To Udaipur and back

September 7, 2016

On Saturday we left at 8:45: Ron, Sankar, Rahul and me. Sankar showered after cleaning the Badlani’s car and wore his new clothes we had given him for Diwali which is next month. It was supposed to be a 4.5 hr trip to Udaipur in Rajasthan. We arrived at 3:00. We stopped for tea and I wanted Sankar to get something to eat as all of us except him had had breakfast. Alas this shop didn’t serve food so we had tea then drove until we found a hotel and he and Rahul ate a lunch as it was now almost noon. Neither Ron nor I were hungry at this point after having a great French toast breakfast at home.

Along the way I observed groups of men walking on the road with red sashes tied around their waists. Rahul said these are pilgrims who will walk for 12-15 days to a particular temple (Hindu) and locals will feed them along the way as most are poor with no jobs. We also saw women who were carrying large bunches of greenery that they feed to their cows, but don't have grazing land for them, so they have to collect it daily for them.

We drove a bit more then let Sankar off at a town where he could take a bus to his village…near to a town as you have to walk in a km or two to get there. This is the reason we didn’t go with him to see his village. We could only assume the road there would be rough at best. This part of Rajasthan is beautiful with rolling hills, mountains in the distance and lush vegetation and trees. Near the peak of the pass there were granite and marble mining operations. 

Along the way I read the Times of India that a sick cow had been taken to a vet who operated on the cow and found 100 kilos (220 pounds) of GARBAGE in her stomach: nails, screws, plastic bags, wire and clothes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a crime and so sad.

We arrived in Udaipur and started asking for directions. OY! The streets are so narrow and oh so congested. We stopped frequently but ended up getting on one way streets, getting to blocked streets as they were filming a movie ,etc. We finally hired a rickshaw driver to lead us to a landmark near our hotel. From there a young man on a motorcycle led us the rest of the way. This town is more like a rabbit warren than a city with parallel/perpendicular streets. 

This all took over an hour and I thought Ron was going to jump out of his skin with
frustration with the traffic and driving. But we made it to a lovely small older hotel which we really liked. There was some confusion at check in but it all got worked out. By then we are starving and the manager offered to make us lunch…10 minutes he said… so we looked at a menu and ordered…then a staff member went to buy the ingredients. At a bit after 4:00 we got our lunch.

The hotel has been decorated with textiles and crafts from Rajasthan. All the walls and table tops had patchwork textiles tastefully done. In addition our room had some metalwork pieces. This town sells miniature paintings and these patchwork textiles and every other shop has the same items in different sizes and colors having the effect of making them common place and no longer very special.

We walked around town. The town is built around a large artificial lake and it is a lovely setting. I was amazed at how little litter there is here and the lake was clean except in coves where trash get trapped but even that was not bad for India. We were delighted to discover that we were quite close to the center of old town where all the sights were. We walked 10-15 minutes and were right in the center of things. 

Ahmedabad is not a tourist town. Udaipur is a tourist town and what a difference. For starters Udaipur is much cleaner and the bad news is about every third person on the street was a tout wanting us to ‘to come see my shop’ ‘no pressure to buy’. So every third step someone was talking you up or pulling your arm leading the way to his shop. After three days of this I was ready to scream and it had the effect of not wanting to buy anything. Because the town is old the streets are quite narrow and there are no sidewalks so you walk in the street along with scads of tourists and locals, many motorcycles, bikes, cows, cars and mini trucks as large trucks can’t fit on these streets. Frankly it was a zoo.

For dinner we walked about three minutes from our hotel to an upscale 350 year old heritage hotel that has been fully restored and ate at their outside restaurant that is surrounded by the lake and gives a view of the old town across the water. Ron had forgotten his camera and I told him we could order then he could get his camera since we were so close. The ambiance couldn’t have been better, very romantic and the food was okay but nothing special. Gujarat is a dry state but not Rajasthan so Ron had a beer, his first since he left the US in late March. Rahul told us later he had two beers with his meal.

After our meal we walked to the end of the walk over the water where locals were enjoying their evening. It is cooler here and there was a constant breeze coming off the lake. There were about 12-15 young men singing Bollywood songs and one of them was playing a guitar. We stopped and listened to them for 15-20 minutes and enjoyed watching them and seeing how much fun they were having.

Sunday

Today was sight seeing day. We woke up at 6:00 and took off around 7:00. It was very quiet that time of day with very little happening. We were snagged by a tout so visited his miniature painting gallery and spent a long time there but were not sure of his prices. There was pressure to buy but Ron refused…thank goodness.  We enjoyed walking around waiting for our café to open at 8:30.  We walked across the foot bridge to old town in search of Café Edelweiss. Doesn’t that conger up a quaint café with blue and white curtains and fresh baked goods? This is India not Germany or Austria so it looked like India…in need of paint for starters and a good cleaning with some bleach perhaps. We choose this place because they have espresso and cinnamon rolls. There were two left, yesterday’s rolls and weak espresso and fried eggs. The best part was the dining area had seven small tables. We sat one row back from the street so we could observe daily life but not be right next to the street. We were inside the building but the exterior wall was a metal door that retracted and lefts the café completely open to the street.

A vegetable vendor pulled his cart up to the house across from us and started selling his goods. Then a motorcycle drove up on our side of the street and honked his horn loudly. He had two large milk cans strapped on each side of his bike. I looked over and he had filled a small stainless bucket with fresh milk and someone from the second story was hauling the bucket upstairs and off he drove. Talk about home delivery! Next we saw a public works guy with a low wheel barrow coming down the lane. He was collecting garbage. He wasn’t driving a big truck as it wouldn’t fit on the lane but he emptied garbage cans into the wheel barrow and headed off to the next house or shop.

