So the next bit of our India trip starts with Jodphur. We arrived from Jaisalmer after another long drive in the afternoon. After dumping our bags in the hotel, the driver took us into the town centre. Here we wondered around the streets and climbed up the clock tower. We were more going up the clock tower for the view, but once you get to the top you’re actually in the clock itself. There’s a little old guy up there with bright orange henna hair inviting you to climb up on a dodgy platform made of rickety wood to see all the mechanisms of the clock. It was pretty cool to see all the little ticking bits and be right up there in it – not that I understood what any of the cogs and wheels and other stuff did. After the clock tower, we went to a shop full of spices where we got to smell all different kinds of Indian spice and incense and have a look around buying gifts. We also went to a big textile and stone warehouse where the owner was very proud of himself showing us his picture in an American magazine and all these French catalogues. Trying to sell us scarves that were around £200 were maybe just a bit out of our budget though. We had a browse and it was all fun until we saw a rat running above the shelves!
That evening our driver took us to a pretty posh restaurant by Indian standards which was nice and relaxing having air con and wooden chairs and tables rather than plastic chairs and the odd mouse running about! Though we both agreed that the food wasn’t that great for a place a bit more expensive (more expensive as in we paid about £7 for a 3 course meal) – the food in the places where decor and comfort is questionable has been far far tastier!! The next day we got up and went to one of the main sights in Jodphur, the Mehrangarh Fort. According to Shiri our driver, this is the most impressive fort in Rajasthan and so far I’d have to agree with him. The place is huge and very intricately designed, we got an audio tour around which was good to go our own pace. It poured most of the time though so we were drenched going around! The majority of the people at the fort were Indian tourists, so we got A LOT of stares. Lots of really creepy looking men wanting photos with me which I didn’t really fancy. If it was a woman or some teenage girls (who tend to just giggle and wave) I wouldn’t have minded but after about 10 minutes of some weird looking guy intensely staring at my chest I didn’t really feel too photographic. Celebrity status wears you down! Haha but at least those ones asked, a few took sneaky ones of me while I was standing opposite them only to be caught out when they realised their volume was still on and then received the mother of all evils from Steve and me. It’s kind of creepy! I know it’s innocent enough (I hope) but it’s weird all the same.
Anyway, Jodphur is known as the Blue City as many of its buildings and houses are a bright blue colour. The view from the fort was incredible and it was amazing to see a whole city so brightly decorated. After our tour of the fort we went to Umaid Bhavan Palace. This palace was built a long time ago by the first king of Jodphur and the current king still lives there. It has also been converted into a 5 star hotel and a museum. So we went and took a look around the museum, seeing the vintage cars and learning the history of its structure. The first maharajah was really into aviation; so Jodphur actually had India’s first international aerodrome, not Delhi. The whole thing didn’t even reach £100,000 in today’s money to build – wonder what it would cost now!
After looking round the rain was still pouring so we headed back to the hotel for a bit. That evening we had checked for good restaurants in Jodphur on trip advisor so we asked the driver to take us to the no 1 voted place. He didn’t know where it was so we google mapped it and headed off. We didn’t quite realise though that it would be situated down tiny narrow alleyways right in the busy centre. The streets could only really fit a tuk tuk down, so getting the car down there was pretty stressful. After about 20 minutes we were lost, getting beeped at from every angle and then to top it off the car hit a bump and we started to get a flat tyre. Finally, we managed to figure out where we were and Steve and I walked to this restaurant that couldn’t be more difficult to find! After all this faff, we were expecting great things but was definitely a bit disappointed! The restaurant was above a guest house on a dingy rooftop. We were given a soaking wet table and pretty bleh food. But of course we told the driver it was amazing so that the drive was worth the while! No idea how it got voted no 1!
