We arrived in Udaipur at the beginning of April, after our last few relaxing months in South India; we prepared ourselves for the hustle and bustle of the Indian city and for the new found sights of Rajasthan. How pleasantly surprised we were when we arrived and found a different world to what we had prepared for and imagined, the city felt calm with an air of beauty around it. We arrived in the evening and came into the city with the sound of beautiful prayers and Indian music being played, I instantly felt I was in an Indian fairytale and could see why Rajasthan was described as the land of the kings and a place where maharajas once settled. We had planned two weeks for exploring Rajasthan, as mentioned in a previous post the weather was starting to bake during the day and between 12-5pm you really have to hide inside as its too hot to do anything, therefore we felt longer than two weeks maybe silly as we didn’t want to spend every afternoon inside when in beautiful India. We worked out where we both wanted to explore, due to Rajasthan being new to both of us and what we wanted out of this part of the trip. Rajasthan is full of forts, deserts, palaces and lakes and we knew our next few weeks would be filled with wonder and beauty.
Udaipur was our first stop in royal Rajasthan, we arrived at our guesthouse and secured a beautiful room looking out onto lake Pichola, (giving its name by the flooding of Pichola Village to make the lake, when thinking of a village at the bottom of a lake it always feels a bit fairy tale esk, as to think of hidden homes and another world once lived before the lake was made). Lake Pichola is the main attraction in Udaipur, all the hotels are centered around it and everywhere has roof top restaurants with the most magnificent views, luckily our new abode being one of these. We enjoyed our first fine feast on top of our guesthouse and felt very satisfied, taking in the sounds and sights before us preparing us for our next few days in this magical city. We secured three days in Udaipur and spent them mainly wandering around the streets purchasing lovely miniature Rajasthan art, buying beautiful home wares and generally just talking with locals and learning more about how the city works, we made friends with a little boy who was crying one morning as he wanted a banana and not an orange, Sam kindly went and purchased a banana for him and from this he and his family waved and smiled every morning at us when heading into the cities walls. We found an amazing spot for watching sunset with the locals and although the ever persistent ‘dress up as a prince photo’ was demanded we managed to enjoy the beauty of the sun setting over the land of fairytale dreams. We enjoyed wandering around the city palace and relaxing in the bathing room under the heat of the morning sun, sadly the palace is one of the main tourist hot spots so a number of tour operators work the floors with their translation and audio tapes, we jumped onto a couple of English tours but overall made up our own stories of the Maharaja that once lived there and took what we saw from the beauty of the Palace. My favorite room was the peacock room where magnificent tiled mosaics of peacocks stood strong on the walls making the room glisten and gleam from the vibrant colorful tiles. One afternoon we took some time out and went and lazed at a lovely hotel using the pool facilities, which was ever needed in the 40 degree heat. We used our second last evening to attend a cooking course that had been recommended to us by both our brothers and good friends, Shashi cooking class. We searched for where we thought she was based but found a derelict building with a haggard sign up, after speaking with a local business man he informed us she had moved and called her son who arranged the class for us. On arrival at Shashi home she informed us she had moved due to renovating works and was now renting this new flat (very different to the ‘typical’ Indian kitchen I had seen in family and friends photos) this place was a new build well to do spacious living area, we assumed the classes were paying off! I must admit I was a little nervous at the start of the class as didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out perfect and for the £6 we paid we definitely got our money’s worth. The class was made up of Sam and I and a group of others, we learnt how to cook so many different dishes but in the most simplest and basic form, it was great to be part of such a basic class but feeling that you were learning something new and exciting. We cooked nans, parathas and my favorite panner dishes, even being told how to make panner when home, (yes please), the energy was brilliant and it was such an experience to be part of. Shashi herself is an incredible woman and up to a number of years ago she couldn’t even speak English, after the death of her husband she started the cooking classes and now is one of the most recommended activities in Udaipur, her beauty is outstanding and her passion shines through as she teaches. When we finished the 5hrs of kitchen time we all sat down and embraced the feast we had just prepared, there was so much food it was a kings and queens feast and it was enjoyed just as much as cooking it had been.
