Bikaner

Oh for those off-roads Tarun!

Roughly 250 kms to Bikaner today and all of it on main roads. That means for a much faster, smoother and easier drive but it's not nearly so much fun. This is desert country and the scenery doesn't change too much. We saw this

And this...

And then wow... A cotton factory in the distance.

Lots of camel carts though and they're always fun.

Unlike the camel we need lots of water. We have to buy it in small quantities here otherwise we're drinking very hot water. Tarun seems to be in and out of shops buying it at very frequent intervals.

 

Speaking of water, it rained last night and we saw huge puddles of water on the sides of the road. There is no drainage system in these towns and the water doesn't seem to seep into the ground very quickly so it needs to wait for the sun to evaporate it. Never thought I would see this in the desert 

Thought we'd get breakfast on the road today but by the time we were hungry there was nowhere much to eat, so it was out with the cashew nuts and oranges again.

We got a lovely welcome at our desert resort hotel, flowers round our neck, cold drinks and towels and even a board in the foyer welcoming Mr Tarun .... Obviously I didn't count :-(

Take a look at  Maharaja Mr Tarun  with his flowers and fancy hairdo. I think a hair cut is going to be high on his agenda when he gets back to Delhi.

It seems like the Maharaja has his palace, including the restaurant and swimming pool, all to himself and his guest, as we are the only ones here......apart from the lizards that are scuttling around the walls and all the birds conversing rather loudly in the vicinity. 

After a very welcome swim and laze around the pool I reminded the Maharaja that he was actually working so off into explore the city :-)

First stop is a rooftop restaurant for a drink. Some of these old buildings are absolutely gorgeous and I love the style of architecture .

..... and that's about as far as we got. Only 4 nights left before I leave and we are both feeling a little tired now. It's been a very busy four weeks and we've done so much, so spending a few hours in a beautiful roof top setting was  about all we had energy for. Tomorrow we will be staying put and doing some touristy things.

Loved the cow and all the dogs sleeping beside our car when we left the restaurant. Often they just sleep in the middle of the road, which probably has something to do with why we see so many dead dogs on the road.

Jodhpur

Today I became very aware that I'm on the homeward run as it was back to Jodhpur to the same hotel that we stayed in on our way down to Gujarat. Tarun has been dreaming of that swimming pool for a while now.

The first part of the drive wasn't too exciting as we were on a main highway and although the road was great there isn't a great amount to see on these roads. The real sights are on the lesser roads but the very very best sights are on the lesser lesser roads where Tarun has vowed to keep off :-)

Didn't think he'd stick with that resolution!

I consider myself very lucky to have been able to venture into these out of the way places and I think I really realised that when I reached the very touristy Udaipur where the tourists were mainly seeing buildings and shops. Thank you Tarun... youve given me a very unique experience.

We hadn't seen many monkeys for a while so I was happy that we started to see them again leaving Udaipur. They sit and watch us go by, often on the road where the cars pass by very closely. These black faced monkeys have extremely long tails which often stretch out over the road and I wonder how many cars end up running over the tail. Ouch!

Before we hit the desert the roads were very pretty with lots of trees with green leaves and flowers.

Lots of activity of course with vehicles, animals and people. At one point there was a sign indicating that there were leopards in the area but despite Tarun's warnings on both this trip and the one I did last year, I have never seen one. The people are always colourful and I've started to recognise the regional differences in dress.

The villages are also very different and the houses constructed in different materials and styles.

 

I have noticed many handmade bricks as I've travelled around . You often see a large square brick structure with smoke arising from it as they are fired.

 

At one stage today we had to wait for a train. This is usually chaotic but much easier today because there wasn't too much traffic. I decided to count the carriages... 59!! That is a very long train.

There is a festival of gypsy music on in Jodhpur and the hotel seems to be full of foreign tourists. We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing. 

Off to Bikaner tomorrow... another long drive but we are staying for two nights. 

A Day in Udaipur

Two nights in one place means a leisurely start to the morning. Last night Tarun very briefly suggested he could run around the lake this morning but I noticed that it didn't happen.

Udaipur is full of little narrow streets so a tuktuk was the best option to go into the town,as was a reasonably early start to beat the heat. We wandered around the streets a bit and it made me realise how much I prefer the less touristy places. There are lots of foreigners around here, many of them with a tour group.... Indian mother duck is leading all the western ducklings as they wander along behind. There are many shops selling Indian handcrafts, clothes and souvenirs ... all very colourful and gloriously blingy in the Rasathan style.

I'm not sure if they'd come into the category of souvenirs but the shop selling false teeth was worth a look. I can't be 100% sure but they looked very much used to me. All shapes and sizes... top ones and bottom ones, full ones and partial ones......something  to suit everyone! Window shopping was enough for me as I had no desire at all to try anything for size.

The fruit and vegetable stalls in India always look good so today it was bananas, oranges and mangoes for lunch .

Anyone who has travelled in Asia will know that toilets are challenges that are best avoided, but when you have to go you have to go. The picture outside was of a woman but this is what I had to deal with inside. I just hoped that the men saw the picture of a woman and stayed outside.

Walking through the streets is never boring.....

We made it down to the edge of the lake and sat a while watching a couple of women washing their clothes... and themselves.

There were a group of boys having a lot of fun in the water right by where I saw dead fish last time I was in Udaipur. A policeman came and moved them in but they were back as soon as the policeman left.

It was all very hot and tiring so it was a good excuse for a lassi where we could look down on all the people passing by.

Despite the fact that it is very touristy, Udaipur is a very beautiful place . Some of the buildings around the lake are beautiful and it's hard to know wether it is most beautiful during the day or at night. There are lights all around the lake and we are also lucky to have a full moon. We have eaten at the hotel restaurant both nights as the food is good and the setting absolutely beautiful with tables set out on a lawn leading to the lake, all lit with candles. Just the right sort of place to enjoy a nice wine! However, I guess it depends on how much you want it, as for $NZ 30 a glass I decided that I didn't want it that badly.

