The cows all looked at me strangely as I scurried down the road. They were the only ones up and working at 7:05am on a Sunday and they saw no reason for anyone to be in a hurry as they made their way down the street, savoring their garbage.
Our auto-rickshaw taxi wasn't waiting at the gate of the guesthouse as promised and we had a 7:30 bus to catch. So did a pair of French women and we all stood their waiting together for five minutes until I decided that we couldn't afford to continue waiting.
Luckily, there was a taxi-man having his morning chai at the end of the street, where it merges with the main road. I explained the situation, he grabbed a taxi-driver friend who was drinking chai down the block and with engines running loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood, they came barreling down the lane to our rescue.
Thankfully, Jodhpur auto-rickshaws are slightly larger than average, and we were able to get all of our bags and us into one rickshaw. Our driver got us down to the "bus station - aka a stand on the side of the road - with time to spare. Several other pairs of travelers were showing up in their taxis - which was validating since we were being dropped off at a stand on the side of a main road.
After a few minutes, our bus pulled-up and staff started loading bags into a cargo compartment in the rear. The bus was unlike any bus I've ever been on before. It was a "sleeper/coach combo" meaning that it had two rows of seats lining the right side of the coach and then sleeping "cabins" along the left and in upper compartments, comprised of long cushions which contoured at one end to form a "pillow".
We had opted not to take the sleeper, night-bus because I didn't think it was a safe or smart idea to lie in a cabin bed on a moving bus. My logic: if it's illegal in every other country I've ever been (and I've been to some places where laws barely exist), perhaps there's a reason.
However, that choice turned out not to matter much because it's the same coach and you just pay for a different accommodation depending on time of day. What validated me still was that the bus including the cushions and upholstery has never been cleaned since the day it rolled out of the factory.
Blackness, stains, indentations, "water damage" lines all gave testimony to many years of many people laying on the same cushions. I was happy not to be the next in the chain. Not that our seats were much better. I chose not to make use of the head rests.
While bus rides are rarely interesting, this one had a few special highlights. I was under the impression that since it was a private bus from Jodhpur to Udaipur, it went directly. It did - sort of. The bus stopped for every waiving hand along the road and in every village along the way - plus twice for gasoline and once for a "lunch break" at a stand which served fried snacks including samosas and had pot-belly pigs and puppies running everywhere. It made me wonder what the government buses must be like.
More importantly, the bus went through some poorly paved roads. It shook tremendously most of the journey. At one point, I looked out and there were large rocks littering the road. The bus just kept driving through it. Sometimes the road was paved, sometimes it wasn't and most of the time the paved portion of the road was only wide enough for one vehicle, so each vehicle drove with one set of wheels on the pavement, sharing the asphalt.
Dirt came flying through the bus regularly. Our clothes might classify as farmland now.
At the end of the eight-hour journey, there were large rocks on the floor of the bus. I cannot explain this. Our bags came out of the cargo hold absolutely covered in dirt. Everyone stood there at the Udaipur "bus station" - also a stand on the side of the road - pounding the dust of their bags.
It was my first bus ride with non-Sikh men with turbans - huge, colorful turbans that these people wore in real life, not for their job at a hotel. It was also my first bus ride with people laying coffin-style over my head.
Yesterday, we spent our afternoon, exploring the Mehranghar Fort in Jodhpur which towers over the city. The beautiful red sandstone, walled-in structure protected Maharajas and their subjects for almost 500 years. The tour was boasted that the Maharajas ruled all of the Mewar region from their palace at the fort.
After seeing the road from Jodhpur to Udaipur - the other big city of the Mewar region - I understand why they didn't get out of Jodhpur much. While trains link most of the cities of Rajasthan - known as Hindusthan before Indian independence - they don't link Jodhpur and Udaipur. Only one small ribbon of a road does and it takes eight hours to go 158 miles. It may go faster by camel.
There were no shortage of camels out there, either. The strange thing about the dry, farmland and desert Rajasthan country-side is that there were many green farms with giant packs of camels, while there were relatively few cows.
