Thursday, 12 March 2015

Udaipur

We started our train journey from Jaipur to Udaipur at 6.45 am, after an energetic workout of running up and down platforms with our bags trying to find platform 2A or 9 ¾ or something. But we made it. Then we perched nervously on the train, aware we only should be taking up one seat and being uncertain what the ticket inspector would say, our only plan being to act like ditzy tourists. Then we heard the thud of heavy footsteps and he appeared in front of us with a stern face. We showed him the reservation which also had the waitlisted ticket, squeaked something about the lady at the station saying it was okay, and fumbling around for our wallets ready for some serious bribing. After a few moments of frowning at his clipboard, he turned and walked away without saying anything. 

Assuming that meant we were not getting thrown off the train, we breathed a sigh of relief and settled in for the seven hour journey. As we hadn’t had time for breakfast, we had brought with us some snacks for the train which consisted of 2 packets of crisps and a few packets of biscuits, so basically the nutritional value of dirt. On the seat opposite us there was an elderly lady and her daughter who had been a lot more prepared and made themselves a picnic which they spread out on some newspaper on the seat. They looked at us with pitiful eyes and offered us some leftover chapatis which we gratefully took. The journey continued pretty uneventfully.

We had booked a hotel in Udaipur at the extortionate rate of £4 a night. When checking the reviews, one stuck out in which the person stated they didn’t like the hotel as there was a cow at the front, and a not nice lady. But a nice man. True enough, as we entered the hotel the infamous cow was indeed there, and a stern faced lady grunted to us and gestured us up the stairs. As we reached the top of the stairs, a jovial man sprung up and greeted us, stating that if there was anything we needed we could ask him at any time. Seems like a pretty accurate review of the place.

Unfortunately Jonno had now become jealous that I had had so much time being unwell, and felt that it was now his turn to develop an illness, a cold of some sorts. So after a lot of sneezing and nose blowing I sent him to rest in the hotel room, and decided to explore of the area. I had been to Udaipur a few years ago so had an idea what to expect. Unfortunately being a western woman in India does attract a lot of attention from Indian men, and even more so when I was on my own. Fortunately Udaipur is a touristy area so although I had to fend off a few of the market stall owners along the way, there were also other travelers to divert their attention to. I finally managed to find what I was looking for- a bookshop. As my e-reader came to its demise over a month ago, I am back to relying on good old paper books but now need to find a way of swapping over the old ones so I have a supply of reading material. I assumed that as a second hand book costs about £1 in a charity shop in England, a second hand book in India should cost about 10p. However, the bookstore owner had another tactic of selling his pre-owned books for half the UK retail price which he managed to locate on the back, so the books were not very cheap after all. 

Opticians here also seem to sell used false teeth


I went back to check on Jonno and as he was feeling a bit better we went to find something to eat. We managed to find a restaurant which looked like the chillout area in a trance club, and as trance music is best known for its healing qualities, settled there for a while.


We spent the next day relaxing in a café by the river and taking a boat trip. Udaipur is a very pretty place, and is set along the river with many grand buildings and fancy hotels. It also has lots of rooftop restaurants with views of the river, a great place to spend time reading and enjoying the sunshine. The Indian locals also spend time by the river, and you can see the ladies washing their clothes in the river and gossiping with each other, the young men bathing in the water and the old men sat at the riverside playing card games, which can get quite heated. We found a great rooftop restaurant and although most of the items were a bit out of our price range, we could get a big pot of tea for 80p and drag this out for as long as possible while enjoying the views and the free wifi. They also had a mentally unstable pug dog who resided in the restaurant who liked to jump on us and snort over us and had it in for one particular cushion and spend most of the time trying to attack this cushion, but only succeeding in dribbling over it.





Old guys playing cards on the river bank

Real life Percy from Pocahontas



We had also managed to find somebody online who showed some interest in purchasing our poor little slow laptop which had been bullied and verbally abused by Jonno. We had negotiated a price and arranged to meet him in a café. After a wait of about 10 minutes, two timid teenagers turned up and declared themselves to be the potential buyers. There was some serious inspection of the goods and some more haggling, unfortunately not in our favour, and the boys agreed to buy it and said they would return in 15 minutes. Almost half an hour went by and eventually they reappeared with the money, the transaction happened and we left, thinking that was the last we would hear from them. A day later however we received a text message from their number, trying to make small talk and wishing us ‘good night and have lovely dreams’ when it got later. Not the usual ending to a business deal.



I had also managed to find a yoga class which I was quite pleased about. Any yoga class in India is a bit of a gamble, they can be amazing as India is the birthplace of yoga, but some of the instructors are not very good as instructors. I entered a large yoga hall with only one other person taking the class, generally not a good sign, and seated myself next to the interesting looking scene in the centre of the room. I then noticed the man sitting in the corner of the room playing a flute like instrument which he continued to do for another few minutes. Only then could the class begin. As good as the instructor was at yoga, his English was not that developed. He had learned a couple of phrases and managed to get through the whole class only using the words ‘roof’, ‘looking’ and ‘turn’, which he sang more than said, coming out as ‘rooooooof loooookkking, leg roooooof, aaaaand tuuuuurrnnnn’. We ended the class with some rolling around, making laughing sounds.

A zoo animal scene to enhance our yoga session


We also went to a rajhastani dance performance one evening, which is set in one of the old Haveli palaces. There were some pretty impressive dances with fire and balancing of items, and some beautiful and interesting costumes.

Dancing with fire


Traditional dance involving riding a man dressed as an animal

The easiest way to carry all your shopping home


Headless magician puppet



Even though we had enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Udaipur, it was time to get back on the road and face some more of the chaotic India. Our next stop, Jodhpur. 

Awesome guy I bumped into 
Udaipur sunset

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