With our time coming to an end we spent the following day walking the city and indulging in the splendor that had been given to us in our few days exploring Udaipur.
Our next stop on our Rajasthan trail was Pushkar, a good friend of mine had told me about the beauty Pushkar had to hold and my vision of this Aladdin like world with bazaars, lakes and religion was embraced into my mind, on reading up about Pushkar I read descriptions and similarities to that of Varanasi (another part of India in which we visited in 2011), Varanasi is a very religious part of India and my experience had been slightly surreal and daunting, the difference I read about Pushkar was that it was smaller and the element of death was not so prevalent as in Varanasi (people go here to die and are carried through the streets and burnt at the Ghats, meaning you see a lot of dead bodies, which is very moving but also for one who isn’t comfortable with death, it’s hard to cope with). We arrived in Pushkar in the evening, which I realized over the next two days is the best time to be in Pushkar, we headed to the lake and sat listening to the evening prayers, the sound was beautiful and so enchanting I felt I had just arrived in a land of an Indian fairy tale. We sat watching sunset around the lake for over an hour and the beauty of people bathing, believing and embracing one another was a very special moment, one I felt privileged to be able to watch and share. Our first full day in Pushkar we spent wandering the streets, looking at the local market stalls and hiding from the midday sun drinking cold coffees, the town is busy with tourists, shoppers and sellers during the day and has a completely different feel to that of an evening, it was great to be part of the hustle but with Pushkar being so small by the afternoon we were ready to head back to the lake as we had seen the sights of the town and enjoyed our bumble around. The lake again was as magical as the day before, this time we walked further around and enjoyed watching the scene from another lakeside angle.
The following day we decided to hire a scooter and head out around Pushkar, something we are delighted we did as we had the most enjoyable day getting lost in the Pushkar desert. We had been told to head to two Shiva temples and through a few local villages, we attempted to do this but got completely lost and managed to clock up around 40miles on the scooter, luckily we found petrol, as always in India it’s just a man in a village with a two litre plastic bottle full for £2, score. Getting lost however was not a bad thing as we managed to see peacocks roaming around in the wild, we talked with a group of men at their chai stall for over an hour (bearing in mind they spoke little English and us no Hindi) in the end we decided to leave when conversations became so mixed up they thought Sam played in the IPL (we were trying to explain we are going to watch a game of the IPL). We basked in the sunshine of the roadside and met a man and his camel along the way, we drove through villages with children that became so excited at two white people one attempted to pull me off the scooter in excitement and enjoyed the open desert roads with amazing plants growing wild. At the end of the day we were so tired, we treated ourselves to a nice meal at a swanky hotel and listened to the evening prayers from the rooftop, that evening as we headed for our night bus we felt blessed at our time in Pushkar and felt a special something at the beauty it beholds.
Our next stop was Jaisalmer and we arrived in the early morning to a hoard of camel safari sellers and hotel pushers, Sam and I had only just woken so were still a bit dreamy when we jumped into a 4x4 stating they would take us to our hotel, luckily for us they did but after a few minutes of ‘no I don’t want your hotel’ we escaped to our exquisite hotel, after waking the owner up we got our room and rolled into shower, we decided we would head out and explore that morning as we knew by afternoon the desert heat of 40+ would not be our friend and sleep could be welcomed nicely at this point. We spoke with the owner and booked our camel safari for the following day so used this day to enjoy the walls of the Jaisalmer fort, Jaisalmer is renowned for its camel safaris, it’s basically where everyone comes to head out for that unique experience, Jaisalmer is also centered around an old fort, where in which people now live inside the walls of the fort with home, shops and business. We visited the fort both in the morning and afternoon and found the inside of the fort so different to how I had imagined, I wanted their to be more of a magic about it but sadly the structure had been damaged with homes being made and the sewerage system was so bad the whole place stunk of toilet, which for me was not how the inside of a castle fort would have smelt! We did however stop and talk to a man who owned a bookshop inside the fort and after taking up a chair and chatting for around an hour, the smell subsided and the interest of watching people live inside the walls took over and an understanding of how people lived became apparent. One of the main challenges with being in India is the puzzlement and attempted understanding of how people live, and not just the people with no money but the ones who do have money, no one seems to care where they rest their head and sense of living seems to be just something that happens rather than embracing the beauty of living. I challenge my thoughts with this, as is it just because I am now in a place where I lead a comfortable life and can have the things I need that make me ‘comfortable and content’, maybe for some Indian people they can’t imagine this therefore live with what they have, whereas for me being comfortable is more than one room in a cramped living environment. It then leads me to the question of how I believe I am not materialistic but are we all materialistic in a modern day society where things essentially do make us happy?! It’s a question I think I will ask throughout my whole time away, and hopefully I can find an answer I become more comfortable with, allowing me to carry on learning and developing as a 30yr old women.