Cows are city-dwelling while the camels prefer the country? Amazingly, I watched camels chewing on nice, tall, green grass while the cows in town pick banana peels and rice out of the garbage or enjoy the dinner leftovers people put out for them. Apparently, cows prefer tikka masala and dal to grass.
In any case, we arrived safe and sound in Udaipur, known as the most romantic city in India. Our beautiful hotel is a haveli - an old Rajasthani mansion - converted into a hotel. Our room is phenomenally gorgeous. While not as spacious as our incredible Jodhpur room, it's actually more impressively furnished with hand-carved wood and copper.
Along with the incredible stained glass windows which glow in the afternoon light bouncing off the lake outside, our room has a feature I will enjoy immensely for the next ten days - an alcove with large lounging mattresses and pillows. It may be a strange habit, but I prefer to read and work stretched out, laying on my stomach. My iPad and I are often draped across the bed during the day, working hard. Now, I have my own "office" complete with curtain and stained glass windows.
Meanwhile, our deluxe-suite also has a living room which means that when in-room, Emily and I can spread out to opposite ends and get some personal space. No piled-on-top-of-each-other living like in Mumbai and Istanbul.
We have heard that Udaipur, being the tourist-magnet it is has 500 hotels and numerous European-style cafes and bakeries with WiFi. Kerala and Jodhpur had us attached to our hotels during work hours. We may be able to get out and about again while working - which is very exciting.
More exciting still, this is a city of James Bond - as half the restaurants and businesses and town let visitors know. Udaipur is where most of Octopussy was filmed. The Monsoon Palace in the middle of the lake was a palace of the Maharaja before it became Octopussy's lair and eventually a five-star hotel where rooms start at $1200 USD a night. Octopussy's cohort, Kamal Khan lived at another palace on top of the hill overlooking the city - which is today a museum.
While our lodgings aren't quite as nice as what Roger Moore enjoyed, I plan to walk down to the lake and check the steps at the boat docks to see if there is, in fact a snake charmer there. Why not?
With good Internet in-tow, a beautiful hotel room, an "office" and a phenomenal view of India's "most romantic city", we have a promising ten days ahead before we "dance into the fire" and return to Delhi (by plane!).
Our auto-rickshaw taxi wasn't waiting at the gate of the guesthouse as promised and we had a 7:30 bus to catch. So did a pair of French women and we all stood their waiting together for five minutes until I decided that we couldn't afford to continue waiting.
Luckily, there was a taxi-man having his morning chai at the end of the street, where it merges with the main road. I explained the situation, he grabbed a taxi-driver friend who was drinking chai down the block and with engines running loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood, they came barreling down the lane to our rescue.
Thankfully, Jodhpur auto-rickshaws are slightly larger than average, and we were able to get all of our bags and us into one rickshaw. Our driver got us down to the "bus station - aka a stand on the side of the road - with time to spare. Several other pairs of travelers were showing up in their taxis - which was validating since we were being dropped off at a stand on the side of a main road.
After a few minutes, our bus pulled-up and staff started loading bags into a cargo compartment in the rear. The bus was unlike any bus I've ever been on before. It was a "sleeper/coach combo" meaning that it had two rows of seats lining the right side of the coach and then sleeping "cabins" along the left and in upper compartments, comprised of long cushions which contoured at one end to form a "pillow".
We had opted not to take the sleeper, night-bus because I didn't think it was a safe or smart idea to lie in a cabin bed on a moving bus. My logic: if it's illegal in every other country I've ever been (and I've been to some places where laws barely exist), perhaps there's a reason.
However, that choice turned out not to matter much because it's the same coach and you just pay for a different accommodation depending on time of day. What validated me still was that the bus including the cushions and upholstery has never been cleaned since the day it rolled out of the factory.
Blackness, stains, indentations, "water damage" lines all gave testimony to many years of many people laying on the same cushions. I was happy not to be the next in the chain. Not that our seats were much better. I chose not to make use of the head rests.
While bus rides are rarely interesting, this one had a few special highlights. I was under the impression that since it was a private bus from Jodhpur to Udaipur, it went directly. It did - sort of. The bus stopped for every waiving hand along the road and in every village along the way - plus twice for gasoline and once for a "lunch break" at a stand which served fried snacks including samosas and had pot-belly pigs and puppies running everywhere. It made me wonder what the government buses must be like.
