Udaipur

Our final destination was Udaipur. While most of Rajasthan is dry desert, Udaipur is best known for being on the lake. The lake does dry up a lot during the dry season, but as we were there just after monsoons, it was completely full. But more about that later.

We set off from Jodhpur fairly early in the morning (9 ish). We were to see a temple on the way to Udaipur. Not knowing much about it, I wasn't totally sure what to expect. I've seen a lot of temples during our stay in India, and some were just interesting, and others spectacular. This one, Sheth Anandji Kalyanji, is truely special. As we were driving along, we got on one road which started to get a little curvey and going up hill. The vegetation started to change, it became more green and the trees reminded me of home, looking very much like the big oaks of california. They weren't of course. Then we stopped at the temple.

Now this is a very active temple and has been there for several hundreds of years, managed by the same family. It is carved entirely out of Marble. I did hear one quote from an tourist while inside which totally flabbergasted me and almost caused us to break out in laughter. Mind you this is a Jain temple and they are very Vegetarian. The lady asked her guide if the temple was carved out of marble or Ivory. I couldn't believe it. Anyways we wandered around this architectural marvel for an hour or so. Even Maya was impressed by it. It maintained a cool atmosphere by being open enough to let the breeze through. It let in light, but wasn't so open as to warm up too much in the sun. It was filled with carvings and there were all sorts of colums, pillars, domes, and other wonders to look at.

We proceeded to lunch at Aranyawas which has a nice view of the little valley it overlooks. And then on to Udaipur.

We arrived in Udaipur in late afternoon and went pretty much straight to the hotel. Unfortunately we were not booked in a hotel on the lake, but it is a former palace of the local King. He still maintains his polo ponies there and has his own private airport there. Since it was Diwali when we arrived, the staff was pretty minimal and all of the staff were wearing what looked like army uniforms. This gave the whole place a bit of a military feel. There is a small private lake there too. It was pleasant, but not at the top of my list if I were to return. That evening the hotel had scheduled Diwali celebrations over the polo grounds. First they handed out sparklers to everyone and lit candles all around so we could litght the sparklers. These were more similar to the ones I've seen in the USA. About a foot long (1/3 meter). They were fun, but hard to light. There were a couple of children running around with the sparklers. I think they were something like 4 and 7 years of age.

Then the guards started lighting the big stuff. They had two different kinds of rockets, bottle rockets, and some in cardboard tubes. They started off putting the big ones in the tubes upside down, so the first 2 ejected the tubes into the air, and exploded on the ground at their feet. Pretty spectacular!! Fortunately no-one got hurt. Then they got it right and the children descended to "help". They kept running up to the guards who were lighting some rocket, or firecrakers, or strongter stuff. I kept wondering when they would get hurt or scared, fortunately they didn't. I couldn't understand how they could be running around down there, but then found out they were the hotel manager's children and knew all the guards. All was well.


The following day, we met our guide for Udaipur. Of all the guides, we liked him the least. He rushed us through the few sites he took us to, and seemed to be forgetting one we wanted to see. He started us off at the palace. It is a home to the current king, plus a hotel. Since it was part of the same hotel chain where we were staying, we got to go through the grounds without paying extra fees. We did have to pay for the tour though.

Inside they have a number of nice exhibits. Unfortunately as we were rushed through, we didn't get to see all of them. One I thought was particularly interesting is a represnentation of the King's horse in an historic battle against another Mughal supported king. He dressed his horse up as an elephant baby so that the war elephants from the other side would not injure it. The war elephants supposedly carried a sword in thieir trunk to injur the opposition horses and riders. It worked for a time, but then the elephants realized and did injure the horse.

The tour goes through all parts of the palace, up and down narrow stairs. The narrow passageways were part of the security scheme. Only 1 man could hold off several because the hallways were narrow enough for only one to go through at a time. We got to see views of the lake from the palace, the first working indoor plumbing, and many other things.

We had a short visit to the local temple. Then we went off to a garden which had been built for the palace ladies. Only women were allowed to enter there when it was built. Now it is open to all. After that a quick visit to a folklore museum. Then it was time for Lunch. The guide took his leave.

