Udaipur:

December 14th, 2004 - December 17th, 2004

Greetings to all...

Not too much new to report; we left Cochin on Wednesday by air. They have a nice new airport there thanks to increased tourism. That made it quite relaxing when our flight was delayed for more than an hour (as previously mentioned, everything here is late). We flew from Cochin to Bombay where we had to transfer plans. Of course, in Bombay, all the planes were late so we had to wait again for our flight to Udaipur making for a long day. We arrived in Udaipur after sundown and it was quite cool. Around 20 degrees - so everyone was all bundled up! We were in ecstasy because we could finally deal with the weather!

Udaipur is located in the mountains and is one of the 3 key cities of the Rajasthan State. It is symbolized by the horse which stands for power and the town has several forts aground it and one massive palace in the city centre. We are staying just outside the palace in a place that was used in the past by the palace as it has many of the similar decorations and styles. It has these huge wooden doors with big old fashion locks. I think we lucked out because we got this big suite with a balcony over looking a quiet garden and pool. It is very castle like and pleasant (especially for the price).

We toured the city on Thursday which was fun. We are really getting used to the hectic ways of India and it is becoming easy to ignore the touts and hustlers. After checking out the castle/palace in the early part of the day we were introduced to a local artist by a guide. We sat and had Chai and learned about the local art ways - it is big in Udaipur. Two other travelers were getting a painting lesson and we conversed with them for a while, too. It was a nice time and in the end we bought a little painting done on silk...

The town is quite quiet and we ventured out late for dinner... a nice local guy took us to this chill place where we went upstairs to the loft and took our shoes off and sat on a futon-like floor and relaxed against pillows while we ate. They played some relaxed music, too, to add to the atmosphere... on our walk home around 11pm we were the only people out, the whole town had gone to sleep! It was weird after being in Bombay and Goa where everyone was up till all hours...

Today we took a car trip to the surrounding areas and checked out some old forts dating back about 500-1000 years as well as some old Hindu temples. The architecture is much nicer in the north than it is in the south so that led to some nicer photos...

Tomorrow we are off to see some of the famous Jain Temples and then northwest to a little town called Bera where we will stay for 3 nights at a place called Leopard's Lair. It is run by a man named Devi Singh who is a decedent of the old royalty of the area including Udaipur. One person classified the area as a modern day fiefdom and it is a huge area filled will all sorts of game. We will be going on AM and PM safaris with him and other guests... it should be good.

That's about it from here...

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