We met Rahul at the ticket counter of the City Palace Museum at 9:30 and stayed until 11:20. What a treat. The façade is 244 m long and 30 meters high. Construction was started in 1599 by Maharana Udai Singh II, the founder of the city. It later became a conglomeration of structures including 11 smaller palaces. An original structure was extended by various maharanas. In one area ’there are eight arches on the left to commemorate eight times maharanas were weighed here and their weight in gold or silver was distributed to the lucky locals.’

As we entered there was a staff member checking tickets and he

had a most magnificent moustache. I asked him how long it took him to make it look like that. He starting telling me the entire process including what substances were required. It takes 30 minutes every morning but what an authentic look. Many of the portraits of the maharanas sported similar moustaches.  There were beautiful tiles throughout the palace as well as other artifacts. There was mirror work that was unbelievable. At one point Ron took a photo of our portrait in a mirrored wall. Some rooms had every inch covered with mirrors. There were courtyards with wonderful views of the lake on one side and city on the other. There were exquisite mosaics of peacocks, a favorite bird in Rajasthan.

Afterwards we stopped at a café on the grounds and enjoyed people watching  while cooling off under a large umbrella with pleasant breezes and chilled water that cost almost eight times the normal price. Ron and I went back to the hotel to rest before lunch. 

After a rest we dashed back into town and ate a quick lunch before meeting up with Rahul and heading to the Bagore-ki Haveli. This gracious 18^th century home of a prime minister sits on the edge of the lake. There are 138 rooms. The haveli has been partially restored but after seeing the palace it seemed dowdy. There was a large room with scads of puppets and my favorite was a turban room filled with examples of many types of turbans made of various materials and various styles of wrapping. Turbans can represent caste, religion, and social standing. The room contained ‘the world’s largest turban’, 100 ft long and I forgot the weight but I think is was 60 lbs. It looks an awful lot like a coiled boa constrictor to me.

On the way back to our hotel we stopped by two restaurants to look at their breakfast menus. I noticed two hand pumped wells where people came to get their water. I have not seen this in Ahmedabad but it may be that this is a smaller older part of the city without regular water services. Once again I got my dander up when I saw a cow eating paper off a display of paintings on paper outside a shop. .

Again we rested then the three of us took a tri-shaw to the ‘rope way’, a cable car that takes us up a steep hill for sunset pictures and terrific views of the area. Rahul had never ridden in a cable car/funicular but seemed comfortable with the experience. When we arrived there was a line to get on the cars. Rahul seemed impatient and asked about the line. It only took 20 minutes to get to the front. Once it was our turn to line up for the loading of the car Rahul wanted to go to the other side and had an argument with the staff. He turned to Ron and said ‘I don’t think this is a good group to be with’. He was talking about others who were moving to get ready. It surprised both of us that he objected. It wasn’t as though they were dirty or poor or whatever but he didn’t want to be in the same car. As it turned out we had two Koreans who are working for a large Indian firm in our car and one Rajasthani man with his daughter, all very nice folks.

Once up top there was a large flat surface for viewing the 360 degree views. Ron and Rahul took photos. We had a wait for the sunset but again there was great people watching. Ron got some great sunset photos and we came back to town via another tri-shaw. 

We decided to go straight to dinner rather than going back to the hotel. We have decided on a place earlier in the day. After we walked to it we discovered it had closed and the owner retired…wish he had taken down all those signs that pointed to his restaurant .but we still wouldn’t have known it was closed until we got there. So we walked around looking for our second choice. This took some doing with lots of up and down lanes before we finally found it. Bummer, they were having some special event with the red carpet laid out with the traditional marigolds all along the edges and we were told we could not dine at their restaurant that night. No riff raff I guess. Damn, I was tired and hungry. We opted for an outdoor simple café on the water’s edge near our hotel. The meal was cheap and the food was mediocre. Hey I feel anytime we can travel, eat and not get sick we are doing well!

Home to bed and the next day we got up, had breakfast at another café this time over looking the lake from the rooftop restaurant. We had delicious espresso drinks, toast and fried eggs. Rahul wanted to stay and clean the car while we took in the Crystal Gallery above the famous Durbar reception hall that is part of the palace.

We took a tri-shaw there and back and the greatest part of that is we avoided all the touts! We couldn’t see the hall and gallery the previous day as there was an event in the hall. OMG. This restored hall is one of India’s most impressive halls. The reception hall had three chandeliers that weighed a ton each, beautiful paintings, portraits, textiles, etc. Then we went upstairs to the Crystal Gallery. In 1877 Marharana Sajjan Singh ordered this rare crystal from the Osler Company in England. He died at 25 before it arrived and it was stored all packed up for over a century. This incredible collection includes beds made of crystal, crystal tables, chairs, sofas, and lamps, dishes glasses etc. It was mind boggling and a feast for our eyes. We have travel extensively and have never seen a collection like this one. No photos were allowed; we even had to turn in our cell phones and cameras before entering. Although there was a relatively steep charge to see this it was well worth it.

Before leaving I bought one of the metal sculptures in our room. I loved that I didn’t have to go into a shop. We left at 10:45 and arrived home at 4:00, stopping for petrol and for lunch. 

We often spied overloaded vehicles carrying way too many passengers making the vehicle unstable. At times there would be 20+ people in a vehicle designed for eight passengers.

We asked Rahul to take a day off this week to compensate for being with us all weekend. He gets Sundays off normally. He refused saying he didn’t want to cause Ron any inconvenience. We said that Ron taking a tri-shaw one day wasn’t a problem but he is stubborn working for two stubborn people and refused to do as asked. He also said that he would never have the opportunity to travel like this and to see these sights given his income and his financial obligations. He said he really enjoyed being able to travel with us.