Rajasthan

It’s been a while between blogs and this one was started in the departure lounge of the Mumbai Airport. Yup in keeping with Indian tradition the flight has been delayed by a few hours building the expectation of the journey first journey back to Australia together since we departed in November 2006.. Time flies… So much has happened over the last few months...

We had a chance to visit Rajasthan in September. Rajasthan is the desert state in the north of India and borders Pakistan. There are quite a few magical places to visit and with the time we had chose a few days in Udaipur The Lake City and Jaipur the dusky pink, State capital.
Udaipur was a great get away from Mumbai. Built around Lake Pichola (named for the village which was flooded), Udaipur dates back to 1559, and with only 300,000 people, time seemed to move slower it was soooo quiet by comparison to Mumbai.

After a morning of walking the narrow village/city streets to the city sights of the City Palace and the Jagdish Temple it was great to escape to our hotel with a rooftop pool with a view over the Lake Palaces on Jagmandir and Jagnaiwas Islands.


We’d been told the hilltop view from the Monsoon Palace on the outskirts of town was a must see so we journeyed up in an underpowered rickshaw which had to cool down half way up. The open ess at the top felt amazing, the setting sun perched over the horizon and the fresh breeze rising from the trees below.


The palace was a palace no more, under partial reconstruction after being left to the hands of lovers inscribing their names and the elements. Day two we joined the many on bikes hiring a Hero Honda and headed out into the country for a ride and some more space. Actually we were heading to a small theme park billed as a craftsman village just out of town. Luckily we got completely lost and just kept going out along the rural roads surrounded by rolling green hills as the village which we later found was nothing special. Udaipur was the backdrop for the '83 Bond flick Octopussy and every rooftop café had nightly screenings on 'big screen' TVs.. We couldn’t resist a beer in front of the tube watching Bond race through the streets in a supercharged rickshaw..

Jaipur, the ‘Pink City’ was a totally different experience. This city which seems more like a dusty trading post which has outgrown its old city walls of 1727 sprawling out in to the surrounding valley. Tourists are told of the fantastic bargains to be had in the bazaars, from textiles to jewels and every man and his stray dog will “just want to ask you something friend”…

Pedal rickshaws and camel drawn carts compete on the potholed streets with speedy motorbikes and overcrowded rickshaws all the while the street sweepers are shifting the dirt from one place to another keeping Jaipur clean. We got an understanding of the city layout by walking up to the Tiger Fort (1772) overlooking town, this should not be attempted after 10am because it’s bloody hot and the old water reservoir was a bit green for a dip!!

The view over the town got better with each step closer to the fort, which was still in good nick with empty rooms being explored by tourists of all sorts.

The city called us from the streets below, so it was to partake in the luxury of a pedal rickshaw and the back alleys of the old town. One fellow who wanted our business had eyes as blue as Sharon, we're told this is a throwback to the days when the Greeks were roaming around.

September is early in the tourist season and it seemed that half of the shops shutters were down but the ones that were open were making up for it. Shaz started a blue with a few of our new ‘friends’ when for the 100th time that day we’d been asked our name and country and we were slammed for being rude when we didn’t wish to stop to talk.. A mixture of the heat and the frustration of being a tourist in India lead to a crowd gathering as we gave them an education. I doubt the next tourist gained any benefit from our effort.. From here we were fired up for bargaining for treasures in the bazaars, making the shop keepers work hard for their rupee.

It was random and lucky that our mate Darren from Mumbai was in Jaipur for a photo shoot, so we caught up for a plate of meat cooked local style and a few cold beers after a few days in the dust..