incredible fort, astounding temple and onwards to Jodhpur

Udaipaur to Jodhpur

Arranged a private car and driver for the 250km trip to Jodhpur to enable us to stop off at some interesting places en route and also because I still feel ill and thought it would be more comfortable.  About 80km north of Udaipur we stopped at Kumbhalargh Fort, a huge fort up in the hills who's walls stretch 32km around its perimeter! As well as the main fort complex there's hundreds of temples inside the walls.  To build something this vast on this terrain must had either taken a very very long time or whoever was in charge had very very big whips.

inside the Jain Temple at Ranakpur

Next stop was a village called Ranakpur to see a 600 year old Jain temple which I can only describe as astounding!  In fact I can't describe it as anything, been trying to think but there are no words in my vocabulary that do it justice and I'm sure my photos won't either.  The large temple is built from marble with many domes and turrets all carved in intricate detail, inside there's something like 1500 marble pillars all with different, unique and insanely detailed carvings that leave you wondering, well I'm not going to bother carrying on, just go and see for yourself otherwise you won't understand.
The rest of the journey is about 170km to Jodhpur, its dark when we get there but we still get a feel of the place with its quaint narrow streets and blue buildings.  Reached a guesthouse called Singhvi's Haveli who I'd phoned ahead to book a room yesterday, they only have a room available for one night but it's a really nice place so we'll keep our fingers crossed that someone cancels or checks out tomorrow.

Things I've noticed today;
- Latest news on the Delhi belly is I think things have thickened up a tiny bit..... if you know what I mean.
- The Jain temple in Ranakpur was incredible and astounding, I've not seen the Taj Mahal yet but considering its renowned as a wonder I suspect it will look like a garden shed in comparison after seeing a real wonder such as this, however, lets keep it a secret, it's better that way.

out of action

Udaipur

Been really sick today and have spent most of the day in bed.  Tried to ignore it this morning and hired bikes to go cycling around a nearby lake, this culminated in me spewing up pancakes at the side of the lake and returning to the guesthouse to spend the day sleeping inbetween dashes to the toilet.  Bec had to keep herself amused for the day and went for a massage, had henna on her hands and dined solo.

a temple, a palace, a lake and a mouse

Udaipur

Jumped off the train after reasonable although quite broken sleep, Bec says she hardly slept at all.  From the station got a tuk tuk to the Dream Heaven Guesthouse, sounded good in one of our guidebooks.  Unfortunately the guesthouse was full but we stayed to have breakfast and waited in hope that someone would check out of their room, which luckily they did.  It was worth waiting for, the room is nice, the open air restaurant looks down over the river and the palace across the lake.  Its really hot and sunny here, it was warm in Delhi but the sun hid behind the smog, by comparison the air here is like pure oxygen.
Got out in the morning and visited the Jagdish Temple which is an old Hindu temple adorned with amazingly detailed carvings set in all around its stone walls.  As with most places like this there's always a few people trying to make a few rupees from passing tourists, there's the weird looking Sadhus sitting on the steps who want paying if you point a camera within a 180 degree radius of them, there's the people who want paying to look after your shoes whilst you walk barefoot around the temple, then there was the fella who followed us around feeding us friendly information about the temple motivated only by his own enthusiasm and goodwill but also it turns out just happened to have an art gallery across the road that he insists we must visit.  After leaving the temple the man tried to usher us into his gallery but knowing we were set for a hard sell when the gallery became a shop we walked on by much to his annoyance.

We went over to the City Palace next, a big hilltop palace alongside the lake.  The huge palace and its grounds look impressive and imposing from outside but once inside its all a bit faded and consists mainly of a repetitive drawn out museum display that after a while eveyone is walking straight past following the route to the exit.  I have to admit my enthusiasm was dwindling partly due to the hordes of school trips packing every room and blocking all the narrow doorways.
One thing that is still amusing me is all the photo requests from Indian people.  Becci always declines but I'm always up for it, I posed today with a whole family who seemed quite excited to have a real genuine Englishman in their photo!
We took a boat trip around the lake and then headed back in the afternoon as I had started to feel quite unwell.  Looks like my previous comments abouts 'Delhi belly' being a myth were somewhat premature!
We went to a nearby restaurant for tea where we discovered they had a bit of a mouse problem, by the end of the night everyone else knew too due to Bec's cartoon style Shrieks.  What Bec thought was a mouse was actually several mice but I thought best not to say or else Bec might still be there now stood on a chair screaming.

Lotus Temple, Hari Krishnas and a sleeper train

Delhi then sleeper train to Udaipur

Somehow managed a solid 8 hours sleep despite the streets sounding like war torn Beruit with all the Diwali fireworks.  Went out in the morning to the Bahai Lotus Temple, the temple welcomes people of all religions on the principle that "humanity is one race".  The enormous temple is built from white marble in the shape of a lotus flower and surrounded by water pools and vast pristine gardens. Inside the temple it's completely calm and silent even when it's full with hundreds of people, we make a fairly lacklustre attempt at meditating before we move on.

We could see a weird looking temple on a hill not too far away and decided we had time to go and investigate.  We had a nice little walk through some parks and discovered some kind of Hari Krishna themed world, as well as the temple there's shops, shows and films providing fun for all the family!  Inside the temple we are reminded that Hari Krishnas know how to party! they don't need to throw firecrackers about like the Hindus, they're more interested in throwing themselves into a deep cymbal bashing trance and dancing like they're wired up to the electrical mains.

Back at Paharganj in the afternoon to fill ourselves with curry and get ready to go and catch a sleeper train to Udaipur.  Got onto the Chetak Express in good time, its nothing flash but perfectly comfortable, reasonably clean and doesn't appear to be infested with bugs like a sleeper train we travelled on in Vietnam a couple of years ago.  Its a very long train with loads of carriages stretching into the distance some of which do look grim with no lighting and crammed full of people.  Definitely feel glad I didn't go for the cheaper tickets, we paid about £12 and have an air conditioned berth, a bed, clean sheets, pillow and blanket for a 12 hour journey.  relative luxury!

things I noticed today;
-at the busiest metro stations orderly queues await the next train, when one arrives and the doors open and things descend to a mad rugby scrum charging onto the already crowded train defeating the object of the polite queuing before.
- not sure that Delhi belly exists, I think people just say it because it rhymes.  I've tried lots of different food and lots of curry but everything seems fine!

Delhi time

About to embark on another adventure feeling largely unprepared but full of enthusiastic anticipation.  Lets see if this sounds alternative enough as a holiday..... Day one in Delhi I've arranged a backstreet tour led by an ex street child, we are staying in a guesthouse called 'Hotel Cottage Yes Please', and we'll be in Delhi for Diwali.  On from there if all goes to plan we'll travel sleeper trains, camp overnight in the desert, visit a famous camel fair, trek up to imposing rock face forts, fly down hilltop zip wires, boat over to a floating lake palace and probably not have time to see the Taj Mahal.  Yeah we don't feel obliged to visit the Taj Mahal, if we have time we'll squeeze it in at the end but we don't have it as an essential.


Delhi = GMT +5:30hrs