We left Ranakpur early the next morning (as there was nothing more to see there), with our sights set on the small city of Udaipur. Before arriving we made a quick stop (ok, a few hours) at Shilpgram, a village that displays traditional Indian homes, dances, foods and crafts. We enjoyed seeing the traditional way of life, and picked up a few goodies for our own collection to remind us of India. We arrived in the city of Udiapur in the early afternoon, and spent most of our time walking around and exploring the downtown bazaar. Udaipur which was made famous by being featured in the 1970's James Bond movie “Octopussy”. The city is a cool (temperature wise) city, situated within a small mountain range. It was nice to get out of the heat for a change!
The next morning we were up and on our own, our driver Beer was busy getting the car tuned up for the rest of the trip. We began our day by heading off to the city palace. We spent some time exploring the museum inside, which holds a collection of various items from past Maharajahs. After a few hours of looking we were ready to head back, disappointed that there wasn't more to see. However, on our way back to the hotel, we ran into a festival procession that made our time in India feel the way that we had imagined India to be. Thousands of people had gathered in the main street, around the main temple, and were partying in the street (and it was only 3:30 in the afternoon!). They were celebrating the last day of a ten day celebration for the birthday of the Hindu god Ganesh. It was one of the most wild things we had seen in India. People were singing, dancing, throwing pink and green powder, lighting fireworks, riding camels, and carrying statues of their god down to the river. At the river they dropped statues of Ganesh in, allowing the them to sink to the bottom in the hopes of bringing them good luck for the rest of the year. The festival lasted for several hours, and truly blew our minds! We were worn out after such a big display, and made our way to a rooftop restaurant to enjoy some good Indian food. We spent the evening watching “Octopussy”, and we noticed some of the locations where the film was shot (both in the city Palace where we were this morning, as well as in the streets were the festival took place).
With the car tuned up, we were back on the road the next morning, heading for the small, holy city of Pushkar. We arrived after about 6 hours, and relaxed for a bit before heading out to explore the city. We were on our guard as we made our way down to the holy lake, as many men came up to us and offered us flowers and prayers. This may sound like somewhat of a nice gesture, but when your prayers are finished and you get your bill, you won't be so happy. We were thankful that we were warned about this before hand (you know we hate scams!) and had no problem turning them down. From there we met our friend Beer, and went together for a tasty buffet dinner to celebrate his birthday.
The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn, getting ready for a gift that Beer had prepared for us (in India people celebrate their birthdays by giving parties and gifts to their friends!). We were greeted outside the hotel by two big camels, and two young camel guides. We jumped on top of the camels, and were off for a sunrise camel safari. We rode for about two hours, stopping to watch the sun rise, and to rest our tired bums (believe us, camel bums are not much fun!)
After our camel safari we were back in the car and on our way to the capital of Rajasthan, the pink city of Jaipur. We arrived and made our way to our first destination, the Raj Mandir Cinema, which is the place to see a movie in India. We bought our tickets for the movie “Chak De India “ (Champions of India) as a treat for both ourselves and a birthday treat for Beer. After some yummy samosas and chatoris, we were in and watching the movie. Although the movie was in Hindi, and we didn't understand a word of it, the overall message of the movie was clear and we really enjoyed it. After that we headed to the restaurant Indiana, for a dinner to celebrate Beer's birthday. We ate decent food, but the entertainment really made it a night. Classical Ragasthani music and dances were performed all throughout the dinner, and of course, we were up on the dance floor showing off our Indian moves (as if we even have any!?)
The next day was to be our last day in the state of Rajasthan. We made our way into the old pink city, towards the Amber fort. We passed on elephant rides up the walkway (we still had sore bums from the camels!) and walked up to the top. We walked around the old fort, enjoying the view of the pink city below, before deciding it was way to hot and it was time to head back. From here we hit up a few shops (carpet, jewelry and clothing) and decided that the prices in the bazaars were more in our budget. From there we went to the city palace, which turned out to be a huge waste of time and money because you couldn't even get into the palace (the maharajah still lives there, and I guess he doesn't want anyone to come in!). The only good thing was that we ran into our friend Rochelle, who we originally met in China, and we were able to catch up.
With Jaipur seen and done, we had completed our Ragasthani route. We would be heading out the next day to a new state, with even greater sights to see!
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