27.May.08
We were rudely awakened from our cramped box at about 4am to be hurriedly tossed out of the bus and left out in the middle of nowhere with only one other person around…a rickshaw driver. Thankfully he didn’t use our completely screwed state to his total advantage, and only moderately overcharged us for a trip to our hostel (who were SUPPOSED to pick us up free, but the night boy was too lazy at 4am when I called). Our room was an instant relief, and I even bartered the price of this “luxury suite” from Rs 300 to Rs 250/night. The joke was lost on us until later that we were put in room 007; Octopussy was filmed here (I never realized they filmed a Bond movie with cats, hmm…) It was a room befitting ol’ Jimmy Bond, and for such a deal! I decided not to be lazy and went to the rooftop (being careful not to step on the hotel workers sleeping there) to take pictures of the city at sunrise…which was mildly disappointing and didn’t seem like “the most romantic city in India” though the countryside was nice. Then I went down to join Jess in bed where we slept in to a more reasonable hour.
We woke up at a more reasonable hour and got some light breakfast on the rooftop where they put our bill on “The James Bond Room” as they thereafter called it. Then we headed around to see some sights. The first sight we saw was the super posh hotel the “Lake Palace.” We’re talking $400 – $2000 PER NIGHT to stay at this place in the middle of a once beautiful, and now almost completely dry (and filthy) lake. They are supposed to have a great restaurant, though we wouldn’t know as ONLY GUESTS CAN EAT THERE…assholes. One technically must arrive by boat, but the lake is so shallow you could walk over the thick, dirty mud to the front steps. It’s really not THAT pretty looking anyway, judge for yourself.
We visited the city palace which was just a place where some king dude, his wives, and court used to hang out. It was nice, but tacky, and the guide we took for a change was not worth the price. We justified paying a guide because we got in for the student price! Yay student ID’s. Next we went to another madly expensive and gorgeous hotel for High Tea with live local music. We ended up being the only people there and they started playing beautiful sounds just for us. Tea and sweets were delicious and an awesome change of pace. Though a bit pricey, still fractions what one would pay for the same quality and service in England i suppose. The hotel was an attachment of the palace, and still the residence of the local Rajisthani kings descendant (who isn’t really a king anymore, just some really rich guy, as it happens). The hotel had an awesome ballroom and great view of the Lake Palace which looked much nicer from this angle.
We left the ballroom and wandered the streets to a superbly intricately carved Hindu temple, and then another one nearby. They always make terrific places to meander and get away from the hectic city, though this city really isn’t all that bad. The carved Kama Sutra images are always fun to more closely examine as well. We headed back to the hotel and ate a simple and mild dinner on the rooftop as jess wasn’t feeling to well.
28.May.08
We did next to nothing today. There were only really three things worth mentioning. The first was waking up at the painful hour of 4am in attempts to take a rickshaw to some hill fort station to catch a gorgeous view of the city at sunrise. Even though our book suggested this, it was made impossible a couple years back by some government dickheads who closed the park area from 6pm to 10am. We decided to boycott and not go to the fort at all as they charge an arm and a leg for tourists anyway, and it’s not supposed to be spectacular past sunrise anyways. So we went back to bed to again wake up at a reasonable hour.
The second notable thing was taking pictures of this group of kids who lived right outside the hotel. One of which was the cutest little four year old girl we have ever seen. They all went crazy and did a whole photo shoot for us just because they loved pictures taken of them. It was great, though the boys got quite pushy not wanting the girls in the pictures, we eventually got them to all get along. Just look at how cute this picture is!
The third notable thing we did was have a terrific dinner at a nice lakeside restaurant with another view of the flame lit palace in all its glory where we SHOULD BE EATING. I finally found some good imported whiskey and so excited about the cocktail prices. We had an overall delicious meal with great naan and succulent chicken tandoori. The pic is a view of the City Palace left and Lake Palace down right.
29.May.08
We packed our bags up, left them at the front desk, and checked out. Then took a long rickshaw ride over hills and windy roads to the Eklingji temple in a little village nearby. The literal Hindi translation for Eklingji is One Respectable Penis; Ek – One, Ling – Penis (Also Lingam, the dick shaped rock carving in EVERY temple as a symbol for the main god Shiva), Ji – a term of respect. Sure enough, the temple had a lot of Lingams, also some gorgeous carved pillars, and stunning silver interior of the main temple. We couldn’t take pics anywhere inside the huge complex, which really bumbed us out, but you’ll have to take our word that it was stunning! Here’s a pic of the temples from above, but it doesn’t do it justice.
Then we headed to the Nagda ruins. Where the center of some ancient kingdom once rested, which later moved to what is now Udaipur. Most of the structures are crumbled or gracefully flooded over, but we walked around one temple area that was well preserved and very quiet and peaceful as we were the only people there. We hopped back in the rickshaw and rode to the hotel where we went to another nearby hotel and had a decent dinner while conversing with a crazy Australian. Grabbed our bags, took a rickshaw to the train station and away we went for a 27 hour journey through Mumbai and on to Aurangabad.
I figured just for fun I’d put a direct link to the pictures after the blog, since we now write it by city as opposed to time frame. So here are the Udaipur pics:
http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157605316533440/