The next day we started one of the longest drives we’ve had to Udaipur. The last time I came to India, Udaipur was my favourite place that we visited so I was really excited. To break up the long drive we went to a really famous Jain temple about 90km outside of The city. Jains are a form of Hindu religion (I think) that believe every living thing is sacred, practice non violence and in general seem like chilled out people. However when we arrived I don’t think I’ve ever got more death stares! Ste was wearing shorts which wasn’t allowed, after changing twice they finally and reluctantly accepted his outfit. Once again the monsoon was hitting so the driver lent us his broken umbrella which doesn’t go down. Once we got up the temple steps the woman security guard told us to leave it outside, so we placed it down and she picked it back up and practically threw it at me. I told her it was broken and it won’t go down and I literally thought she might punch me in the face. She finally got over it and we went in. The temple itself really was incredible, it was absolutely huge and filled with domed ceilings, pillars and statues all of which were carved to the most amazing detail. We got an audio guide tour around and it explained to us all of the little things, like how the whole thing is perfectly symmetrical but if you look closely there is one pillar that is slightly wonky. You walk past barely giving it a second thought but apparently it is there to act as an evil eye amongst the symmetry as a warning.
After walking around the temple we got back to driving the last leg of this journey. By now the rain was really pummelling down and as we attempted to drive there I definitely did fear for our lives a bit. The rain was causing waterfalls that you could see gushing down the mountains into the roads and huge chunks of mountain and trees had collapsed into the middle of the roads too. The road itself was narrow and full of sharp bends and blind corners. The windscreen had fully fogged up and our drivers solution was just to wipe the bit in front of his face with his hand. But we made it! We didn’t make it until early evening though so we didn’t do any exploring of Udaipur that night. I hadn’t eaten curry since my last trauma (I’ve been trying the Indian attempts at pastas and soups), the smell of it was enough to make me wretch but once we were at the hotel, curry was all that was on offer. I actually quite fancied a curry now and was feeling brave so we both got one and hurray no illnesses!
Udaipur is a small city so is easy to walk around and so I was quite excited to have a day away from the driving and do some proper exploring and getting lost ourselves. The next day we first headed to Jagdish Temple which seemed very small in comparison to the one we had seen the day before. But it was a temple in use, not so much a museum which was more fun. We walked up the steps and there are about 30 men and women sitting in the centre. They are dressed in such bright colours (the colours the women wear in Rajasthan are amazing, they are so bright and pretty!) and singing and playing all these instruments. It was really cool to see everything so lively and vibrant.
Next we went to the City Palace and bought a tour guide to take us round which was really great. This guy even spoke to me too! A privilege. Udaipur is known as the White City and the views from the palace were once again amazing. It looks over Lake Pichola, a huge man made lake with palaces and hotels in the middle and has huge mountain ranges in the distance -probably the most picturesque view we’ve seen. We learnt all about the royal heritage of the palace and saw the most amazing rooms, decorations, designs and paintings. I didn’t really recognise the palace at first but then we walked into certain rooms and it clicked “yep definitely been here before!” “had a picture over there last time!” So that was a bit weird but pretty cool to still remember bits and see them again.
After the city palace we went for lunch on a roof top cafe, got our wifi fix and headed out again. I wanted to go a folk museum where they had different music, instruments, dancing and puppets so we hired a tuk tuk to take us there as it was a bit of a walk. Tuk tuk driving is definitely an experience that I remember from the last time I came! The drivers are insane and this tuk tuk was no exception, we went the wrong way down big highways for short cuts, nearly ran people over and had a few near crashes along the way. It was fun though! But when we arrived the museum was shut. The security guard outside told us it was something to do with the government so we had to head back to where we started – still we got the tuk tuk experience!!
