Sun 30 Nov Udaipur
It is 520. We are downstairs with packed bags. We awaken two Cosy hotel staff guys, who carry our bags down the steep alley to the main street. There is a waiting rickshaw. We had been told it would cost 100 R, but now the driver wants 150 R. Why not? It is an ungodly early hour. We tip the Cosy guys 20 each.
We are at the government bus stand by 540. Traffic moves at this hour. Our bus doesn't leave until 630. At about 615 the Volvo bus we are going to take pulls into position. We present our bags to be placed under the bus. We have seats 37 & 38, so the baggage handler takes some chalk and marks 37 on both our bags and in they go. Goodbye Jodhpur. On our way for a five and a half hour bus ride.
About 3 hours in, we stop for food and bathrooms. A cow has its head deep inside a trash bucket. We are making good time.While Mike dozes, Carol enjoys the landscape. We pass an area of marble mining, then cross the hills into Udaipur, the Pink City on Lake Pichola. We arrive in Udaipur about 1230. The ordinary bus would take 7 - 8 hours.
Once we step off the bus, we are fighting with the auto rickshaw guys, who want an exorbitant 150 or 200 R to take us to Mewar Hotel. Finally, we get someone to take us for 50 R: more like the correct "Indian price."
We check in. Our room is very nice (2150 R) with great views of the lake. This part of Udaipur is dreamy tourist central - everyone wants to sell you mellowness - ayurveda, yoga, coffeeshops, bhang?
At 1400 we go out for lunch - our first food of the day. We cross over a pedestrian bridge over the north end of the lake. "Millets of Mewar" is highly rated in our guidebooks, and so we climb the stairs to go it, and realize that this is a crunchy granola (made with millet) $$$ health food place, Udaipur style, and walk out.
Around the corner is Queen Cafe: small, modest and recommended in both guidebooks. We sit down and order spinach soup (35 R), pumpkin curry (70 R), tomato curry (70 R), kashmiri naan (fruit-filled bread) (35 R), kashmiri lassi (50 R), banana lassi (45 R), and a pot of masala tea (65 R). Each item a vivid natural color and has a distinct flavor.
There we see a Brit fellow and his girlfriend. He had had a bad surfing experience, which resulted in a very bad concussion. In the course of diagnosing and treating the concussion, they had discovered that he had a compression of the C2-C5 disks in his neck, This is potentially very serious, and he was heading back to England for extensive treatment. Chris Reeves, the former Superman, had sustained a fracture at C2-C3, which resulted in his becoming a quadriplegic, unable to move from the neck down. For our purposes, he related that all of the testing in India (MRI, CT scan, etc.) had come to $145.
Meenu, the daughter of the restaurant owners, sits down with us and opens up a packet some of her special masala. Come, try it on your dishes (even the lassi). It is so good we buy apx 100 g for 200 R. We talk food and enjoy each other's insights.
She takes us a couple of blocks to her cooking class room. On the way, a milk delivery truck and many vehicles are all blocked by an elephant in the street. Nothing unusual here.
In Meenu's kitchen classroom, we talk about Indian cooking - specifically Jain cooking. She gives us a printout of her recipes and asks us for 450 R. It is the class notes from her cooking course - much cheaper then spending hours cooking in the class. All for a good cause.
We take pictures of the sunset at 1735.
At 1845 we go out to attempt to find Natraj Restaurant, another recommended eatery. At last we're heading away from tourist-stan (but not all that far away). It is rapidly getting dark. We pass the Shri Shitalnath Ji Bhagwar Jain Temple on our way. Beautiful (and just a neighborhood temple dating from the 1800's).
On to the Udaipur Clock Tower. At this point we walk east on small streets. After a long period of walking, we think we are at Suraj Pol (gate), where we need to pass, but we are not. We splurge on a 40 R rickshaw. We never would have found Natraj otherwise.
We arrive, walk in, sit down, and the food starts coming. This is a 120 R all-you-can-eat thali, not a 250 R thali. So the ambiance is not that fancy. No cute boys in pyjamas, just mid-aged men as servers. But the food is plenty tasty, and we need to aggressively stop the waiters from piling it on the plate. Lots of everyday customers and families enjoying good food.
As we are walking back to the hotel, we come to a fork in the road and have no idea which way to go. Along comes our rickshaw driver from earlier today, the one who took us from the bus stand to the Mewar Hotel. He wants 70 R to take us back. Mike doesn't have the fight left to bargain. So we hop in and we are back at the hotel.
