Udaipur
Someone told me Udaipur is known as the Venice of India.. I was also told it is India's Most Romantic City. I'm not sure about the Venice reference but it's easy to see why the latter title has been given. Situated on two sides of a lake with cascading hotels and haveli's rising up steep hills that provide a canvas to shine a golden glowing sunset that is too perfectly reflected by the lake, the competition for the highest rooftop restaurant is fierce and I lost count of the number I could see.
I arrived at my all too common early morning time - 4am, extremely tired after yet another bumpy crappy bus ride from my connecting train in Amhedebad. The eyes of the auto-rickshaw driver lit up like christmas lights at the sight of me through the bus window and i swear he jumped up and down, either for joy or my attention. In my groggy state (i'd taken some anti-nausea pills to knock me out on the bumpy bus), i was a little slower than usual but eventually cottoned on to the predictable cheating. This was a new one, after i told him where i wanted to stay the driver took me to the pre-paid stand (designed to avoid tourists being cheated) and proceeded to talk to the guy in Hindi who wrote up an 80rp ticket, but i noticed it had a different place written on it. so an argument later i had a new ticket for 50rp written up and my money back. It's funny, a while back I would have written him off as a cheat and not given him another chance. But I've learnt drivers will pretty much 100% try to cheat you to some level, but it's not relentless and there is a limit, it's more a test of how aware you are of the situation.. if you're ignorant and willing to pay more than most people, why wouldnt they try to get it out of you? After I'd chastised him for half the ride for lying to me, he was sufficiently remorseful. He could've just dropped me in the general area i asked for and left me, but instead the conversation became friendly and he was now completely determined to find me a good hotel that had the reception open. ..to which I owe him great thanks. He found a place (that involved yelling out the front until the owners woke up) which had 300rp room, a bright sunny rooftop restaurant, great views and free wifi. Score! I thanked him and gave a little tip that got him closer to the price he tried to cheat me out of anyway.
Udaipur was brilliant. The girls arrived a day later and we switched to a bigger room to share that was cheaper. They were all a little sick the first few days. I had met an Israeli father and son duo Matan and Benjamin who invited me to come with them in a hired taxi to visit Kanaghar Fort and a Temple that was about 6hrs round trip - and paid for pretty much everything. So nice. The fort is the 2nd longest wall on the planet to the Great Wall of China. Not a very close 2nd tho.. Back in Udaipur there was a grand palace to see, a lot of relaxing and enjoying the peaceful city's rooftops and winding streets, visiting markets and minature art stores. We also joined an evening yoga class on a rooftop over looking the sun setting over the lake. Fanny's tour dropped into town one night and we got the chance to say hello again, we also agreed to meet again in Agra a bit over a week later and continue travelling together to Varanasi and beyond.
All up 6 relaxing days in Udaipur, a place I'd highly recommend to anyone going through ??Rajasthan??. The girls wanted to stay a day or two more and then travel West to Mt Abu (which they ended up skipping) and onto Jaisalmer for at least 3-4days to plan and complete a camel trek. All things I would have simply loved to do, but given my time frame, I decided to head East towards Agra, booking an overnight bus to Pushkar for the following evening.
Khanaghar Fort
Women Selling Vegetables at the Market
Pushkar
Pushkar seemed even more relaxed than Udaipur. It reminded me of Hampi a little in terms of the feel of the place, but not so much of the brilliant terrain. I arrived early morning again and after negotiating a ride with a guy delivering newspapers (with slight detours along the way..) discovered a nice hotel VERY cheap at 150rp for a good room with a hot shower and a rooftop hotel. The operators were very obliging but i began to get frustrated with the strange concept of 'Indian Time' i've noticed during my trip. In this hotel it was especially pronounced. On the morning I was leaving I had a number of things to do, one was return the motorbike I'd hired before the taxi to take me to the station arrived. But i had about 40 minutes before i needed to do that, so I order a bowl of muesli for breakfast and ask how long it would take. "about 5 - 10 minutes" excelent! Then i notice a motorbike starting and the guy taking off down the street. 10 minutes later I ask the other attendant where he's gone and how long until he gets back - "to get yoghurt, back in about 5 - 10 minutes" ok.. another 10 minutes pass, so i ask the attendant i'm going to return the bike, and to ensure the muesli is ready by the time i get back, get on my motorbike, return it and walk the 15 minutes back to the hotel. There I find no muesli ready with the guy standing there seemingly annoyed, I ask if the muesli is ready "where did you go? ok i'll make it, ready in 5 minutes"
In Pushkar I really just relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere. Read my book and took a few trips around on the motorbike. I traveled about 10km out of town where a group of Shiva temples were said to be. This ended up being a particularly special occassion where I spent the afternoon talking and drinking chai and smoking with an old Shiva Baba. This guy was classic! A lot of the children in the area seemed to be dropped off there for him to look after and he really did have the firm but fair grandfather attitude about him. He was also raising a small monkey which was very entertaining to play with. It was pretty special.. Seriously, look at the guy:
Shiva Baba
On the first evening I hiked 30 mins up a small hill at one end of town to watch the sunset, which was fantastic, then the next morning I got up before dawn and rode my bike to the much larger mountain at the other end of town and hiked an hour up to catch the sun rising over the surrounding mountains. Brilliant. And after 2 relaxing days I took the taxi to nearby Ajmer where my connecting bus to Vrindavan, Krishna's Birthplace, was departing.
More Pushkar Photos
Sunset from the Small Hill
Sunrise over the hils from the top of the Bigger Hill (Savitri temple)
and the same view a few minutes later...