We enjoyed that evening on the roof of our hotel, looking over at the fort with its stature and beauty. The next morning we woke early to head out onto our camel safari, now as blogged earlier I was unsure about doing this but after a lot of reading, speaking with like minded friends and questions to the man at our hotel I decided to go for it. It was an experience I will never forget but one that left me with uncertainty afterwards whether I agreed with camel riding. We were luckily in our group to only have three people (Sam and I being two of those three), we took a 2hr trip through the desert and it was just magical, the silence, the antelopes/spring bok prancing around, the passing goats, the stature and beauty of the camels and the prettiness of the open desert was just a sight I couldn’t have imagined or wished for, I felt so happy inside it was pure joy to be experiencing. My camel was six and was a male named babalou, he was the smallest of the camels and was definitely a bit uncertain at taking instruction, he looked after me well though and enjoyed taking his own journey whilst trotting through the desert (he also enjoyed licking Sam’s camel, which to our child like amusement was hilarious). We took shade from the blazing sun and enjoyed chai and a tasty (spicy) lunch, read our books and snoozed, the camels enjoyed a roll around in the sand and eating a bush (that we were told was like chocolate for them). After our rest we took back to our camels, the gormless beauties that they were and rode for another hour or so onto the Sam Sand dunes, I could have yelped with happiness when I saw them, I have never experienced sand dunes like it and felt in awe at the clear untouched sand lying in front of us. The camels plodded onto the dunes and with a humpty bumbty ride we arrived at our evening rest spot, we were told that five more people were joining us for the evening, which although I had enjoyed the day alone it felt safer knowing more people would be camping out with us.
Sam and I went to do the obvious in sand dunes and attempted to play in front of the setting sun, me unsuccessfully falling on my face, Sam managing a few pristine hand stands and of course the camera was capturing all the fun. It felt surreal being out on the Thar desert (the Thar desert borders India and Pakistan), my insides were so excited and I just felt I was definitely having one of those experiences that I couldn’t have at home. We enjoyed our evening meal and chatted with the others, getting handy travelling tips from a lady that lived in Indonesia and talking with others about their experiences of volunteering in India. We sneaked into our beds at around 10pm and Sam and I smiled gleefully at the magnificence of camping in the desert, under the stars in India, I fell asleep fully aware of why I had wanted to go traveling, for days and nights like this.
We awoke the next morning early, ate an interesting breakfast and started making our way back, we were on the camels for another hour, before arriving back at our 4x4 to take us back to our hotel. I was so ready to get off by the end, my bum was sore, my ribs felt like they had been on a workout and my thighs, let’s just say ouch. I also wondered at this point how the camels felt, the main man told me they would be back out this afternoon as had another safari and from talking with him it seemed over busy season it was daily safaris that occurred. I understand camels are used like horses for transporting goods but something inside of me felt uneasy at how much these camels were used and how tired they must get at the daily carrying of tourists and all the equipment/food needed for the safari. I decided that because I was asking these questions I obviously wasn’t comfortable with the camels being over worked and therefore decided that although the experience was out of this world I would think twice about riding a camel as a tourist attraction.