Tomorrow morning we are back off to Jodphur, staying in the same nice hotel we were in last time.... the swimming pool being a big attraction. It's not so much that we are wanting to go back to Jodphur, it's more that it's the best place to stop as we head back to Delhi. It seems sooo long ago that we were there..

Udaipur

 

Who would have thought ... a breakfast of chicken sausages, potato, cooked tomato, bacon, egg and toast. I could have been at home.

It was a 260km drive to Udaipur with only one stop for chai and samosa.... Yeah I think we do eat all day, but perhaps not as much as we drink! I've lost count of the empty water bottles we've thrown out but it's been enough to start our own recycling factory.

The country became very dry as we headed into Rajasthan and most of the way driving was pretty easy .... Apart from the number of trucks of course.

We arrived in Udaipur early afternoon. 

The hotel is very lovely as you can see in the photos and the room looks over the lake. 

We are staying here for two nights as we've had a few one night stops and they get very tiring. We sometimes need two nights to catch up on a few chores like washing clothes. Tarun also had to mend his pants.... I remember him doing that on the last trip we did together as well. Nice to see a man who can mend his own pants!

Udaipur is a beautiful place . I was here in    November 2013 and I have very fond memories of it. This is the place where we did a cook school.... hmmm I never did try out those dishes at home. I have cooked the chicken curry that Tarun  taught me to make last year though and it was very good..... wow, he can cook and sew...... What a catch!!!!

 And here is the photo to prove that I really did make it. 

The hotel restaurant leads right down to the lakefront so we spent a bit of time sitting there watching the activity on the lake and the squirrels darting around. It was quite a contrast to the chaos we experienced earlier today in Ahmedabad.

Tarun remarked on how clean the lake looked  but changed his mind when I told him about the dead fish I saw floating around in it last time I was here. The restaurant actually serves 'lake fish' but I'm not planning on ordering that.

We went for a walk around the lake just before sunset.......

......and kept walking and walking ......

....... until it got dark. We had the odd stop where we sat and watched life go by. Lots of people just walking, talking and snacking on street food. I worried a bit about the dog that was caught on a little bit of land between the water of the lake and a big high wall but it was a waste of time as after a while she just took a mighty leap up on to the wall and was gone. Didn't know dogs could jump so high.

It was a walk back in the dark with a full moon and the lights reflected on the lake. This place may be touristy but I like it very much. It is very very beautiful and the area around the lake looks very much like it could be in Europe.  

Ahmedabad

 Another travel day today. ...... to Ahmedabad. Distances are long and also slow as a simple trip usually means dealing with a lot of obstacles like potholes, speed humps, cows, goats, trucks, ox carts, motor bikes, tuktuks, people and the unexpected. The good part of course is that you never get bored. After yesterday's episode with the car Taurun resolved not to take any more goat tracks and stick to better roads.... we'll see!!!!! 

We left at about 8.45 am.... Not a great time to leave at it was chaotic.... In Tarun's words 'crazier than Delhi.' Guess who found a quiet back road out of the city?  :-)

Lots of hotels in this city because it's a commercial centre, but the names are a bit off putting.....Hotels Happiness, Joy, Relax, Decent, Bliss were some that I noticed.

There were also quite a few residential complexes with many under construction. I love the bamboo scaffolding.

Indians are very fond of little circles in the road with statues. I still haven't quite worked out what a statue of a kangaroo is doing in Surat but then you see strange things in India.... like..... Mum sitting behind Dad on the motorbike with baby sleeping between them, and then a different couple with Mum feeding the baby between them from a bottle.... both riding on a main highway without helmets.

The highways in this state are pretty good but nevertheless we saw the aftermath of four truck accidents on the road today. Toll roads most of the way too..... because  Tarun is keeping off the ox cart tracks.

Trucks for miles out of our back window.

We arrived in Ahmedabad about lunchtime and checked into the hotel. It's is one of the newer parts of Ahmedabad so the view out of the window is not overly exciting. I went for a walk but all I could find were car accessories shops.

We have stayed in quite a variety of hotels during this trip. The best ones are definately in the more touristy areas and often it's hard to find good hotels elsewhere. The bigger commercial cities are OK but smaller places often have nowhere you'd want to stay at all. We stayed in some really nice ones in Bhuj, Jodhpur and Pushka, possibly so nice because they had quiet gardens and pools around them. 

Bit of a rest and cool down then we got in a tuktuk to see a bit of the city.

Over the bridge and a race round the roundabout and we were at a huge market. 

Sometimes when I venture out in the streets where white faces aren't often seen I feel a bit like a politician who goes round kissing all the babies who are thrust in front of him. People bring their babies and young children up to me to say hello. Usually they just look at me with their big brown eyes and touch me, probably to see if I'm real, but I remember one who was frightened out of his wits and cried. I think I might feel like a real nobody when I get home and no one looks twice at me.

Dinner tonight was outside on a street lined with restaurants. 

The other day we bought a kilo bag of cashew nuts and have been eating them quite a lot, so, what did we order for dinner tonight...... cashew nut curry!! Just for a change :-)

Tomorrow it's goodbye to Gujarat and hello to Udiapur. Gujarat has had numerous cases of swine flu lately but despite the dire predictions of many, we have survived . I guess it's unlikely that I'll ever see Gujarat again but Tarun is already talking of bringing people here in the future. For anyone who may be interested I can assure you that it's an interesting place.  Tarun is also dreaming of a motorbike trip to Ladakh in June and  would love to have someone to take. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you if you're interested.