Hi everyone. Today we arrived in Udaipur from Jodhpur...
Day 17 (Thursday 5th) - Jodhpur
We arrived into Jodhpur by the overnight train from Jaisalmer at 5am, which was considerably less dusty this time as we were in 3AC class. We checked in to a hotel near the station and slept in until midday, which was nice after the previous night in the leaky desert shelter! The girls caught an overday bus to Udaipur ahead of us, as they wanted to spend a few more days there. After brunch on the roof of our hotel, me and Callum walked through the city centre, past the clock tower and the surrounding market, up to the Mehrangarh Fort. The streets were incredibly busy and noisy, which was quite a shock after the more-touristy Jaisalmer. The fort was at the top of a steep hill - an exhausting climb in the heat of the afternoon. Inside the fort, we saw some truly fantastic Indo-Islamic architecture, with more impressive stone carving and a number of brilliantly well-preserved, colourful rooms, coated all over in wall paintings, stained glass and mirrors. There were stunning views over the city in all directions from the fort. Jodhpur is known as The Blue City, and the houses below really did create a sea of blue, with their indigo walls and rooftops.
Day 18 (Friday 6th) - Jodhpur
We got up a little earlier on Friday, and spent the morning visiting the bizarres and shops in the tangle of mediaeval streets in Jodhpur's old city, just west of the clock tower. We first visited a spice stall, where the owner gave us cups of loads of different types of teas, and let us smell and taste various different spices, both familiar and some completely unknown to us! After this, we wandered round the corner to a small art school. The owner told us that he teaches all the students for free - firstly in his village from five in the morning, and then later on in Jodhpur - before running the shop in the afternoon and doing his own painting in the evening. It sounded like a rather gruelling work schedule! We looked at a huge range of the Rajasthani miniatures, painted on silk, paper, camel bone, and marble, which were wonderfully intricate. Each picture takes many days to paint, and he showed us how each picture is produced from a pencil outline to the final product. Armed with various purchases, we decidied to take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, and hiked back up the hill to the city's other landmark, the Jaswant Thada, just across from the fort. The Jaswant Thada is a white marble memorial to one of the Jodhpur Maharajahs, and we spent an hour or so sitting in the cool gardens. We walked back down the hill, sampling some Jodhpur speciaility sweets and saffron flavoured lassis, before returning for a cup of chai with the proprieter of the spice emporium. We also popped back into the art school, where we chatted with the over a beer! With the rain threatening to start for the first time all day, we returned to the hotel to pick up our stuff, before jumping on the overnight bus to Udaipur.
Day 19 (Saturday 7th) - Udaipur
We arrived to pouring rain in Udaipur - India's answer to Venice - at 6am this morning. We grabbed a rickshaw to the hotel the girls were staying in, and caught a couple more hours sleep before going to breakfast in a curious 'French bakery', serving an array of cakes which were arguably some sort of croissant derivatives. We then took a boat ride around picturesque Pichola lake, surrounded by palaces and bathing ghats. The lake has a mysterious floating palace (The Lake Palace), which was one of the principle sets of the James Bond movie Octopussy. The boat took us to the Jag Mandir island, which has another palace (now converted to a luxury hotel) on it, and we spent a little while wandering round the grounds in the glorious sunshine. After returning to the mainland, the girls went off for a spot of shopping, whilst Callum and I visited the City Palace museum. The City Palace was the former residence of the Maharana, and had some nice views over the lake, although inside it was a little more run down than the forts in Amber and Jodhpur which were much more spectacular. There were a few decorative rooms, and a courtyard with some beautiful peacock artwork, but much of the museum comprised galleries of rather strange art in the style of the Mewar, a school which seemed to have been completely bypassed by the Renaissance, displaying little regard for the concepts of perspective.
Tonight, we are all going to dinner in the fancy hotel restaurant on Jag Mandir, so hoping the weather will stay nice (there was a short downpour whilst we were in the museum, but other than that it has been really sunny all day), so that we can enjoy the views of the illuminated palaces on the lake by night. We have another full day here tomorrow, before catching the sleeper train to Agra.
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