Wednesday 27 October The Road to Udaipur

Picked up by rickshaw at 8am then to Haveli Hotel for breakfast before leaving for Udaipur at 9am. Delighted to be told that we were to travel in a brand new car only five days old, the driver was very pleasant and spoke English, it was lovely to look forward to travelling in comfort.

Enjoyed the scenery once we got going, there was not a lot to see at first as we were on a busy main road but after a time strange shaped hills of rock rose straight out of the countryside, some huge, an open arid landscape with large herds of goats. At one point we stopped at a Hindu temple but couldn't find out name - there were quite a few people there including truckers.



Fascinated by this vast landscape, at one point we saw a Durga Temple (we were told) on top of one of these hills. After a while we turned onto theJaipur to Gujerat national highway full of much traffic. Later we turned onto a narrow B road full of holes and it was now 45km to Ranakpur which was a somewhat uncomfortable drive as our driver kept pulling over to give way to all and sundry (maybe he was worried about his new car) we were watching out he had spent much of the journey on his mobile phone! There were many saplings planted along the road and all were caged at the lower half presumably to deter goats and other animals from eating the shoots and leaves.


There were occasional stops to photograph people and village life.At Rani we stopped to photograph an old fort behind the village, shortly afterwards we passed through a sizeable very clean town with railway station, there seemed to be a lot of men driving around on motorbikes wearing large fluorescent pink turbans. After this we got onto a better, wider road and passed through Sadri where the terrain now started to change, bouganvillea, greenery and lots of trees. We could see mountains rising in the distance, strangely most of the men here wore red turbans and there were many red saris. Drove on through quite lush countryside with a wide stream and suddenly we had arrived at Ranakpur and the Jain temples.

A large well organised site with these fantastic old buildings, we walked up a wide staircase into the main temple built in1439 it is so lovely with over 400 wonderfully carved pillars, no two are the same, there are 1444 pillars in all the temples, ceiling to floor is covered in carvings with little temples and shrines all around and in the centre is the main temple, we were not allowed in or to take photos there although it is open on all sides. There are other temples but this is the most visited, a real labour of devotion. A short walk away we visited a Hindu temple dedicated to the Sun God Surya, it was deserted no one seemed aware of it, it is lovely with carvings of horses and the sun god being driven in his chariot and was built in the eighth century, this temple is stone and not too well cared for.


Time to drive on through through really nice terrain, we noticed that there are quite a few hotels here more like hill stations. Up we went on a narrow winding road high into the mountains where we were told there are many wolves, as well as bears and leopards, we stopped at one particularly fine place for photos the views were marvelous.


We had a lunch stop at a very nice little place newly opened, the food was very good, from our seat we watched rural life - a lady in sari down by the river doing the washing, two or three small children running in the fields, some small boys fetching water from the pump down by the road, a woman working around her house on the hill, such tranquility. We drove on through the countryside passing through small villages most of which have no electricity , outside some there were oxen yoked to a water wheel drawing water which was then being used on the land, men and women working in the fields tilling with old ploughs and in some cases the plough being pulled by oxen. Unlike the area around Agra where we saw many modern tractors.

Eventually we turned under a bridge and we were back in the world of motorways and other vehicles, at one point we drove through towering cliffs and came up behind huge herds of goats being driven along presumably to be slaughtered, they were beautiful all colours and sizes. On the other side of this big modern road ambled the ubiquitous cows! Shortly after this we approached Udaipur, with choking fume and traffic filled roads but not for long.


We arrived at our destination at around 5.30pm and found our hotel entrance which was up a narrow alleyway between shops, up we went to the Kumbha Palace the back of which opened onto a lovely garden with the high old walls of part of the palace backing it. We were met and shown to our room, it was just a bit too basic, so we asked if there was someting better and were taken by the very pleasant owner back down the alleyway to a room about halfway down, it was excellent - large, comfortable with bathroom having lots of very hot water and Johns own urinal!

Tonight we went a couple of doors along the road to the Whistling Teal which was in a lovely setting within the Raj Palace Hotel, somewhere a bit different with restaurant seating on two sides of a lawn and on the third side divans under canopies and with low tables. There was an interesting bar where there were hookahs and the seats were saddles. A lovely place to end the day with excellent food and G & T's.