What was weird after coming to this was the overwhelming sense of sadness I felt that the experience was over, I felt like what I feel like after an amazing holiday/festival and that it really was a once in a lifetime experience, so although I felt sad about the camels I was pleased I had done it (yes, contradictory I know) but this blog is about honesty and that’s how I felt. We enjoyed our last evening on the rooftop again, enjoying our last evening in this magical city, sleep took us well that night and we woke up early ready for our next stop, Punjab.
Photos for those who are not on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152159453141716.1073741836.513626715&type=1&l=c1765b2faa
Udaipur was our first stop in royal Rajasthan, we arrived at our guesthouse and secured a beautiful room looking out onto lake Pichola, (giving its name by the flooding of Pichola Village to make the lake, when thinking of a village at the bottom of a lake it always feels a bit fairy tale esk, as to think of hidden homes and another world once lived before the lake was made). Lake Pichola is the main attraction in Udaipur, all the hotels are centered around it and everywhere has roof top restaurants with the most magnificent views, luckily our new abode being one of these. We enjoyed our first fine feast on top of our guesthouse and felt very satisfied, taking in the sounds and sights before us preparing us for our next few days in this magical city. We secured three days in Udaipur and spent them mainly wandering around the streets purchasing lovely miniature Rajasthan art, buying beautiful home wares and generally just talking with locals and learning more about how the city works, we made friends with a little boy who was crying one morning as he wanted a banana and not an orange, Sam kindly went and purchased a banana for him and from this he and his family waved and smiled every morning at us when heading into the cities walls. We found an amazing spot for watching sunset with the locals and although the ever persistent ‘dress up as a prince photo’ was demanded we managed to enjoy the beauty of the sun setting over the land of fairytale dreams. We enjoyed wandering around the city palace and relaxing in the bathing room under the heat of the morning sun, sadly the palace is one of the main tourist hot spots so a number of tour operators work the floors with their translation and audio tapes, we jumped onto a couple of English tours but overall made up our own stories of the Maharaja that once lived there and took what we saw from the beauty of the Palace. My favorite room was the peacock room where magnificent tiled mosaics of peacocks stood strong on the walls making the room glisten and gleam from the vibrant colorful tiles. One afternoon we took some time out and went and lazed at a lovely hotel using the pool facilities, which was ever needed in the 40 degree heat. We used our second last evening to attend a cooking course that had been recommended to us by both our brothers and good friends, Shashi cooking class. We searched for where we thought she was based but found a derelict building with a haggard sign up, after speaking with a local business man he informed us she had moved and called her son who arranged the class for us. On arrival at Shashi home she informed us she had moved due to renovating works and was now renting this new flat (very different to the ‘typical’ Indian kitchen I had seen in family and friends photos) this place was a new build well to do spacious living area, we assumed the classes were paying off! I must admit I was a little nervous at the start of the class as didn’t really know what to expect but it turned out perfect and for the £6 we paid we definitely got our money’s worth. The class was made up of Sam and I and a group of others, we learnt how to cook so many different dishes but in the most simplest and basic form, it was great to be part of such a basic class but feeling that you were learning something new and exciting. We cooked nans, parathas and my favorite panner dishes, even being told how to make panner when home, (yes please), the energy was brilliant and it was such an experience to be part of. Shashi herself is an incredible woman and up to a number of years ago she couldn’t even speak English, after the death of her husband she started the cooking classes and now is one of the most recommended activities in Udaipur, her beauty is outstanding and her passion shines through as she teaches. When we finished the 5hrs of kitchen time we all sat down and embraced the feast we had just prepared, there was so much food it was a kings and queens feast and it was enjoyed just as much as cooking it had been.
With our time coming to an end we spent the following day walking the city and indulging in the splendor that had been given to us in our few days exploring Udaipur.
