Rajasthan- Day Two- Journey to Udaipur

We hailed two rickshaws in the morning, and headed to the bus depot. The rickshaws have the engine of a push lawn mower, and are started much like a lawn mower, pulling a crank. The rickshaw driver insisted on taking us to lots of shady travel agents who each quoted us different prices and gave us different information, frustrating to say the least. After much insistence, the rickshaw driver finally took us the bus depot and charged us extra for making him wait… when it reality he was the one who took us to all the unnecessary stops trying to make a commission off of us. We found out at the bus depot there were no AC buses going to Udaipur, and for a 6 hour journey, we didn’t want to sit in a Government Public Bus. We wound up hiring a car for $75.00, who would take us the 220 km to Udaipur. Our driver pulled over after about 15 minutes and walked off with no explanation. As we sat on the side of the road, creating a rubber necking problem for the traffic (which was using both side of the road) as everyone, including the camel pulled carts, stopped to stare. Our drive mysteriously reappeared and informed us a new driver was coming in 2 minutes. 45 minutes later we finally hit the road again. The drive to Udaipur was actually quite lovely. The countryside of India is beautiful, and some of it untouched by civilization, so devoid of trash… yet still with that unmistakable smell.

Once we got close to Udaipur, our driver stopped and asked for directions… at least 7 times. The nice part was, everyone in India (including other drivers, your “competition”) are more than willing to give directions. Our driver, however, clearly had the short memory span of a fly and could only remember one set of directions, so as soon as there would be two turns involved, after the first turn, we would stop and ask someone again. Miraculously we finally found our guest house, the Panorama Guest House and I crossed my fingers that it would be nice. It was!! It was a very quaint guest house that included a rooftop restaurant with a gorgeous view of Udairpur… called the White City or City of Lakes. We had a view of the City Palace, Lake Palace, and the town. The rooms were bright and clean, and I was quite relieved. Udaipur is very quaint, with Greek-like narrow alleyways and streets, that should not be two way. There is no sidewalk, and a trench (for sewage/water/trash) on either side of the road. Walking around was a bit treacherous and I don’t even want to think about the air I was breathing in! We did however spot elephants in the road. Hooray! That evening we walked around and visited a Jagnesdesh Temple, where someone tried to convince us to pay to get our shoes back (no thank you, we’ve been in India for 3 months, we know better). We then went shopping, I met Rajeesh, a minature painting artist who told us all about his American customers (pretty sure we’re the first Americans in Udaipur, in fact, every single shopkeeper (even the shops we didn’t enter) asked us where we were form and by the end we were all from different countries, I started telling people I was from Brazil, or Norway, or some other fun place). We then went to an Indian dance performance that was fantastic, held in the courtyards of one of the old museums. I can’t do it justice at all, so you will have to look at the pictures when I finally get them posted upon my return to Mumbai. But each of the dances held historically/cultural significance to the Rajasthani area. After this, we went to a tailor shop because Carey and Stella wanted to have winter coats made. TWO hours later (and quite a few chapters into my book) we finally left and headed back to the guest house to get some much needed sleep. Interesting fun fact of the day, one gram of saffron is made from 400 flowers! I learned this as a merchant was trying to sell it to me on the streets of Udaipur. Now we know why it is so expensive.