To bed.
It is 520. We are downstairs with packed bags. We awaken two Cosy hotel staff guys, who carry our bags down the steep alley to the main street. There is a waiting rickshaw. We had been told it would cost 100 R, but now the driver wants 150 R. Why not? It is an ungodly early hour. We tip the Cosy guys 20 each.
We are at the government bus stand by 540. Traffic moves at this hour. Our bus doesn't leave until 630. At about 615 the Volvo bus we are going to take pulls into position. We present our bags to be placed under the bus. We have seats 37 & 38, so the baggage handler takes some chalk and marks 37 on both our bags and in they go. Goodbye Jodhpur. On our way for a five and a half hour bus ride.
About 3 hours in, we stop for food and bathrooms. A cow has its head deep inside a trash bucket. We are making good time.While Mike dozes, Carol enjoys the landscape. We pass an area of marble mining, then cross the hills into Udaipur, the Pink City on Lake Pichola. We arrive in Udaipur about 1230. The ordinary bus would take 7 - 8 hours.
Once we step off the bus, we are fighting with the auto rickshaw guys, who want an exorbitant 150 or 200 R to take us to Mewar Hotel. Finally, we get someone to take us for 50 R: more like the correct "Indian price."
We check in. Our room is very nice (2150 R) with great views of the lake. This part of Udaipur is dreamy tourist central - everyone wants to sell you mellowness - ayurveda, yoga, coffeeshops, bhang?
At 1400 we go out for lunch - our first food of the day. We cross over a pedestrian bridge over the north end of the lake. "Millets of Mewar" is highly rated in our guidebooks, and so we climb the stairs to go it, and realize that this is a crunchy granola (made with millet) $$$ health food place, Udaipur style, and walk out.
Around the corner is Queen Cafe: small, modest and recommended in both guidebooks. We sit down and order spinach soup (35 R), pumpkin curry (70 R), tomato curry (70 R), kashmiri naan (fruit-filled bread) (35 R), kashmiri lassi (50 R), banana lassi (45 R), and a pot of masala tea (65 R). Each item a vivid natural color and has a distinct flavor.
There we see a Brit fellow and his girlfriend. He had had a bad surfing experience, which resulted in a very bad concussion. In the course of diagnosing and treating the concussion, they had discovered that he had a compression of the C2-C5 disks in his neck, This is potentially very serious, and he was heading back to England for extensive treatment. Chris Reeves, the former Superman, had sustained a fracture at C2-C3, which resulted in his becoming a quadriplegic, unable to move from the neck down. For our purposes, he related that all of the testing in India (MRI, CT scan, etc.) had come to $145.
Meenu, the daughter of the restaurant owners, sits down with us and opens up a packet some of her special masala. Come, try it on your dishes (even the lassi). It is so good we buy apx 100 g for 200 R. We talk food and enjoy each other's insights.
She takes us a couple of blocks to her cooking class room. On the way, a milk delivery truck and many vehicles are all blocked by an elephant in the street. Nothing unusual here.
In Meenu's kitchen classroom, we talk about Indian cooking - specifically Jain cooking. She gives us a printout of her recipes and asks us for 450 R. It is the class notes from her cooking course - much cheaper then spending hours cooking in the class. All for a good cause.
We take pictures of the sunset at 1735.
At 1845 we go out to attempt to find Natraj Restaurant, another recommended eatery. At last we're heading away from tourist-stan (but not all that far away). It is rapidly getting dark. We pass the Shri Shitalnath Ji Bhagwar Jain Temple on our way. Beautiful (and just a neighborhood temple dating from the 1800's).
On to the Udaipur Clock Tower. At this point we walk east on small streets. After a long period of walking, we think we are at Suraj Pol (gate), where we need to pass, but we are not. We splurge on a 40 R rickshaw. We never would have found Natraj otherwise.
We arrive, walk in, sit down, and the food starts coming. This is a 120 R all-you-can-eat thali, not a 250 R thali. So the ambiance is not that fancy. No cute boys in pyjamas, just mid-aged men as servers. But the food is plenty tasty, and we need to aggressively stop the waiters from piling it on the plate. Lots of everyday customers and families enjoying good food.
As we are walking back to the hotel, we come to a fork in the road and have no idea which way to go. Along comes our rickshaw driver from earlier today, the one who took us from the bus stand to the Mewar Hotel. He wants 70 R to take us back. Mike doesn't have the fight left to bargain. So we hop in and we are back at the hotel.
To bed.
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