26 March - 1 April
Left Udaipur and on the road. We were given a “tourist” map and directions out of town but the map didn’t resemble the roads so after taking directions and a minor detour we eventually found a road that should take us to the main highway we wanted but as time progressed the highway didn’t appear but the road we took was going in the same direction but was a more minor road. As going back was now to far we pushed ahead .
The road was OK but for a change there was very little traffic and virtually no trucks so driving was a lot easier than it had been for a while. The road was doing fine but after a while we hit road works. The road became gravel and mud but it was on the whole in good condition so it didn’t really slow is down that much. In the end we arrived only 30 mins later at our lunch break. We had planned our lunch break to be at Ranakpur temple which had been highly recommended by the guide book. But before any tour Lunch was required. We found a restaurant and it was a fixed menu and 20 Rupees each (24p in real money).
The restaurant was laid out with long tables going across the whole width of the restaurant and everyone sat on the same side. We were told were to sit (absolutely no choice) and dinner was served by waiters from the other side of the table. As most of India, it was pure veg ,so pulses and bread were served until we could not eat anymore! To see this from the outside it looked like a prison canteen (Still better than school though!).
The kitchen...
Post lunch lounging!...
After lunch we headed to the temple. Going inside it was extremely impressive with all the carved stonework. We were met by the high priest who gave us a quick tour with a request at the end for a ‘donation’. Whilst on the tour the priest asked us how we found the driving in India. We told him it was bad. He agreed but described like fish swimming around the reef. A very romantic notion for us, I’d prefer to describe it more of a shoal of fish during a shark attack..
Anyway, I won’t go into detail about how the temple looked but leave it to the photo’s.
Temple at Ranakpur...
After a couple of hours here we were off again for a target for the night Beawar. We were still searching for our original road from the morning , which was close on the map and GPS all day but we just couldn’t get to it. In the end not too far out of Beawar we picked the road up and the speed increased and by 5:30 we were at the hotel after being guided by a local English school teacher.
It was my turn to sort out the rooms, so whilst I was doing this Mike chatted with the teacher. The teacher had invited us to dinner at his house and we all agreed to have dinner at his home. So we had a little time to sort ourselves out before we were in a tut-tut heading for his house. We were invited to meet his family and had a tour of the house including to see his cow, calf, oxen and her calf.
The family had a servant who was one of the ex pupils for his wife. The boy was only 15 but did all the cleaning and looking after the cattle. We were proudly shown his room as well as the rest of the family's. The boy lived in a small room halfway up the stairs. The door was 2.5 feet from the floor and only 3 ft high. It was just long enough for him to curl up in and there was no window. It seems very small to us but I can imagine his conditions were much better than his own home.
His wife cooked us a low spice dinner and we had a pleasant evening chatting. All to soon it was over and we had to head back to our hotel to get some sleep for the next day.
All very full after dinner...
The next day was a late start as we stayed out quite late for us and we headed of for Jaipur. The road was good but the driving was bad as ever. We had some accommodation recommendations from the Footprint guide book which turned out well and we booked into a very nice and quiet hotel.
First day in Jaipur we spent planning our time here and completing some admin work.
After a fun day of admin we took a day to see the sights in Jaipur. First was the City Palace. The palace was, as we are finding with all Indian places, in need for restoration and although there was a few very impressively painted ceilings and a few extraordinarily large rifles in the armoury there was not much else to talk about.
Jaipur Palace...
One of two solid silver water carriers used by the maharaja to carry clean Ganges water to England...
Mike trying out his musical prowess... You are lucky, you weren't there...
A professional in action...
From here we decided to walk to the Wind Palace which was were the Maharaja kept his harem.
A city gate seem on route to the Wind Palace...
Safest thing to be on Indian roads...a cow...
Who needs a Ford transit...
The place took a while to find as we were misled by some shop keepers who said the entranced to the Wind Palace was this way, which by a strange co-incidence took us past their shops, but in reality was a detour . Hmmm.
Any way we found our way in and started the assent of the palace. It is called the Wind Palace due to the number of windows but they also said it is cool at the top. The large number of windows were just small port holes as at the time the women were not allowed to show their faces in public. The small windows allowed them to look out onto the street or procession without being seen. As we ascended the state of the place became more than apparent with graffiti on all the walls and some very funny stains down them! We persisted to the top and the promised breeze was not there! In all not much of a Palace at all.
View from one of the windows...
From the top we could see our next viewing which was an observatory created in the 1700’s by the Maharaja at the time.
We found the entrance without too much hassle and soon fixed ourselves up with a guide. The scale of the objects created to measure time, location of stars and the tracking of star signs was very impressive.
From here we had a quick lunch stop and found a tut-tut driver who would take us to a bazaar, so see some elephants and tiger fort. The bazaar turned out to only be rows of shops so we skipped that and headed to see the elephants.
