24/6 – I’ll start off this post with a few more pictures of the Ramada Udaipur (because I can). We nearly slept in. The clock in the hotel room was set by someone previously at an hour behind and we didn’t realise. Still managed to make the bus OK and guess what? Just for something different we visited more ruins and palaces.
Udaipur is the capital of the kingdom of Mewar, one of the oldest surviving dynasties in the world. Udaipur itself was founded in 1559 and it is known as the “City of Dawn” and is famous for the ‘floating white palace’ in the middle of one of the lakes. At City Palace Shane & I refused to participate as the local guide mentioned lots of steep steps (confirmed afterwards by the other tour members) so we checked out the shops at ground level until our friends finished their tour when we rejoined them.
Udaipur looks to be an interesting city with much to see and do. Unfortunately one drawback to this style of touring is that we don’t have the luxury of time. Also I don’t have some of the pictures I wanted to show you because at the City Palace there was a strict 200 Rupee fee enforced for photography and I refused to pay that extortion on principal. If I can get a hold on some pictures I’ll add them in to this post later.
Anyway we visited another temple which was ‘inactive’. You can tell when a temple or shrine is ‘active’ (being used for prayers etc) by the flags. Active temples have colourful flags flying outside them. In active don’t. It had its unique features and stories but by now with all the 40 degree weather I was getting ‘Templed out’.
I am seriously getting to a point where I’ll be glad to end this tour. If it wasn’t for the Taj Mahal yet to come I’d have found a way home to Penang and then Australia by now. I need to get this busted knee fixed. Having such a nice bunch of people on the bus helps mediate the pain too.
On the way back to our hotels we had a quick stopover at some gardens in the city with pretty fountains (that was different!) before stopping at a great marketplace. Walking almost hand in hand like a kindergarden class we wove our way through what could be considered death defying traffic. The variety of goods for sale was mind boggling and interesting. At one point we ducked around a vehicle (parked in Indian manner – anywhere but out of the way) only to walk into an Asian elephant feeding on a big bunch of bananas. Now you don’t see that every day in Brisbane! I searched in vain for my camel leather sandals but Shane made up for the daily budget deficit finding some lovely outfits for our beautiful granddaughter, Joy.
BTW – You might notice the MacDonalds menu above. Can you believe a Macca’s with no Big Mac? No Quarter Pounder? No beef at all?
More to come yet so keep checking the blog.
Garry