We left Jodhpur very early in the morning. It's strange to see a place in the dark, gone was the hustle and bustle and in it's place were street dogs roaming in packs while people slept obliviously in shopfronts, it almost felt as if we were intruding. We walked through the still dark streets towards the train station where our bus was coming to pick us up (we hoped). There wasn't a travel agents with the name we booked with but there were people waiting with suitcases and bags so it seemed we were in the right place. The bus turned up and on we hopped.
The bus took an hour and half longer to get us to Udaipur than it claimed it would. I'm pretty sure they knew it too as the bus conductor happened to put on a film that ended just as we arrived. The film wasn't bad, almost all of it was in Hindi and there was a lot of drinking and bedroom scenes for 8 in the morning but it was easy enough to follow along with.
When we arrived we jumped in the first tuk-tuk we could find. Mistake! Always check the seats before you sit, this one happened to have a spring poking through and as I slid along to make room for Ben it ripped a hole into the seat of my trousers. Not wanting to risk it again, I got straight back out to look for another. We found one easily enough, they must know the bus times because they appear at all the stops. From here we headed to a bridge that would take us to where we were staying in the old town of Udaipur.
The old part of Udaipur sits on either side of Pichola lake with a bridge connecting the two halves. This bridge has kissing gates on either side to stop scooters using as a cut through, you can imagine how ridiculous we looked, trying to get through with our large backpacks behind us and almost getting stuck. Where we stayed the streets were narrow and windy and almost too small for tuk-tuks to travel down, this was wonderful as it meant we were spared the smog of exhaust fumes that linger in most of the city.
We decided to take it a bit easier in Udaipur. After the whirlwind tour of Agra, Jaipur and Jodhpur we needed a break from bouncing around from one sight to another. It was time to rest and actually absorb everything we had seen.
Before we left on our travels we were warned that India can be polarising but it's hard to imagine how you can love a place and hate it all in the same day. India is amazing, but it's also loud, hectic, dirty, hard work and sometimes completely overwhelming. This is how I felt when we arrived in Udaipur, I was missing having my home comforts and how convenient everything is back in England. After a long conversation telling my mum all we had seen and done, it came to me that I was probably just a bit exhausted and need a few days to recharge, so that's what we did (after a bit more moaning).
The old town has a great selections of rooftop cafes where you can look over the city, lakes and catch the sunset, so that's where we spent a great portion of our time. Soaking in the relaxed vibes and trying not to get rained on too much! I'm not saying everywhere was great, I had a few irrational moments when food arrived missing half the ingredients only to be told they were seasonal. This seems to be a common lie told when a kitchen has run out of an item, if true i would have to believe some cafes sat side by side happen to be seasons apart. For instance; apples (literally had just walked past a cart full of apples), oranges and kidney beans... all seasonal from one street to another.
Udaipur is known as the city of lakes and above Lake Pichola sits the City Palace. The City Palace is a collection of 11 palaces built over 400 years. The construction began in 1553, commissioned by Maharana Udai Singh II a "King of Kings" from the Mewar dynasty, when he founded the "new" city Udaipur. Now days the city Palace has been split off into different sections, parts are still owned by the Udaipur Royal family where others have been made in to luxury hotels, and the latest addition (made by the British) has been converted into a school.
Of course what we wanted to see wasn't any of the above but the museum known locally as the Pratap Museum. The museum was opened in 1969 and houses many different exhibitions, ranging from arms and armoury, elephant howdahs, royal palanquins and stone depictions of Hindu gods - that would have sat in Shrines. There was an interesting collection of 3D maps which showed how the city palace has grown over the years, and which style of architecture was used in different parts of the complex.
Our favourite exhibition however, was the Royal portrait gallery. The royal portraits (before cameras were introduced to Udaipur) depicted royals doing feats archery, dining with the gods or showing their prowess in battle. Once photography was introduced the royal portraits soon turned to the stuffy uptight Victorian style of portraits... you know, the ones where they glare at the camera and don't seem to be having any fun. Some of these however had been hand painted (with various degrees of skill) after printing, so had an oil painting appearance to them.
The City Palace of Udaipur is full of contrasts. The tour takes you through lavishly decorated formal receiving rooms with intricate coloured glasswork, to understated (but fully furnished) bedrooms of the royals and joining these areas together are utilitarian hallways which would look at home in any municipal hospital. The views from the museum were amazing, either looking over the city or across lake Pichola to the Palace-turned-hotel in it's waters.
From here we went to buy me some trousers. I seem to have a bad time with cheap Indian trousers, probably because I'm always trying to get a "good" deal. So of course we went to the merchant yelling that his trousers only cost 200 Rs, what could go wrong? Well the seam along the seat of the trousers could split after wearing them for only a few hours. It could and it most definitely did! Luckily it was only in the hotel room this time - I may have failed to mention a previous trouser splitting episode in Rishikesh - and later on Ben managed to return the trousers and get me a new pair... which shrunk in the wash while all the dye leached out. Moral of the story buy extra trousers in case the first pair break.
Due to the weather we couldn't take a sunset boat ride but instead watched the sunset from a rooftop cafe. Luckily the rain stopped for long enough for us to catch the sun setting in the hills surrounding the city, turning the sky a dusky pink.
Leaving Udaipur wasn't as easy as arriving. Firstly the hotel reception couldn't work out how long we stayed or how much we should pay. We booked an extra couple of nights in Udaipur and when asking to extend our stay we made sure to confirm that it was at the same rate. Upon check-out the price confirmed seemed to have increased and no-one could agree on what we should pay. 20 minutes and 5 employees later (they seemed to need a team meeting) they came to the price we told them at the beginning. Then we had to get to the bus.
To get the night bus we had to head to the travel agent half way across town to confirm. This was fine, but as we had time to kill we decided to walk. Walking from the old town to the new was quite a contrast, gone were the small streets, lined with shops and hotels built high and close together, to a more commercial area with high-rise buildings dotted along a very busy road with cars zooming past. At times if felt as if we were in a different place altogether, and with the sun completely set it was hard to know if we were going the right way. Eventually we found the travel agents and not quite where it said it would be on the map.
Confirming our seats was easy and then we just were waiting for the bus. The bus didn't arrive however, but instead a small tuk-tuk/ golf buggy hybrid turned up that was to take us to where the bus was. It would have been nice if someone had told us about this before hand. We shared the transport with 5 others - a bit cramped with our huge backpacks in there too - but the tuk-tuk type thing behind us seemed to turn into a clown car with 14 teenagers all crammed inside and one jumping on the back as they set off.
We arrived at a very old bus, that had horrible suspension and a driver who was fond of his horn. The night seemed to last forever, with the bus slowly bumping along while the driver tooted at god knows what - it was a truly horrid experience but it taught us to pay sightly more for overnight travel.
Although we didn't get much sleep we did get to our next stop, Indore.
Comentarios