So the rest of the afternoon we spent wondering in and out of shops. Udaipur is famous for its arts and crafts so there was plenty to look around. We went into book binding shops where we bought these handmade books made of camel skin. It’s just fun to see the people actually making them right in front of you. We went into many art shops where the art was amazing, but pretty pricy! Also there were just draws and draws full of the paintings which they had supposedly got from local villagers, we didn’t actually see any of it getting done. Then we walked into a side alley and found this tiny shop hidden behind a curtain. Here there was a husband and wife artist team that were painting away. The paintings were all a bit different too, a bit quirky. For £1.50 I didn’t buy the highest quality thing there but it’s something unique at least! A painted elephant on government paper, so there are all these cool stamps and symbols all over it. Ste bought a few other bits as we went along and I even bought a pair of Indian shoes. Each shoe doesn’t have a certain foot to go on – how weird is that?! After our shopping spree, we got some dinner (another curry, getting brave now!) which was really good. I had a Paneer tikka masala, so like chicken tikka masala but with cottage cheese instead. The only thing I 100% wasn’t keen on was the mouse that kept running about the floor! I screamed like a little girl.
That evening we had planned to go to a haveli in the town and watched some entertainment that is put on daily. However when we got here it had been cancelled which was disappointing. It turns out all these things were shut because India’s old president had just died. Our driver told us about it the day before but we didn’t think much of it, but they must have been in mourning or something I don’t really know. Still we had a great day and Udaipur remains my favourite so far!
So the next morning we started our next trek to Pushkar, a small holy village about 6 hours away. We didn’t arrive until late afternoon and because I had to use up an extra night when I was poorly in Bikaner, we only had 1 night here so we were keen to get going and look around. We were told it would be a nice chilled out town but it certainly wasn’t when we arrived! There were hundreds and hundreds of Indian tourists and it was later explained to us that we had arrived on a very lucky day, it was the full moon and the festival of a Hindu god so celebrations were in full swing. We were warned by Shiri about the Brahmas, holy men who would bless all your family and then ask you for a ridiculous amount of money. We walked into the town and headed towards the lake (there’s only really the lake and temple to see in Pushkar) and fell for the holy men scam straight away haha. It wasn’t too bad though, they separated me and Steve and we each had our own guy to pray for us and our families, make us chant and go through all the flower throwing rituals etc. They also gave us nice massive bindis that you couldn’t miss. After a while of him trying to persuade me to give him £30, we settled for £2.50 instead. After being blessed and cleansed and rid of my karma and all that other junk we went back into the city and tried to weave our way through the crowds to the temple. The whole thing was pretty spectacular when you took a step back, the decorations, the colours – everything was just so vivid and alive. We finally made it to the temple where we had to leave our shoes on the street and I was so convinced that they wouldn’t be there when we returned! We climbed up the steps and saw crowds of people praying, singing, dancing, donating, kissing statues all sorts. There was even a TV crew there! We had been given handfuls of flowers and sugar on the way up that we then had to go round and donate to each statue or symbol. It was quite funny watching some of the Hindus: when we got to the main alter bit (definitely not an alter, but I don’t know what the Hindu kind of word for it is) you gave in your sugar which I think is a sign of good luck and there is a guy there monitoring how much everyone puts in. The old lady in front of me suddenly whips out this giant bag and tries to tip the whole thing out. The guy grabbed the bag and threw it at her, obviously telling her to stop. She looks all sorry and takes the bag back and just as she turns to leave she turns back and pours the rest out before he could do anything. He went mental and she looked so cheeky it was pretty funny!
We went back down the stairs to find our shoes which were thankfully still there and wondered back down the streets that had now started to quieten down a bit. I really wanted to get some henna painting done and as we walked along we found a barber and massage shop that offered it. I went in and the guy went and grabbed his daughter who got to work on my hand. In the meantime, he kept trying to offer Steve a shave. He refused and so the barber then went on to promoting his massages and eventually Ste gave in and got a head and shoulder massage. In the end he loved it so much he got 2! After, we called our driver who took us back to the hotel where we got some dinner and went to bed before our next drive to Jaipur.
Getting here was our shortest drive so far – only 3 hours! When we arrived we tried to book our train tickets to Varanasi but they’re booked up until the 21st August! We’ve looked at flights and it’s just not possible with our budget so unfortunately that’s off the cards. So rather than hang about in horrible Delhi for 5 days we’ve changed our flights and we’re now heading to Sri Lanka early. I’ll update you on Jaipur and the last leg of our India adventure in the next post.
Lots of love!
Abby Goes Travelling! 