and some helpful intervention from a passer-by (as we could no longer understand the guy on the other end of the phone) we end up back in another rickshaw, and back almost where we started.  We were probably only 300m away the first time, but we had travelled about 5km around the city before getting there.  Even though it was now 13:55 there was no chance of the bus leaving without us, it doesn’t more until 14:10 and then with many more stops we aren’t really on our way until close to 15:00.

All this wouldn’t have been too bad if it wasn’t for the discovery just after we start moving, that during all the rushing about in rickshaws, my sunglasses have fallen out of my bag, and are gone.  So this has turned out to be a very expensive journey.  The journey itself is OK, but slow, so that we are not in Udaipur until midnight.  But our hotel is very nice and have waited up for us so we just go straight to bed.