Our next stop on our Rajasthan trail was Pushkar, a good friend of mine had told me about the beauty Pushkar had to hold and my vision of this Aladdin like world with bazaars, lakes and religion was embraced into my mind, on reading up about Pushkar I read descriptions and similarities to that of Varanasi (another part of India in which we visited in 2011), Varanasi is a very religious part of India and my experience had been slightly surreal and daunting, the difference I read about Pushkar was that it was smaller and the element of death was not so prevalent as in Varanasi (people go here to die and are carried through the streets and burnt at the Ghats, meaning you see a lot of dead bodies, which is very moving but also for one who isn’t comfortable with death, it’s hard to cope with). We arrived in Pushkar in the evening, which I realized over the next two days is the best time to be in Pushkar, we headed to the lake and sat listening to the evening prayers, the sound was beautiful and so enchanting I felt I had just arrived in a land of an Indian fairy tale. We sat watching sunset around the lake for over an hour and the beauty of people bathing, believing and embracing one another was a very special moment, one I felt privileged to be able to watch and share. Our first full day in Pushkar we spent wandering the streets, looking at the local market stalls and hiding from the midday sun drinking cold coffees, the town is busy with tourists, shoppers and sellers during the day and has a completely different feel to that of an evening, it was great to be part of the hustle but with Pushkar being so small by the afternoon we were ready to head back to the lake as we had seen the sights of the town and enjoyed our bumble around. The lake again was as magical as the day before, this time we walked further around and enjoyed watching the scene from another lakeside angle.
The following day we decided to hire a scooter and head out around Pushkar, something we are delighted we did as we had the most enjoyable day getting lost in the Pushkar desert. We had been told to head to two Shiva temples and through a few local villages, we attempted to do this but got completely lost and managed to clock up around 40miles on the scooter, luckily we found petrol, as always in India it’s just a man in a village with a two litre plastic bottle full for £2, score. Getting lost however was not a bad thing as we managed to see peacocks roaming around in the wild, we talked with a group of men at their chai stall for over an hour (bearing in mind they spoke little English and us no Hindi) in the end we decided to leave when conversations became so mixed up they thought Sam played in the IPL (we were trying to explain we are going to watch a game of the IPL). We basked in the sunshine of the roadside and met a man and his camel along the way, we drove through villages with children that became so excited at two white people one attempted to pull me off the scooter in excitement and enjoyed the open desert roads with amazing plants growing wild. At the end of the day we were so tired, we treated ourselves to a nice meal at a swanky hotel and listened to the evening prayers from the rooftop, that evening as we headed for our night bus we felt blessed at our time in Pushkar and felt a special something at the beauty it beholds.
Our next stop was Jaisalmer and we arrived in the early morning to a hoard of camel safari sellers and hotel pushers, Sam and I had only just woken so were still a bit dreamy when we jumped into a 4x4 stating they would take us to our hotel, luckily for us they did but after a few minutes of ‘no I don’t want your hotel’ we escaped to our exquisite hotel, after waking the owner up we got our room and rolled into shower, we decided we would head out and explore that morning as we knew by afternoon the desert heat of 40+ would not be our friend and sleep could be welcomed nicely at this point. We spoke with the owner and booked our camel safari for the following day so used this day to enjoy the walls of the Jaisalmer fort, Jaisalmer is renowned for its camel safaris, it’s basically where everyone comes to head out for that unique experience, Jaisalmer is also centered around an old fort, where in which people now live inside the walls of the fort with home, shops and business. We visited the fort both in the morning and afternoon and found the inside of the fort so different to how I had imagined, I wanted their to be more of a magic about it but sadly the structure had been damaged with homes being made and the sewerage system was so bad the whole place stunk of toilet, which for me was not how the inside of a castle fort would have smelt! We did however stop and talk to a man who owned a bookshop inside the fort and after taking up a chair and chatting for around an hour, the smell subsided and the interest of watching people live inside the walls took over and an understanding of how people lived became apparent. One of the main challenges with being in India is the puzzlement and attempted understanding of how people live, and not just the people with no money but the ones who do have money, no one seems to care where they rest their head and sense of living seems to be just something that happens rather than embracing the beauty of living. I challenge my thoughts with this, as is it just because I am now in a place where I lead a comfortable life and can have the things I need that make me ‘comfortable and content’, maybe for some Indian people they can’t imagine this therefore live with what they have, whereas for me being comfortable is more than one room in a cramped living environment. It then leads me to the question of how I believe I am not materialistic but are we all materialistic in a modern day society where things essentially do make us happy?! It’s a question I think I will ask throughout my whole time away, and hopefully I can find an answer I become more comfortable with, allowing me to carry on learning and developing as a 30yr old women.