After lunch we asked our driver where to go for a while. We had tickets to take the boat tour at 5:30, and needed to kill a little time. Not so much we could go back to the hotel, but enough to need something to do. He took us to the lake shore where I spotted some pirate boats. And we enjoyed a leisurely walk along the water.

Then we went on the boat tour. We actually took a boat at about 4:45, which was just fine. We toured around a bit, and then stopped at Jagmandir. This is an island in the lake which was used as a summer picnic/ palace ground for the royal family. It is now open to the public and you can see the gardens, have a bite at the coffee shop, or even stay overnight in part of the former palace. We stopped in for a coffee, and the view. We had been wondering where to have dinner. We sort of wanted something scenic. Well we had found it. They had a dinner restaurant on the island. And they were willing to give us a table. So, all we had to do was wait around for dinner time. We wandered the island, saw the sunset. And we took pictures and then watched as they put blankets on the elephants out front of the Island. I guess they can get stone cold.

We enjoyed a delightful dinner at Jagmandir, along with a stunning view of the palace all lit up for Diwali. I'd love to go back and just relax on the lake for a couple of days.

Jodhpur and Surrounds

We set off towards Jodhpur not too late in the morning, we were to stay 2 nights there, so we could move at a bit more leisurly pace. Jodhpur is known as the Blue City because many of the houses are painted blue. Originally the Brahmins were the onely ones allowed to paint their houses this particular color, but in recent times it has become unrestricted and more universal. But I get ahead of myself.

We didn't go into Jodhpur proper the day we arrived. We met our guide, and he took us to some villages in the surrounding areas of Jodhpur to visit some of the local crafts people. First we visited a potter. He had a very large kiln in the yard, but I didn't get to ask him how he covers it up. I'm actually curious to know. It is obviously fed by a fire which can be stoked through the hole on the bottom. It is obviously not too high temperature clay he uses as the iron doesn't melt in the kiln, which it could for a high temp firing.

His son demonstrated the wheel they use for making most of their pots. It is basically a big flywheel mounted on something which allows it to spin. It is not held horizontal, but has to be spun up with a stick and while doing that managed to keep it from wobbling. Once it is spinning well, it can be used for several minutes to make a pot. He was able to throw a pot in the space of about 2 minutes.

After he made a couple, I was convinced to give it a try. While I had used a wheel in my parent's pottery shop when I was a teenager, it has been many years. And the one I used was motorized and high up enough to stand at. Both my attempts were flops, but it was fun to try.

In the area around Jodhpur, there is a long standing tradition amongst some of the villagers of using Opium. It can be consumed in several ways, but one of the traditional ways to consume it there is by making Opium Tea. So our next stop was the house of an elderly man, his daughter and granddaughter. They demonstrated, or rather he demonstrated, how to make opium tea. He also demonstrated on me how to tie a turban, which can start at 9 meters long and go longer. They were very gentle kind people and genuinely open and friendly with their home.

Our final stop that afternoon was at a Dhurry Weaver village. This gentleman showed us the process for weaving them, and explained the different types of wool, silks and cottons they used. He also explained how the village had been set up by the government to promote the handicrafts and create a co-op for the weavers to get better incomes. We bought a couple of lovely dhurries from him for the house.

We ended the day with going to our hotel, which was another converted palace(Rohet Garh). This one was the nicest of them all. It was very homey. The owner lives in part of it, and he met us (and I suspect most of the other guests) in the garden at tea time just after we arrived. As I said the place felt very comfortable while being a very nice hotel. It had the nicer qualites of a B&B combined with a 4 or 5 star hotel. The hotel was all lit up at night, in preparation for Dhiwali. As such it was like walking out into fairy land.



The next day we made a tour of the royal crematorium, and the fort and palace. The royal crematorium looks imposing as you come to it, until you find out the cremations didn't take place in this building. The large building is a monument built by one of the kings of Jodhpur so that his mother could look out the window and be reminded of her husband who had been cremated there. You could go inside the monumnent, where there were pictures of all of the Kings of Jodhpur, plus a space for worship. All kinds of people come to worship here. Many people come and tie a knot in a a handkerchief or piece of fabric or thread on the chain dividing the insides of the hall. They make a wish for something good, i.e. a child, and then once the wish is granted, they come back and remove the item. It is a nice spot with a small lake, and a nice view when it isn't hazy, like the day we were there.