We stopped for a while by an elephant and ended up feeding it oranges. The elephant only squeezed the juice from the orange , then rubbed the peel on the rear of its front legs! On a couple of the oranges it sprayed the juice over its self, Mike and myself as we were standing right next to it. Orange juice and elephant snot. Lovely combo!!! We left the elephant for tiger fort but the driver took us too his friend in a newer tut-tut than his as he believed his wouldn’t make it to the fort!
The journey did take some time and we arrived too late to see inside the fort but the tour guides only rated the place for the views which were impressive. We waited around for sunset but there was too much cloud for really impressive end to the day but it was good.
View from the fort...
The next day was a quiet day doing odds and ends and resting before another day of hard sightseeing.
We had booked a tut tut driver for the day and set out on the 18 km ride to Amer Palace and Fort. It was the usual chaotic ride through town before we arrived at the palace.
The palace was under some serious renovation and we could see bodies on bamboo scaffolding from quite a way off.
First view of Amer palace...
The last section up to the palace was a steep incline but you could hire elephants to take you up the last section. Well it would be rude not too and walking uphill in the sun when the ambient temperature is in the high 30’s. The limitations on the elephants was two adults and one “driver”, so Mike and Sylvia went up on one and I went up with the guide we had arranged. It was my first time on an elephant and although it felt safe it did rock quiet a bit to side to side and my feet came very close to the walls a few times. The ride was good fun although my elephant seemed to spray from his trunk at lot but never drank any water. So I had a several good coverings of elephant nasal juices!!
The intrepid explorer takes off...
...And the tourists...
The ride was over too soon and we went for a tour with the guide. The palace was the original home of the maharajas before Jaipur was built and had been built over 150 years.
The layout was impressive and the wall paintings where they remained was superb. Hopefully the restoration work that was underway would replace the paintings and not just re-plaster and whitewash the walls.
Everywhere we went was on the while being repaired with the only exception was the winter rooms which were covered in cut glass and mirrors and was extremely impressive.
The tour over we headed off in the tut tut to Amer fort. This again was undergoing repair but we were should the largest cannon in the world here. It was huge but had only been fired once for testing! Since then there had been no attempts on the fort!!
There was not much else here and we headed off for lunch. Mike had not been feeling well all day and after lunch the illness and the heat was too much for him and we called it a day and just rested for the rest of the day and the next.
John
Left Udaipur and on the road. We were given a “tourist” map and directions out of town but the map didn’t resemble the roads so after taking directions and a minor detour we eventually found a road that should take us to the main highway we wanted but as time progressed the highway didn’t appear but the road we took was going in the same direction but was a more minor road. As going back was now to far we pushed ahead .
The road was OK but for a change there was very little traffic and virtually no trucks so driving was a lot easier than it had been for a while. The road was doing fine but after a while we hit road works. The road became gravel and mud but it was on the whole in good condition so it didn’t really slow is down that much. In the end we arrived only 30 mins later at our lunch break. We had planned our lunch break to be at Ranakpur temple which had been highly recommended by the guide book. But before any tour Lunch was required. We found a restaurant and it was a fixed menu and 20 Rupees each (24p in real money).
The restaurant was laid out with long tables going across the whole width of the restaurant and everyone sat on the same side. We were told were to sit (absolutely no choice) and dinner was served by waiters from the other side of the table. As most of India, it was pure veg ,so pulses and bread were served until we could not eat anymore! To see this from the outside it looked like a prison canteen (Still better than school though!).
The kitchen...
Post lunch lounging!...
After lunch we headed to the temple. Going inside it was extremely impressive with all the carved stonework. We were met by the high priest who gave us a quick tour with a request at the end for a ‘donation’. Whilst on the tour the priest asked us how we found the driving in India. We told him it was bad. He agreed but described like fish swimming around the reef. A very romantic notion for us, I’d prefer to describe it more of a shoal of fish during a shark attack..
Anyway, I won’t go into detail about how the temple looked but leave it to the photo’s.
Temple at Ranakpur...
After a couple of hours here we were off again for a target for the night Beawar. We were still searching for our original road from the morning , which was close on the map and GPS all day but we just couldn’t get to it. In the end not too far out of Beawar we picked the road up and the speed increased and by 5:30 we were at the hotel after being guided by a local English school teacher.
It was my turn to sort out the rooms, so whilst I was doing this Mike chatted with the teacher. The teacher had invited us to dinner at his house and we all agreed to have dinner at his home. So we had a little time to sort ourselves out before we were in a tut-tut heading for his house. We were invited to meet his family and had a tour of the house including to see his cow, calf, oxen and her calf.
