Udaipur

Good evening to you all.

So George arrived on Wednesday, which was a great relief, as it was getting a tad lonely by myself, to say the least! To collect him, I took the amazing Delhi metro to the airport, costing me a fraction of the price a taxi would. I was amazed how smart and clean the metro was. Its so different to city above. Its quiet, cold, and clean! So the complete opposite of the city!
He may have been tired, but we had to plan our next month together, and the following day, as we were told by our hotel that we could only stay the one night! So we headed to the train station, not knowing where we were going, let alone how we were going to get the tickets! We arrived, looking like lost tourists, and a kind man came up to us to ask what we were looking for. We told him the whole situation, and he showed us directions to a tourist office 5 minutes away.
He turned out to be our lifesaver, as it turned out booking tickets in India is not as straightforward as in England. There are huge awaiting lists on the trains, meaning you have no garentee if you will have a bed/chair on the train. This worried us, but fortunately we could get a tourist ticket, allowing us to bypass the system, with a little added cost. So we planned out where we wanted to go in India, and asked if they could book our tickets from these locations for us, to leave the next day.
So our first stop was Udaipur, mainly because we saw it as a stop off point between Delhi and Mumbai, which would take 25 hours on the train. So we didn't know what to expect from the rajestani city. We arrived early that morning, havinn taken the overnight train, and checked in. It turned out the city was magical, set on a lake, and is said to be one of the most romantic spots in India,,,perfect for me and George! So we took a walk around the centre of the city, walking through the bazaar, up to the city palace, where we then booked a boat tour and visit the two palaces on the lake. Now when I say on the lake, I mean on the lake. They have been buildin the centre of the lake, and are two of the most prestigious/expensive hotels in rajestan. They also look stunning, as if they are floating on the water. The boat tour enabled us to view the city palace from the water, and we stopped off at on of the hotels.
Having finished our boat tour, and met some fellow Brits on the boat, we then went to look at the city palace museum for a bit, followed by more bazaar browsing/bartering and some well deserved lunch.
Now you must remember, its summer time in India, and low season for tourists, as it it boiling. And I mean, boiling! It was 40 degrees in Udaipur, meaning being out in the sun for more than 30 minutes almost kills you! You understand why it is low season! But it doesn't really bother us, and we know we'll only have this opportunity once in our lifetime, and need to experience as much of India as possible whilst we're here.
Now during my first couple of days in India by myself, I always felt that everyone who approached you had an ulterior motive, which a lot of them do, but whilst we were resting in the shade on the street, a man comes up to us and asks us the classic question "where you from, my friend", and I thought, " here we go again". It turns out he was on his way to the art school, and was wondering if we would like to come along to see the exhibition. Nowwhen I say art school, its only a little house with a couple of painters in it. But as soon as we arrived, there were two artists in the middle of their artwork. They were incredible. And I mean incredible. I have never in all my life seen such detail in one painting. They were saying that one painting, the size of a book, tales them 2 months in total. We were then invited to play the local board game, with is basically hand snooker, with plastic material. Very fun.
The whole evening with them was such fun, and made me realise that there are good people out there, just wanting to know a bit more about you. Evenings like those are ones I will never forget, and I hope there are many more like that to come during my travels of India!
We then went to watch some rajestani dancing for an hour, which was a spectacle to say the least. It included puppets, dancing, and a woman who had ten buckets balanced on her head whilst stepping on broken glass. It was so so cool.
More to come soon.

Henry

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