From there we went to the fort proper. The fort is high up on the hill, even after you park the car. This time we rode in an elevator up to the fort. It is walkable, but the elevator saves a lot of time. The rock was hand carved to make a shaft for the elevator some years ago. Inside there were a lot of items used by the Maharajas of the time. This silver palanquin was particularly interesting. Notice the human face on the lion. Again there were many rooms of sliver and gold. Very fancy digs for the these royals.

The view from the fort was stunning, albeit a bit hazy. You could certainly see why it is called the Blue City. And when we exited the fort, here was a camel waiting along beside all of the two wheelers parked by the entrance to the fort.
After visiting the fort, we visited a textile warehouse where they had seven floors of different kinds of textiles from floor to ceiling.


Then we went to the city market are and visited the clock tower. Since it was just before Diwali, the market was crammed with people. There were many side streets and alleys. We went through a few of them, ending up at the clock tower. We saw people selling clothing, running open air barber shops and dental clinics (have your tooth removed on the street anyone?), trinkets for Diwali, and anything else you could think of. And of course children passing the time...

Camels Ho!!

I had reservations about this camel ride thing. I've never been tremendously comfortable on a horse, though I can ride one. I'd heard about people being bitten by camels, I heard they had bad breath, and many other stories. So, needless to say, I wasn't entirely sure about what was coming. Fortunately we all had reservations for the camel rides too, but more about that later.



We set off for the desert. Wait a minute, I thought we already were in the desert. Well yes we were, but this is the 'real desert' with lots of sand and camels and sand and more camels and sand and border security guards because it is so close to Pakistan. We ended up being about 100Km from Pakistan if I remember correctly. It's about 40km from Jaisalmer. Along the way I start to see patches of sand dunes and a lot less vegetation. Then all of a sudden off in the distance I see two ladies riding on camels with one attendant along walking with them. I think how nice, how open, how people free. Surprising for India. We drove on a ways, and then we reached the point for riding off into the sand dunes on the camels to see the sunset. Now I had had an image of being 'out there' sort of lonely with the sun setting. Think again Bryan!! There were busloads of people getting on camels, and hundreds of them riding off into the dunes. This wasn't some private moment in the large expanse of the desert, it was almost a traffic jam out there in the dunes.

We got on our camels and started off with the three young boys who were the camel attendants. This is where it was important to have reservations as there were so many people trying for camels. We just got on ours and took off. Momentarily we were joined by a young man trying to sell us soft drinks at exhorbitant prices. He called himself Ali Baba--I think he was one of the 40 thieves myself. The funny part is that since we weren't buying right then, he wandered off for a moment and a man at least 10 years his senior showed up and tried to sell us the same thing. Guess what his name was. You got it--Ali Baba. As soon as he told us this the boy showed up and ran him off, it was amusing.

I had said I was concerned about riding the camels. Well they were docile, gentle creatures and much more comfortable to ride. While we didn't gallop off into the sunset, I did see young men coming back trying to get a 2nd customer. They were at a full run. The camels were much smoother to ride, and if you just sort of relaxed, it was almost like being rocked on a boat. No wonder they are called the ships of the desert. By the way, did you know they are very intelligent and can find their way across from Pakistan to India without a rider and get to just where they are supposed to go. They are used by smugglers this way, sent off with contraband across the desert.

We got out into the desert and got off our camels. Ali Baba was right there handing out drinks, and then demanding twice the price he asked for at the beginning of the ride, citing desert prices. I told him I would pay what he asked at the start, even though that was roughly 6 times the store price for the drinks. But there wasn't any store handy. Cindy as always made instant friends and they had to take pictures.

We sat and enjoyed the sunset. Beautiful experience even if we did have to share it with 500 of our closest newly found friends. Then we rode back to the car. Cindy and I shared a camel this time as one of ours had gone for a ride with someone else and not returned by the time we were ready to leave. Even this was comfortable, though I didn't enjoy it as something I had eaten earlier in the day had caught up with me and my bowels were distinctly unhappy.