Someone told me Udaipur is known as the Venice of India.. I was also told it is India's Most Romantic City. I'm not sure about the Venice reference but it's easy to see why the latter title has been given. Situated on two sides of a lake with cascading hotels and haveli's rising up steep hills that provide a canvas to shine a golden glowing sunset that is too perfectly reflected by the lake, the competition for the highest rooftop restaurant is fierce and I lost count of the number I could see.
I arrived at my all too common early morning time - 4am, extremely tired after yet another bumpy crappy bus ride from my connecting train in Amhedebad. The eyes of the auto-rickshaw driver lit up like christmas lights at the sight of me through the bus window and i swear he jumped up and down, either for joy or my attention. In my groggy state (i'd taken some anti-nausea pills to knock me out on the bumpy bus), i was a little slower than usual but eventually cottoned on to the predictable cheating. This was a new one, after i told him where i wanted to stay the driver took me to the pre-paid stand (designed to avoid tourists being cheated) and proceeded to talk to the guy in Hindi who wrote up an 80rp ticket, but i noticed it had a different place written on it. so an argument later i had a new ticket for 50rp written up and my money back. It's funny, a while back I would have written him off as a cheat and not given him another chance. But I've learnt drivers will pretty much 100% try to cheat you to some level, but it's not relentless and there is a limit, it's more a test of how aware you are of the situation.. if you're ignorant and willing to pay more than most people, why wouldnt they try to get it out of you? After I'd chastised him for half the ride for lying to me, he was sufficiently remorseful. He could've just dropped me in the general area i asked for and left me, but instead the conversation became friendly and he was now completely determined to find me a good hotel that had the reception open. ..to which I owe him great thanks. He found a place (that involved yelling out the front until the owners woke up) which had 300rp room, a bright sunny rooftop restaurant, great views and free wifi. Score! I thanked him and gave a little tip that got him closer to the price he tried to cheat me out of anyway.
Udaipur was brilliant. The girls arrived a day later and we switched to a bigger room to share that was cheaper. They were all a little sick the first few days. I had met an Israeli father and son duo Matan and Benjamin who invited me to come with them in a hired taxi to visit Kanaghar Fort and a Temple that was about 6hrs round trip - and paid for pretty much everything. So nice. The fort is the 2nd longest wall on the planet to the Great Wall of China. Not a very close 2nd tho.. Back in Udaipur there was a grand palace to see, a lot of relaxing and enjoying the peaceful city's rooftops and winding streets, visiting markets and minature art stores. We also joined an evening yoga class on a rooftop over looking the sun setting over the lake. Fanny's tour dropped into town one night and we got the chance to say hello again, we also agreed to meet again in Agra a bit over a week later and continue travelling together to Varanasi and beyond.
All up 6 relaxing days in Udaipur, a place I'd highly recommend to anyone going through ??Rajasthan??. The girls wanted to stay a day or two more and then travel West to Mt Abu (which they ended up skipping) and onto Jaisalmer for at least 3-4days to plan and complete a camel trek. All things I would have simply loved to do, but given my time frame, I decided to head East towards Agra, booking an overnight bus to Pushkar for the following evening.
Khanaghar Fort
Women Selling Vegetables at the Market
Pushkar
Pushkar seemed even more relaxed than Udaipur. It reminded me of Hampi a little in terms of the feel of the place, but not so much of the brilliant terrain. I arrived early morning again and after negotiating a ride with a guy delivering newspapers (with slight detours along the way..) discovered a nice hotel VERY cheap at 150rp for a good room with a hot shower and a rooftop hotel. The operators were very obliging but i began to get frustrated with the strange concept of 'Indian Time' i've noticed during my trip. In this hotel it was especially pronounced. On the morning I was leaving I had a number of things to do, one was return the motorbike I'd hired before the taxi to take me to the station arrived. But i had about 40 minutes before i needed to do that, so I order a bowl of muesli for breakfast and ask how long it would take. "about 5 - 10 minutes" excelent! Then i notice a motorbike starting and the guy taking off down the street. 10 minutes later I ask the other attendant where he's gone and how long until he gets back - "to get yoghurt, back in about 5 - 10 minutes" ok.. another 10 minutes pass, so i ask the attendant i'm going to return the bike, and to ensure the muesli is ready by the time i get back, get on my motorbike, return it and walk the 15 minutes back to the hotel. There I find no muesli ready with the guy standing there seemingly annoyed, I ask if the muesli is ready "where did you go? ok i'll make it, ready in 5 minutes"
In Pushkar I really just relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere. Read my book and took a few trips around on the motorbike. I traveled about 10km out of town where a group of Shiva temples were said to be. This ended up being a particularly special occassion where I spent the afternoon talking and drinking chai and smoking with an old Shiva Baba. This guy was classic! A lot of the children in the area seemed to be dropped off there for him to look after and he really did have the firm but fair grandfather attitude about him. He was also raising a small monkey which was very entertaining to play with. It was pretty special.. Seriously, look at the guy:
Shiva Baba
On the first evening I hiked 30 mins up a small hill at one end of town to watch the sunset, which was fantastic, then the next morning I got up before dawn and rode my bike to the much larger mountain at the other end of town and hiked an hour up to catch the sun rising over the surrounding mountains. Brilliant. And after 2 relaxing days I took the taxi to nearby Ajmer where my connecting bus to Vrindavan, Krishna's Birthplace, was departing.
More Pushkar Photos
Sunset from the Small Hill
Sunrise over the hils from the top of the Bigger Hill (Savitri temple)
and the same view a few minutes later...
