No, not me romancing, but the romance of the city of Udaipur is catching and the desert which follows lures me to romantic dreams.
Old Udaipur - new parts of cities are same same- is set out around a lake [or two or three- I never quite figured it out] and in the centre of the main lake- Lake Pichola- is the city palace. City Palace is this extremely extensive and amazing complex of rooms- all different styles and colours which is totally magnificent. It took me three hours to walk through the entire place. Rooms with mirrors, rooms of crystal, rooms of blue, rooms of pink= bedrooms, viewing rooms, entertaining rooms, galleries. All connected by a series of stairways and hallways which luckily have arrows showing the way. Up top, there is actually a garden with big beautiful shade trees and a pool of water- a peaceful retreat from the bustle outside. [except filled with tourists].
The markets are easy to manage and an afternoon boatride around the lake- where there are two other smaller palaces seemingly growing out of the water- is a treat. We eat at a restaurant on the lake overlooking the palace, which is awash in golden lights for the night. In the distance, you can hear the soft thud of the disco beat coming from new Udaipur. Across from our hotel, is a small shop which sells water and toilet paper and othe sundries and is called the Mozart Cafe for some reason. It is run by Mr Singh, who is helped by an orphan child who he has "adopted" and is teaching a trade, so that he will not be one of the many abandoned and begging children on the streets. My heart swells with emotion at hearing this. In the morning, I give the boy a toy elephant -from the box of 12 which I stupidly bought by another lake in Jaipur only days ago [how the hell am I going to get rid o 12 elephants???] He is delighted and keeps touching it and looking at it- a big grin plastered all over his face.The children here are precious.
We leave Udaipur and head for Pushkar. Rakesh our driver, starts telling me about all of the cheaters and thieves in Pushkar and by the time we arrive, I am reluctant to get out of the car or even the hotel for that matter. But reason takes over and the next morning, I'm marching through town at 7AM watching the shop keepers set up shop and hearing the usual Nameste and Good Morning! as I pass. No one wants you to buy at 7 AM. The shrines are working hard at this hour and people are dropping blessings and praying, so they are too distracted for commerce.
Thieves I say. Maybe. Maybe not. Never know. Sometimes they are in an unsuspected form. Like the Sadwa, who gave us a brilliant blessing and pumped an enormous amount of rupees from me- for living and non living relatives- to save their karma. For this I get a piece of red and yellow string wound tightly around my right wrist and a flmsy postcard and a plastic bag full of rose water flavoured sugar balls. I am uptight about this til we round the corner and are accosted by a band of monkeys who rip it all out of our hands and then fight over the measly pickings. You can only laugh really.
The market surrounds the lake and we are taken by a Brahman, who hits us up for support- can he call me Mama, and write to me in Australia and I will send him money to save his dying mother and father- who are somewhere between the ages of 50 and 80- depending on the context of the current conversation. I am weary and feeling sad that spirituality has a $ sign attached to it, but then maybe I am being naive.
That night, we are taken by camel into the desert- an amazing ride- and I have a new respect for both camels and camel drivers. My camel, Raja, is a rebel and stops for munches and drinks. I get worried about a suspected limp from one of his legs, and I mention this to the driver, who says to me: "Are you OK? If you are OK, I am OK and the camel is OK". So I sit back and enjoy the ride. We end up on a spot in the desert at sunset, and are first entertained by children- cheeky and begging.
Old Udaipur - new parts of cities are same same- is set out around a lake [or two or three- I never quite figured it out] and in the centre of the main lake- Lake Pichola- is the city palace. City Palace is this extremely extensive and amazing complex of rooms- all different styles and colours which is totally magnificent. It took me three hours to walk through the entire place. Rooms with mirrors, rooms of crystal, rooms of blue, rooms of pink= bedrooms, viewing rooms, entertaining rooms, galleries. All connected by a series of stairways and hallways which luckily have arrows showing the way. Up top, there is actually a garden with big beautiful shade trees and a pool of water- a peaceful retreat from the bustle outside. [except filled with tourists].
The markets are easy to manage and an afternoon boatride around the lake- where there are two other smaller palaces seemingly growing out of the water- is a treat. We eat at a restaurant on the lake overlooking the palace, which is awash in golden lights for the night. In the distance, you can hear the soft thud of the disco beat coming from new Udaipur. Across from our hotel, is a small shop which sells water and toilet paper and othe sundries and is called the Mozart Cafe for some reason. It is run by Mr Singh, who is helped by an orphan child who he has "adopted" and is teaching a trade, so that he will not be one of the many abandoned and begging children on the streets. My heart swells with emotion at hearing this. In the morning, I give the boy a toy elephant -from the box of 12 which I stupidly bought by another lake in Jaipur only days ago [how the hell am I going to get rid o 12 elephants???] He is delighted and keeps touching it and looking at it- a big grin plastered all over his face.The children here are precious.
We leave Udaipur and head for Pushkar. Rakesh our driver, starts telling me about all of the cheaters and thieves in Pushkar and by the time we arrive, I am reluctant to get out of the car or even the hotel for that matter. But reason takes over and the next morning, I'm marching through town at 7AM watching the shop keepers set up shop and hearing the usual Nameste and Good Morning! as I pass. No one wants you to buy at 7 AM. The shrines are working hard at this hour and people are dropping blessings and praying, so they are too distracted for commerce.
Thieves I say. Maybe. Maybe not. Never know. Sometimes they are in an unsuspected form. Like the Sadwa, who gave us a brilliant blessing and pumped an enormous amount of rupees from me- for living and non living relatives- to save their karma. For this I get a piece of red and yellow string wound tightly around my right wrist and a flmsy postcard and a plastic bag full of rose water flavoured sugar balls. I am uptight about this til we round the corner and are accosted by a band of monkeys who rip it all out of our hands and then fight over the measly pickings. You can only laugh really.
The market surrounds the lake and we are taken by a Brahman, who hits us up for support- can he call me Mama, and write to me in Australia and I will send him money to save his dying mother and father- who are somewhere between the ages of 50 and 80- depending on the context of the current conversation. I am weary and feeling sad that spirituality has a $ sign attached to it, but then maybe I am being naive.
That night, we are taken by camel into the desert- an amazing ride- and I have a new respect for both camels and camel drivers. My camel, Raja, is a rebel and stops for munches and drinks. I get worried about a suspected limp from one of his legs, and I mention this to the driver, who says to me: "Are you OK? If you are OK, I am OK and the camel is OK". So I sit back and enjoy the ride. We end up on a spot in the desert at sunset, and are first entertained by children- cheeky and begging.
I give them some chewing gum, and we play games cheng and pulling long green minty threads from our mouths up to the sky. The sun sets and we are entertained by real gypsy dancers who, again, pull me up from the bindy covered blanket I am sitting on to stir up some dust- twisting and turning in the fire light. Dinner is served and we know not what we eat because it is pitch dark. But it tastes all right.
Before long- and probably because we are not buying the gypsy wares set out before us, the camels are loaded and we are undulating our way back into town. The view is wide from atop a camel and the stars loom above us- the lights of Pushkar twinkling in the distance. In reality we are about 1 kilometre from town, but it feels like light years away.
Very romantic.
Images to follow........
1 comment:
Wow, the pic at the top does capture a romantic looking citadel! And I'm glad you can laugh about the yellow bands!
We're off in 4 days now.. just written my first travel-post :) Hope you're enjoying the latter part of your trip!
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