We left Mumbai on the Kingfisher flight - the first thing that strikes you is how sunning all the inflight attendants are. The owner of the airline, Mr. Vijay Mallya - India's answer to Mr. Branson is well known for his playboy antics and this is probably why the woman and service is so stunning.
We're staying in Udaipur at the Trident Hilton set among 22 acres of greenery - it's a lovely property and overall the service has been good. On arriving, we saw the Fateh Sagar lake - how lovely! We saw the Sahelion ki Bari which is a garden and fountain complex built by the Raja for his harem. Very beautiful! He built fountains all over - all of which are intricately carved. The water for the fountains comes from the lake and the hydrolics used are still being . How the Raja managed to get water 5 kms away from the manmade lake and have the fountains working is pretty incredible considering it was built in 1700s!
We then saw Pichola Lake and the Lake Palace Hotel. I was hoping to go there for lunch, but it is now closed to non-residents so it's a bit of a dissapointment. We decided to go for dinner at the Fateh Prakash - the royal residence of the existing Maharaja. The view was stunning - we could see the Lake Palace and the Jagmandir lit up like jewels on the Pichola lake - but the food was much too spicy for us and we got completely bitten up by mosquitoes! However, the view remains totalls beautiful. Totally inspiring. Totally awesome.
My husband has been calling Baby M "Chickoo" after a delicious fruit that is eaten in India. It's brown, sweet and has a texture like apples. He says " She's sweet like a chickoo. She's small like a chickoo and she's brown like a chickoo". Baby M seems to like this name!
March 27
We saw the City Palace in Udaipur - totally lovely! The passion with which the Maharaja has built this palace is totally evident. Nowhere have I seen such beautiful rooms. We saw the Peacock Court where the king sat on the throne made to resemble a peacock full of gems - it was really beautiful! We also saw "Moti Mahal" or the the Pearl room, where everything from the ceiling to the floor was covered in Mother of Pearl, the "Sheesh Mahal" or Crystal Palace where the king had imported crystal from Belgium and created a whole room of it, the Ruby Dining room where the walls were at one point covered in rubies and emeralds and courtyards which were truly spectacular. Architecturally, it is built in white marble which keeps the palace cool in summers. Baby M was also pretty impressed with it, she kept herself busy looking at these things.
After this we headed to Devigarh for lunch - it's the much heralded resort built into a castle. I had heard so much about Devigargh that I was really expecting spectacular - this is was not. It's very beautiful but not really worth the price tag. We paid Rs. 7800 for lunch for the three of us and it is by far one of the most expensive meals I have had in India. I cannot say it was truly exciting - but my mum, husband, Baby M and I got to relax and that was a good thing. We spent the rest of the day shopping where my mum bought Baby M her second Ghagra.
March 28
We visited the Monsoon Palace in the morning - you have to go up this steep hill from which you get amazing views of Udaipur. It's interesting to think how in the 18th century the Maharaja must have built a palace on the very top of a hilly mountain where it today takes us 25 minutes to drive up. Trying to imagine the logistics of moving all the tons of marble up to the palace is really mind boggling. The Lake Pichola looked lovely from the top. The climb to the top was steep, so my mum rested in the cafe, where she put on her shades, took up a bollywood pose and relaxed!
After this, we drove 2 hours (but only 65 kms) t0 Kumbalgarh. The scenery en-route was sectacular - I could not have imagined such lovely scenery in Rajasthan. We drove through the Aravalli Hills which are more mountains than hills. The vistas were amazing. We drove through dry arid land which had nothing but these large trees with big bright orange flowers - no leaves, only flowers - I've never seen anythign like it. We drove through sugarcane fields, wheat fields. saw men in turbans moving bullocks around a large wheel that in turn pulled water out of the well for irrigation - It's the first time even I have seen such typical countryside in India. We even ssaw a Jacaranda tree - one of the most beautiful trees in teh world which lovely blue flowers - I ahven't seen one since I was in Pretoria. It was wonderful to drive through the countryside because we got a sense of what the real Rajasthan was all about. Everyone was friendly, the ladies wore these extremely bright sarees and ghagraswhich contrasted beautifully with the bleak landscape. I personally fround the scenery to Kumbalgargh very inspiring.
The fort itself is astounding. It has one of the largest walls after Great Wall of China. None of us had seen such a large fort. It seemed to go on for ever and ever. It's even more interesting to learn that it was built in 1450! How in the world did they move all this stone to this place in the middle of nowhere and build a fort here?! The views from the fort are even more astounding. We are certainly spoilt for views here.
A note on how nice people are to us: We had lunch at Aodhi hotel - part of the royal retreats here and the manager opened up a new cleaned room for us to change Baby M's diaper and for us to freshen up - imagine that happening in Canada or Europe!