We enjoyed that evening on the roof of our hotel, looking over at the fort with its stature and beauty. The next morning we woke early to head out onto our camel safari, now as blogged earlier I was unsure about doing this but after a lot of reading, speaking with like minded friends and questions to the man at our hotel I decided to go for it. It was an experience I will never forget but one that left me with uncertainty afterwards whether I agreed with camel riding. We were luckily in our group to only have three people (Sam and I being two of those three), we took a 2hr trip through the desert and it was just magical, the silence, the antelopes/spring bok prancing around, the passing goats, the stature and beauty of the camels and the prettiness of the open desert was just a sight I couldn’t have imagined or wished for, I felt so happy inside it was pure joy to be experiencing. My camel was six and was a male named babalou, he was the smallest of the camels and was definitely a bit uncertain at taking instruction, he looked after me well though and enjoyed taking his own journey whilst trotting through the desert (he also enjoyed licking Sam’s camel, which to our child like amusement was hilarious). We took shade from the blazing sun and enjoyed chai and a tasty (spicy) lunch, read our books and snoozed, the camels enjoyed a roll around in the sand and eating a bush (that we were told was like chocolate for them). After our rest we took back to our camels, the gormless beauties that they were and rode for another hour or so onto the Sam Sand dunes, I could have yelped with happiness when I saw them, I have never experienced sand dunes like it and felt in awe at the clear untouched sand lying in front of us. The camels plodded onto the dunes and with a humpty bumbty ride we arrived at our evening rest spot, we were told that five more people were joining us for the evening, which although I had enjoyed the day alone it felt safer knowing more people would be camping out with us.
Sam and I went to do the obvious in sand dunes and attempted to play in front of the setting sun, me unsuccessfully falling on my face, Sam managing a few pristine hand stands and of course the camera was capturing all the fun. It felt surreal being out on the Thar desert (the Thar desert borders India and Pakistan), my insides were so excited and I just felt I was definitely having one of those experiences that I couldn’t have at home. We enjoyed our evening meal and chatted with the others, getting handy travelling tips from a lady that lived in Indonesia and talking with others about their experiences of volunteering in India. We sneaked into our beds at around 10pm and Sam and I smiled gleefully at the magnificence of camping in the desert, under the stars in India, I fell asleep fully aware of why I had wanted to go traveling, for days and nights like this.
We awoke the next morning early, ate an interesting breakfast and started making our way back, we were on the camels for another hour, before arriving back at our 4x4 to take us back to our hotel. I was so ready to get off by the end, my bum was sore, my ribs felt like they had been on a workout and my thighs, let’s just say ouch. I also wondered at this point how the camels felt, the main man told me they would be back out this afternoon as had another safari and from talking with him it seemed over busy season it was daily safaris that occurred. I understand camels are used like horses for transporting goods but something inside of me felt uneasy at how much these camels were used and how tired they must get at the daily carrying of tourists and all the equipment/food needed for the safari. I decided that because I was asking these questions I obviously wasn’t comfortable with the camels being over worked and therefore decided that although the experience was out of this world I would think twice about riding a camel as a tourist attraction.
What was weird after coming to this was the overwhelming sense of sadness I felt that the experience was over, I felt like what I feel like after an amazing holiday/festival and that it really was a once in a lifetime experience, so although I felt sad about the camels I was pleased I had done it (yes, contradictory I know) but this blog is about honesty and that’s how I felt. We enjoyed our last evening on the rooftop again, enjoying our last evening in this magical city, sleep took us well that night and we woke up early ready for our next stop, Punjab.
Photos for those who are not on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152159453141716.1073741836.513626715&type=1&l=c1765b2faa
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