More importantly, the bus went through some poorly paved roads. It shook tremendously most of the journey. At one point, I looked out and there were large rocks littering the road. The bus just kept driving through it. Sometimes the road was paved, sometimes it wasn't and most of the time the paved portion of the road was only wide enough for one vehicle, so each vehicle drove with one set of wheels on the pavement, sharing the asphalt.
Dirt came flying through the bus regularly. Our clothes might classify as farmland now.
At the end of the eight-hour journey, there were large rocks on the floor of the bus. I cannot explain this. Our bags came out of the cargo hold absolutely covered in dirt. Everyone stood there at the Udaipur "bus station" - also a stand on the side of the road - pounding the dust of their bags.
It was my first bus ride with non-Sikh men with turbans - huge, colorful turbans that these people wore in real life, not for their job at a hotel. It was also my first bus ride with people laying coffin-style over my head.
Yesterday, we spent our afternoon, exploring the Mehranghar Fort in Jodhpur which towers over the city. The beautiful red sandstone, walled-in structure protected Maharajas and their subjects for almost 500 years. The tour was boasted that the Maharajas ruled all of the Mewar region from their palace at the fort.
After seeing the road from Jodhpur to Udaipur - the other big city of the Mewar region - I understand why they didn't get out of Jodhpur much. While trains link most of the cities of Rajasthan - known as Hindusthan before Indian independence - they don't link Jodhpur and Udaipur. Only one small ribbon of a road does and it takes eight hours to go 158 miles. It may go faster by camel.
There were no shortage of camels out there, either. The strange thing about the dry, farmland and desert Rajasthan country-side is that there were many green farms with giant packs of camels, while there were relatively few cows.
Cows are city-dwelling while the camels prefer the country? Amazingly, I watched camels chewing on nice, tall, green grass while the cows in town pick banana peels and rice out of the garbage or enjoy the dinner leftovers people put out for them. Apparently, cows prefer tikka masala and dal to grass.
In any case, we arrived safe and sound in Udaipur, known as the most romantic city in India. Our beautiful hotel is a haveli - an old Rajasthani mansion - converted into a hotel. Our room is phenomenally gorgeous. While not as spacious as our incredible Jodhpur room, it's actually more impressively furnished with hand-carved wood and copper.
Along with the incredible stained glass windows which glow in the afternoon light bouncing off the lake outside, our room has a feature I will enjoy immensely for the next ten days - an alcove with large lounging mattresses and pillows. It may be a strange habit, but I prefer to read and work stretched out, laying on my stomach. My iPad and I are often draped across the bed during the day, working hard. Now, I have my own "office" complete with curtain and stained glass windows.
Meanwhile, our deluxe-suite also has a living room which means that when in-room, Emily and I can spread out to opposite ends and get some personal space. No piled-on-top-of-each-other living like in Mumbai and Istanbul.
We have heard that Udaipur, being the tourist-magnet it is has 500 hotels and numerous European-style cafes and bakeries with WiFi. Kerala and Jodhpur had us attached to our hotels during work hours. We may be able to get out and about again while working - which is very exciting.
More exciting still, this is a city of James Bond - as half the restaurants and businesses and town let visitors know. Udaipur is where most of Octopussy was filmed. The Monsoon Palace in the middle of the lake was a palace of the Maharaja before it became Octopussy's lair and eventually a five-star hotel where rooms start at $1200 USD a night. Octopussy's cohort, Kamal Khan lived at another palace on top of the hill overlooking the city - which is today a museum.
While our lodgings aren't quite as nice as what Roger Moore enjoyed, I plan to walk down to the lake and check the steps at the boat docks to see if there is, in fact a snake charmer there. Why not?
With good Internet in-tow, a beautiful hotel room, an "office" and a phenomenal view of India's "most romantic city", we have a promising ten days ahead before we "dance into the fire" and return to Delhi (by plane!).
Good Morning from Boston Yoda!!!!
Fantastic story, felt likr I needed to dust myself off too!!!
Great pictures you both look wonderful!!!
Posted by: Karen Hagenburger | 01/18/2011 at 04:20 AM