March 29
We spent the day visiting the holy shrine of Hussein Tekri - known for it's blessing those who are really in need. We were certainly not prepared for what we saw here. You had the poorest of the poorest and the weakest of the weakest begging for help here. It's taken us 6 hours on totally atrocious roads to get here but it has certainly been an eye opener for all of us. Never have we seen this kind of poverty - you had little children begging and totally destitute people waiting for mercy. I was surprised that all these kids were begging when they shoudl really have been in school. Of what use is the economic success in India when a large part of it's youth is left out?
We went there to weigh Baby M on the holy scales and distributed an equal amount of jaggery to the poor. It was in some ways a rather shocking and eye opening experience.
Hussein Tekri is in the state of Madhya Pradesh and I was somewhat surprised at how bad the roads still are there. India has a long way to go when it comes to progress. Success in the stock market in Mumbai has certainly not showed up here.
We were sharing our road with camels. donkeys, dogs, cows stolling down the highway, bullock carts, trucks and all sorts of people. It took us 6 hours to complete a journey of 130kms.
We arrived in Chittorgarh only to be told that there was a curfew in place because of the Hindu-Muslim tension!
March 30
We spent the morning looking at the Chittorgarh fort - legendary in teh Indian psyche for he practice of "jawhar" or mass suicide to save one's honor. At one point 22000 (yes Twenty two THOUSAND) women committed suicide to save themselves from being taken prisoner by the Mughals. While I think of it as a rather waste, in Indian folklore this is much respected. I found it even more scary that they burnt themselves alive on a pyre made of twigs and ghee!
We then proceeded to Ajmer Sharif. This is considered to be the 2nd most holy place for Indian Muslims after Mecca. There is a belief that if you ask for something here it will come true. Again, religion adn faith are all about belief. If you believe in something then it helps you and takes on a power of it's own. In India, religion is everywhere. You cannot remove it from the national fabric just as you cannot remove the church from Europe's history.
Ajmer has unfortunately come under the mafia of the Khadims (custodians of the shrine) and they have turned it into a money making, corrupt place. While I enjoy going to the Ajmer the problems with the khadims can be an issue. Our trip there cost us Rs. 2000 (about $50) which could easily have been put to use to so much better use. I am disspointed with how they are converting such a lovely place into a money making business.
Baby M has been a total star through all of this. A wonderful sport- she is really the ideal treavel companion. My husband carried her in the Baby Bjorn infant carrier and since he is much taller than most poeple here no once came close to them. My husband was also dressed in Indian clothes and the khadims just automaticlaly assumed he was from Kashmir since they have lighter skin there and kept talking to him in Hindi. He politely nodded his head and smiled.
March 31- April 3 JAIPUR
We'rte staying at the Taj Jai Mahal Palace which has been completely renovated since I stayed there 4 years ago. The rooms are very spiffy - and they even have a window that looks into the bathroom just incase I want to continue conversation with my husband while he pees!
Overall, our stay in Jaipur has been good. On Day 1 we saw the City Palace. I had such high expectations of it but the part which was open to the public is not half as interesting as the City Palace in Udaipur. We saw the wonderful collection of royal carpets, buggies (charriots pulled by horses) , two silver jugs which are the largest in the world and which hold 50 gallons of water each - these were used to transport holy water from the Ganges to London so the Maharaja could bathe in the holy water while he attended the coronation of Kind George. The City Palace came alive for us because we both read the book by Maharani Gayatri - the 3rd wife of the king of jaipur and her descriptions of the palace bring the place alive for us.
The next day we went to see the Royal Cenotaphs. There si one thing that has always truck me about India - we don't necessarily take very good care of people when they are alive but the moment they die they become eternal in memory and in very grand structures made of stone.
On Day 3 we took Baby M and my husband on an elephant ride up to Amber fort. Whiel Baby M and I found the ride to be relaxing, my husband looked very nervous on an elephant! Amber Fort has historical significance because it is here that the Mughal Emperor Akbar married the Hindu Princess Jodha and that put an end to the wars between the Mughals and the Rajputs. We had a guide here who has given my husband some very romantic lines to use on me. One of them is " You are the moon and above all beauty" - now say that in a Russian accent and try not to laugh!
After this, there was a visit to Jantar Mantar - the ancient Royal Observatory built in the 16th century - this is something I have wanted to see for a long long time. It uses a sun dial to accurately tell you the time - when we visited it was spot on!
My husband has pretty much been wearing only Indian clothes since we arrived in India. He now has about 9 indian outfits.
He looks very royal in these and everytime we go anywhere, people jump up to attention and salute him - a sign of great respect here. In return, he nods his head and smiles back. I am also surprised with how friendly people are towards Baby M. It takes us 10 minutes every time we enter a restaurant for the entire staff including the chefs to come and say Hello to her and another 10 minutes for all the staff to say Bye when we are leaving. We are also totally taken aback by strangers wanting to take their photos with her or old ladies coming up to talk to her. We've likely offended quite a few people when we said hey couldn't carry her, but overall, we seems to be managing the situation well.
More on Agra and Delhi in my next post ... until then ..Namaste!
