Udaipur and Bijaipur

It was another long day of driving – but the sights again kept us entertained.  What we have seen so far has been flat open land, today that finally gave way to steep winding roads – up into the ‘mountains’.  Hills probably a more suitable description in Australian terms.  The lush farming land gave way to rocky barren land.  We drove for some time upward through rocky unforgiving land – but once at the top we were surprised to find lush, grassy areas – finally some cows that looked well feed!

Udaipur is nestled amongst some of these hills – high up in the ‘mountains’.  With a population of 500,000 Udaipur is bigger than most large country towns in Australia.  Divided into the old and new and huddled around 5 lakes – we were told by our local guide that Udaipur was the ‘Lake District’ of Ragistan.

Our full day in Udaipur was ‘full’.  It began with a tour of the city, taking in the City Palace, a tour on Lake Pichola and later a dancing show – held in a Havelis in the old town.  It was a long day but our guide was wonderful and supplied us with so much information.

A highlight of the day was seeing a wedding procession on our way out in the evening.  It is custom that the groom travel (preferably) on a white horse to the brides home – the groom looked terrified!!

 After two nights in Udaipur we packed up and headed for Bijaipur.  On route to Bijaipur we stopped for high tea at Palace Hotel Ravla Khempur – or now better know as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  It was a fun tour of the hotel and grounds – and standing where Dame Judy’s bedroom set was!!!

Bijaipur is also up in the mountains, our itinerary told us that we would be staying in the Bijaipur Castle and would explore the local villages via jeep.  Only when we arrived at Bijaipur Castle our driver was told they were full.  Not to worry the owners have another property half an hour down the road.  So off we go – we didn’t need a jeep safari after the drive to the next property.  The road took us through some of the poorest looking areas we’ve seen so far – the turn off to the ‘hotel’ was a dirt track that finally gave way to a steep rock face – yes the road to the ‘hotel’ was down a steep rock face!!  So really it should not have been a surprise when we realised our accommodation was a tent.  Yes from a Castle to a tent – how quickly things can change.

The 'road' to our tent!!

It was not the night we expected and we discovered we were not the only unhappy guest kicked out of the castle.  Despite my initial protests of refusing to enjoy any part of this adventure we did have an OK stay – not much sleep in the tent but the safari was excellent.  Due to our change in location the safari took us to different villages, villages who don’t see foreign tourist very often or at all – we felt like royalty.  Beautiful local families with gorgeous smiles opening their doors to show us their humble homes.  A truly real experience.

We made a quick getaway the next morning – breathing a sigh of relief that our car made it back up the rock face road to the sealed road – on to Ranthambore to (hopefully) see a tiger or two.

A.