We proceeded back to our desert camp. Supposedly this was camping under the stars. It was more like hotel rooms with canvas roofs. We had marble floors, running water, toilets and electricity in our tents. The next morning, feeling better I got up in time to catch the sunrise over the camp, and then enjoy a cup of tea with a lovely family from Kerala. We met them several times over the next few days in Jodhpur, and Udaipur. They were going riding in the morning and these camels were waiting for them.

Jaisalmer

Jaisalmer is the most comfortable city I've been in here in India, I think because it is a smaller city, much of which is still very close to the old fort. It really fealt like a human city, not one overrun by cars yet. We had arrived the previous afternoon and declined the trip to the local park/lake in the afternoon. I suppose it might have been nice during the afternoon, towards sunset, but as it was, we got to see it fresh in the morning.

Where we arrived, my first thought was tourist trap. It looked like we would have to walk up a long walkway lined with vendors trying to hawk items we didn't want. Fortunately that wasn't the case. Along the way our guide bought a loaf of bread and I really expected to be feeding the ducks. As it was, we got to the lake and the guide explained that there were various locations along the lake shore for differnent castes and people. For instance the Brahmins had one section of the lake shore, another was reserved for the laborers like carpenters, etc.

He then explained that since the lake is a holy lake, even the animals living in the lake are holy, thus there is no fishing to eat. He got out the bread and started throwing it in the water, immediately there were hundreds of catfish swimming or should I say swarming along the lake shore, hoping to catch a morsel from our hands. The guide told us to be careful when throwing in the bread. He then recounted a story of one of his guests who had gotten so exhuberant about the teeming fish that she had her camera in one hand, and the bread in the other. And you guessed it, she tossed the camera in the lake. They did manage to retrieve it, but just imagine.

After the lake, we drove up to the fort entrance which is on a large hill overlooking the rest of the city. Jaisalmer fort is one of the largest in the world, and about a third of the residents of the city still live within its walls. You can see the actual entrance at the right of the photo. A large section of the actual palace had to be restored after a recent earth quake, and work is still going on. It is built with interlocking stone, no mortar. On the way in, there are a lot of vendors trying to hawk local arts and crafts, hats, cameras, camera accessories, and other things, but most of them were really friendly and not overly pushy.

Inside we saw not only the palace, from the outside, but we also visited a Jain temple. The Jains were very influential and wealthy along the Silk Road in India. This is one such location. The temple is beautifully carved and well maintained to this day. There was work ongoing inside one of the temples cementing the idols in place. The idols were beautiful, and if you know what to look for, you could tell them apart. They pretty much all looked similar to me. I found the carvings more interesting actually. This one was pretty popular, seems to be touched by many people. The place was very busy with tourists coming and going all the time, with intermittent worshipers coming too. Outside I got this picture of the ticket taker at the entrance. He was kept very busy with people coming and going into the two entrances of the two different temples he had to monitor both doors. But he did it with aplomb.

After visiting the temple we wandered around the fort a bit. The guide explained there is a tradition when someone in the family is getting married. You paint the invitation/announcement on the wall of the house for all to see. We saw several such announcements while wandering around in the fort city, and even outside the fort. This makes it easy, you don't have to worry that someone will come along and say, "you didn't invite me" as it is posted for all to see. He even explained how you can tell by what is painted whether it is a bride or groom to be. After wandering the city, and looking down on the walls to see the ammunition left for dropping on enemies (round stones all along the walls), we walked out of the fort and visited a silver smith. They had some truely lovely modern and antique pieces. We picked up a couple of nice items, and then headed off for lunch at "On The Rocks" for a delicious lunch with a nice view of the fort.

After this we vistited some of the Havelis of Jaisalmer, where we got to see the former prime minister's house and several others. They were incredibly carved out of stone. One house was done in a fashion by two competing architects so that both sides of the house were carved similarly, but always different too. Strong rivalry there. We got to go inside one, where there was a store on the second floor, selling artifacts to maintain the house for tourists to see. Truely facinating to visit.

Then it was time to leave Jaisalmer for our excursion to the desert and Camel Rides.