The family had a servant who was one of the ex pupils for his wife. The boy was only 15 but did all the cleaning and looking after the cattle. We were proudly shown his room as well as the rest of the family's. The boy lived in a small room halfway up the stairs. The door was 2.5 feet from the floor and only 3 ft high. It was just long enough for him to curl up in and there was no window. It seems very small to us but I can imagine his conditions were much better than his own home.
His wife cooked us a low spice dinner and we had a pleasant evening chatting. All to soon it was over and we had to head back to our hotel to get some sleep for the next day.
All very full after dinner...
The next day was a late start as we stayed out quite late for us and we headed of for Jaipur. The road was good but the driving was bad as ever. We had some accommodation recommendations from the Footprint guide book which turned out well and we booked into a very nice and quiet hotel.
First day in Jaipur we spent planning our time here and completing some admin work.
After a fun day of admin we took a day to see the sights in Jaipur. First was the City Palace. The palace was, as we are finding with all Indian places, in need for restoration and although there was a few very impressively painted ceilings and a few extraordinarily large rifles in the armoury there was not much else to talk about.
Jaipur Palace...
One of two solid silver water carriers used by the maharaja to carry clean Ganges water to England...
Mike trying out his musical prowess... You are lucky, you weren't there...
A professional in action...
From here we decided to walk to the Wind Palace which was were the Maharaja kept his harem.
A city gate seem on route to the Wind Palace...
Safest thing to be on Indian roads...a cow...
Who needs a Ford transit...
The place took a while to find as we were misled by some shop keepers who said the entranced to the Wind Palace was this way, which by a strange co-incidence took us past their shops, but in reality was a detour . Hmmm.
Any way we found our way in and started the assent of the palace. It is called the Wind Palace due to the number of windows but they also said it is cool at the top. The large number of windows were just small port holes as at the time the women were not allowed to show their faces in public. The small windows allowed them to look out onto the street or procession without being seen. As we ascended the state of the place became more than apparent with graffiti on all the walls and some very funny stains down them! We persisted to the top and the promised breeze was not there! In all not much of a Palace at all.
View from one of the windows...
From the top we could see our next viewing which was an observatory created in the 1700’s by the Maharaja at the time.
We found the entrance without too much hassle and soon fixed ourselves up with a guide. The scale of the objects created to measure time, location of stars and the tracking of star signs was very impressive.
From here we had a quick lunch stop and found a tut-tut driver who would take us to a bazaar, so see some elephants and tiger fort. The bazaar turned out to only be rows of shops so we skipped that and headed to see the elephants.
We stopped for a while by an elephant and ended up feeding it oranges. The elephant only squeezed the juice from the orange , then rubbed the peel on the rear of its front legs! On a couple of the oranges it sprayed the juice over its self, Mike and myself as we were standing right next to it. Orange juice and elephant snot. Lovely combo!!! We left the elephant for tiger fort but the driver took us too his friend in a newer tut-tut than his as he believed his wouldn’t make it to the fort!
The journey did take some time and we arrived too late to see inside the fort but the tour guides only rated the place for the views which were impressive. We waited around for sunset but there was too much cloud for really impressive end to the day but it was good.
View from the fort...
The next day was a quiet day doing odds and ends and resting before another day of hard sightseeing.
We had booked a tut tut driver for the day and set out on the 18 km ride to Amer Palace and Fort. It was the usual chaotic ride through town before we arrived at the palace.
The palace was under some serious renovation and we could see bodies on bamboo scaffolding from quite a way off.
First view of Amer palace...
The last section up to the palace was a steep incline but you could hire elephants to take you up the last section. Well it would be rude not too and walking uphill in the sun when the ambient temperature is in the high 30’s. The limitations on the elephants was two adults and one “driver”, so Mike and Sylvia went up on one and I went up with the guide we had arranged. It was my first time on an elephant and although it felt safe it did rock quiet a bit to side to side and my feet came very close to the walls a few times. The ride was good fun although my elephant seemed to spray from his trunk at lot but never drank any water. So I had a several good coverings of elephant nasal juices!!
The intrepid explorer takes off...
...And the tourists...
The ride was over too soon and we went for a tour with the guide. The palace was the original home of the maharajas before Jaipur was built and had been built over 150 years.
The layout was impressive and the wall paintings where they remained was superb. Hopefully the restoration work that was underway would replace the paintings and not just re-plaster and whitewash the walls.
Everywhere we went was on the while being repaired with the only exception was the winter rooms which were covered in cut glass and mirrors and was extremely impressive.
The tour over we headed off in the tut tut to Amer fort. This again was undergoing repair but we were should the largest cannon in the world here. It was huge but had only been fired once for testing! Since then there had been no attempts on the fort!!
There was not much else here and we headed off for lunch. Mike had not been feeling well all day and after lunch the illness and the heat was too much for him and we called it a day and just rested for the rest of the day and the next.
John
